2012 Rolex Miami OCR

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2012 Rolex Miami OCR: A Test for Sailors Headed to Olympic and Paralympic Games

MIAMI, FLA. (January 18, 2012) – When US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR returns to Coconut Grove, Fla., next week for its 23rd annual edition, top athletes from around the world will be using it as an opportunity to jump-start ambitious sailing goals for 2012, not the least of which, for some, is participation in this summer’s London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. With racing scheduled from Monday, January 23 through Saturday, January 28, the six-day Rolex Miami OCR is the second of seven 2011-2012 ISAF Sailing World Cup regattas and features elite-level competition in the classes selected for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. At the close of registration on Sunday, 532 sailors representing 44 countries had registered.

Among the many international competitors–some with Olympic berths secured and others still vying for spots on their national teams–will be Marit Bouwmeester (The Netherlands), who finished 2011 on a high note by winning both the Laser Radial class at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and the honor of representing her country in that class at the Olympics.

“Everybody has been training really hard the past year, so I think RMOCR will be a tough battle again and it will probably stay that way until the Games,” said Bouwmeester whose company out on the water will include fellow podium finishers at the Worlds and Olympic representatives Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA) and Evi Van Acker (Belgium). (Railey also is the defending Rolex Miami OCR champion and has won the event four times.)

“It is definitely fun racing against all the good girls,” said Bouwmeester, adding that 2012 will be her first-ever Olympic experience. “I always spend two months in Miami and Fort Lauderdale to get my light-wind training in. Miami is the complete opposite of what I’m used to, so it’s a nice challenge and a good opportunity to learn.”

With 82 boats registered, the Laser class promises not to disappoint as the typically largest fleet at the Rolex Miami OCR. With multiple potential winners embedded in the entry roster, Chris Dold and David Wright stand out from among 13 Canadian entries that are here to participate in their Olympic Trials, which started in Perth and will end with the next ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta (the Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofia MAPFRE) in March.

“It’s going to be fun to watch these guys fight it out for their Olympic Trials,” said Rob Crane (Darien, Conn., USA) who is coming off a jam-packed 2011 schedule that culminated with him winning an Olympic berth for the U.S. team after pulling off amazing 1-2 finishes on the last competition day in Perth to beat out his teammates for the spot.

“After my own experience in Perth, it will be fun to watch other people handle that situation,” said Crane. “I train with the Canadian team a lot, and I’m good friends with all those guys. It’s great to race against them, but for this regatta their concern is beating out each other for the Olympic spot.”

The fleet also is densely packed with well-known names from around the globe such as Alsogaray (ARG) and Bruno Fontes (BRA), as well as up-and-comers such as Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif., USA).

Traveling more than halfway around the globe are 2011 World Champions and Australia’s representatives for the Olympic Games in the 470 Men’s class Mathew Belcher and Malcom Page. “After spending the better part of the decade trying to gain Olympic selection, London will be my first (Games),” said Belcher, adding that his teammate Malcolm Page crewed (for skipper Nathan Wilmot) to win an Olympic Gold medal in Beijing (2008).

“We have and will be working hard to prepare ourselves to defend Australia’s Gold from Beijing, and the Rolex Miami OCR 2012 will provide us with the opportunity to gain high level racing before heading over to Europe,” said Belcher, who will be going up against some power houses who are constantly battling each other in the top-ten at international events, including Olympic-bound Stu McNay (Boston, Mass., USA) with crew Graham Biehl (San Diego, Calif., USA); Lucas Calabrese with Juan Maria de la Fuente (ARG); and Matthias Schmid with Florian Reichstaedter (AUT). “We are a little isolated in Australia and don’t get the level of competition that our competitors can get access to. For us, it’s important to fly almost 30 hours and transport our equipment to Miami to compete for only a five-day regatta. That’s how much we like coming to Miami and how important we think doing this event is.”

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR), in the 470 Women’s class, are always a good run for the money, and after a podium finish in Perth they will no doubt share in some epic battles against World Champions Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout (NED). The USA’s team of Amanda Clark(Shelter Island Heights, N.Y., USA) and Sarah Lihan Fort Lauderdale, Fla., USA) edged out USA’s Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar during a tie-breaker in Perth, which earned them their berth at the Olympic Games.

As always, the Star class is shining with world-renowned champions, and perhaps the best-known names attending are two-time Olympic gold medalists Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA), who just wrapped up 2011 with their second straight title at the Star World Championships (as part of the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Perth). Though Scheidt and Prada are used to fleet-topping performances, they also know not to discount the tough competition that consistently rotates into the top ten at this event, including Xavier Rohart with crew Pierre Alexis Ponsot (FRA) and Hamish Pepper with Maz Salminen (SWE). The USA’s Olympic-bound Star sailors Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih (both Miami, Fla.) also will be in attendance and using their local knowledge to try to dominate on Biscayne Bay.

Nico Luca Marc Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch (AUT) are top players in the 49er fleet, and in Perth, Denmark had a handful of teams in the medal race, so it doesn’t go unnoticed that Allan Norregaard and crew Peter Land have thrown their hat into the Rolex Miami OCR ring along with Jonas Warrer (Denmark’s gold medalist in Beijing) and Seren Hansen. Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y., USA) and Trevor Moore (Pomfret, Vt./Naples, Fla., USA) who were inches away from bronze in Perth, are on an upward spiral and expecting to accomplish big things at the Rolex Miami OCR. But all is not for the veterans at this event. U.S. up-and-comers Ryan Pesch (Chicago, Ill.,USA) and Trevor Burd (Vineyard Haven, Mass., USA), are looking to retain their status on the US Sailing Development Team, along with Frederick Strammer (Nokomis, Fla.) and Zachary Brown (Nokomis, Fla., USA), who have been training and living in Miami for several months and are making a push for the 2016 Olympic Games.

In Finn class, the USA’s 2012 Olympic team member Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA) is the front runner and expected to bring back the gold, but he will have some tough competition from Brendan Casey (AUS) and fellow US Sailing AlphaGraphics teammate Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif., USA), who has been posting consistent top-20 finishes as of late.

In the Men’s and Women’s RS:X classes, the fleets are relatively small compared to past years, since many of the world’s top windsurfers chose to bypass the long trip to Miami from the ISAF Worlds in Perth and go straight to the 2012 RS:X European Windsurfing Championships, scheduled for February in Portugal, and on to the RS:X World Windsurfing Championships, scheduled for March in Spain. Last year’s World Cup series winner Nick Dempsey (GBR) could be all but guaranteed the gold in Men’s, as his nemesis, Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED), who edged him out for the gold here at the Rolex Miami OCR in 2011, is missing from the roster. Still, Dempsey will have to contest the likes of Ahmed Habash (EGY), who is a four-time National Mistral Champion, and others such as Robert Willis (Chicago, Ill., USA) whose time has come for shining on the international circuit. In the Women’s RS:X, Poland and Israel have traditionally been strong, which means Malgorzata Bialecka (POL) and Maayan Davidovich (ISR) might have the nod, but the strengths of USA’s Farrah Hall, who won her country’s Trials, cannot go unpondered. She is working her hardest to polish up for the Worlds, since it is there that she must qualify her country in order to make her earned spot on the USA’s Olympic team matter.

The newest Olympic class in the Games is Women’s Match Racing, and at the Rolex Miami OCR it will be a fight between Olivia Price/Nina Curtis/Lucinda Whitty and Nicky Souter/Jessica Eastwell/Katie Spithill for a position on Australia’s Olympic team. The country to beat, however, is most definitely the USA. In fact, during this quadrennium, there has not been a single World Cup event where the U.S. has not been on the podium. Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla., USA) /Molly Vandemoer (Stanford, Calif., USA) /Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y., USA) set the bar high in Perth by taking the gold, but Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis., USA) / Elizabeth Kratzig-Burnham (Miami, Fla., USA) / Alana O’Reilly (Charleston, S.C., USA) are proven stars as well. (Tunnicliffe is the current ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year and Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year.) France’s Claire Leroy/Elodie Bertrand/Marie Riou and Great Britain’s Lucy Macgregor/Annie Lush/Kate Macgregor are other safe bets for finishing in the top five. Talent-wise, match racing is one of the strongest disciplines, and with 25 teams entered thus far, there are several more who could go all the way, including Spain’s Tamara Echegoyen/Sofia Toro/Angela Pumariega and Finland’s Silja Lehtinen/Silja Kanerva/Mikaela Wulff

Fresh off of some fierce Paralympic competition at the IFDS Worlds, which wrapped up this past weekend in Charlotte Harbor, Fla., sailors in the 2.4mR, SKUD-18 and Sonar classes are counting on top Rolex Miami OCR performances to propel them to the next level.

The 2.4mR class is 29-boats deep, with already six more boats attending than were seen at the Worlds, and it will be most interesting to watch Mark LeBlanc (New Orleans, La., USA), John Ruf (Pewaukee, Wis., USA) and Charles Rosenfeld (Woodstock, Conn., USA) battle for a berth on the U.S. team for the 2012 Paralympic Games, which will be determined after the final race here. Some international names to watch include the top three IFDS podium finishers: gold medalist and defending Rolex Miami OCR champion Damien Seguin (FRA), silver medalist Thierry Schmitter (NED) and bronze medalist Paul Tingley (CAN).

As is the case for the U.S. in 2.4mRs, so too is it that the Rolex Miami OCR serves as the second part of the SKUD and Sonar Paralympic Team Trials, where sailors keep their overall finish from the IFDS Worlds and combine it with their overall finish here to determine who gets the Paralympic berth. Duking it out in SKUD class will be Jennifer French (St. Petersburg, Fla., USA) and Jean-Paul Creignou (St. Petersburg, Fla., USA), who took the silver medal at the Worlds, and three-time Rolex Miami OCR defending champions Scott Whitman (Brick, N.J., USA) and Julia Dorsett (Boca Raton, Fla., USA). With only seven boats in the fleet (there were eight at the Worlds), including the World Champions Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell (GBR), there will be pressure-cooker emphasis on putting boats between themselves and the competition.

Having just won bronze at the Worlds, Rolex Miami OCR defending champions John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas (GBR) are favored in the Sonar class. John Twomey (IRE) also has made a name for himself in this class as has Udo Hessels, Marcel van de Veen and Mischa Rossen (all FRA), and all four American teams competing will have to step up their game to successfully juggle toppling these hard-hitters as they go at it hard to secure an Olympic berth.

US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR, established in 1990, is open to boats competing in events chosen for the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. The 10 Olympic classes for 2012 are: Laser Radial (women), Laser (men), Finn (men), Men’s RS:X, Women’s RS:X, 49er (men), Men’s 470, Women’s 470, Star (men) and Elliot 6m (women). The three Paralympic classes are: 2.4mR (open), SKUD (mixed) and Sonar (mixed).

For fleet racing in the Olympic classes, the Rolex Miami OCR will consist of a five-day opening series (Monday – Friday) and a double-point medal race (Saturday). The top 10 finishers in the opening series of each class will advance to the medal race. For match racing (Elliott 6m), which makes its debut in the 2012 Olympic Games, the regatta will consist of an opening series, a knockout series, and a sail-off for boats not advancing to the knockout series. Competitors in the Paralympic classes will have five days of fleet racing (Monday-Friday) and no medal race.

Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class on Saturday, January 28.

Regatta Headquarters will be located at the US Sailing Center Miami, an official Olympic training center, in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, Fla. Event organizers have partnered with the city of Miami to provide world-class venues for competition. Additional hosts for the event include Coral Reef Yacht Club, Key Biscayne Yacht Club, Coconut Grove Sailing Club, Miami Rowing Club and Shake-a-Leg Miami. These sailing organizations host classes onshore, as well as help run the on-the-water racing. The Coral Reef Yacht Club also hosts the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

The event’s website http://rmocr.ussailing.org is where real-time racecourse blogging, commentary and fan interaction, regatta results, photos and news updates will be integrated into a live coverage platform once racing begins.

In addition to title sponsor Rolex Watch U.S.A., the 2012 Rolex Miami OCR is also sponsored by AlphaGraphics, Sperry Top-Sider, Harken McLube, Kattack, Gowrie-Chubb, and the University of Miami Hospital.

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Jan 22 2012

World’s Best Olympic/Paralympic Sailors Invade Coconut Grove

Life in Miami’s always-bustling Coconut Grove neighborhood was punctuated today by the added activity of 529 sailors from 41 countries preparing for tomorrow’s start of US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR. The six-day annual regatta, which will be sailed on Biscayne Bay for its 23rd time, is the second of seven 2011-2012 ISAF Sailing World Cup regattas and, as such, plays host to elite sailors from around the globe, with an emphasis on those preparing for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The day started early with registration at the U.S. Sailing Center, which is serving as the event’s headquarters and staging area for Lasers (One Person Dinghy Men), Laser Radials (One Person Dinghy Women) and 470s (Two Person Dinghy Men and Women). Next door, Stars (Men’s Keelboat) used the Coral Reef Yacht Club’s two two-ton hoists to launch throughout the day for a bit of practice, while another door down, Finns (One Person Dinghy Men Heavy) tuned up at Biscayne Bay Yacht Club. Still farther down the road, but not by much, Paralympic classes (Single Person 2.4mR, Two Person Skud 18 and Three Person Sonar) used the expansive and accessible Shake-A-Leg facilities, while RS:X (Windsurfer Men and Women) sailors spread their sails on the lawn of Coconut Grove Sailing Club, nearest to the “The Grove’s” hub and shopping/dining destination “Cocowalk.” And as if that were not enough host venues to make an organizer’s head spin, across the bay at Key Biscayne Yacht Club and Miami Rowing Club, the Elliott 6m (Women’s Keelboat Match Racing) and 49er (Two Person Dinghy Men High Performance) sailors readied physically and mentally for tomorrow’s out-of-the-gate challenges.

“It’s going to be a great week here in Miami,” said Dean Brenner, Chairman of the U.S. Olympic Sailing Committee. “We’re now into the final sprint for the Games, and for all of the competitors, this World Cup event has many implications. There are ranking implications, both internationally and within each country, and there are funding implications. Each country’s system is a little different, but in the U.S. we have prize money available to our athletes, and every regatta between now and the Games will take on increased importance, because these are the final dry runs before the Olympics in August.”

For 2.4mR sailor Mark LeBlanc (New Orleans, La., USA), this is his last chance to edge out fellow US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics member John Ruf (Pewaukee, Wis.) for a spot at the Paralympics. “ I was eighth to John’s sixth at the 2012 IFDS Worlds,” said LeBlanc, explaining that eight and six also are the number of points each sailor respectively carries into this regatta to be added to points accumulated for final finish positions here. “Those points (whichever are lowest) will determine who goes to the Games for the U.S.,” said LeBlanc, who added that last July he was fourth at the 2011 Worlds, so he “tasted it a little there.”

To see him sail, one would barely notice that LeBlanc is missing his left arm below the elbow. In his 13’ 8” long, one-person keelboat, he attracts attention less because he is disabled and more because his head is the only thing that shows above the boat’s small cockpit, which seems to hug the rest of his body like a glove. He chooses to steer with foot pedals rather than a forward tiller, which is the option most often chosen by paraplegics.

“For me it is easier; at mark roundings, I can steer and have two free arms,” said LeBlanc. “I have spent a lot more time in the boat since I competed here last year, so I’m much more prepared.”

Nine of the top ten teams in the ISAF World Rankings are here to compete in the Women’s Match Racing event, including those that took the gold, silver and bronze medals in Perth at the class’s Worlds: respectively, USA’s Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) /Molly Vandemoer (Stanford, Calif.) /Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.); Great Britain’s Lucy Macgregor/Annie Lush/Kate Macgregor; and France’s Claire Leroy/Elodie Bertrand/Marie Riou.

“The competition is going to be some of the best we have seen on the Sailing World Cup circuit,” said Liz Baylis, Executive Director of the Women’s International Match Racing Association. “With all of the top teams coming here fresh from the Worlds and a number of teams fighting for their spot on their country’s Olympic team, there will be no holding back, and the racing should be very exciting.” Baylis also noted that the Rolex Miami OCR will be followed next week by the Women’s Match Racing International Country Olympic Qualifying Regatta at which nine countries will vie for the last three available country berths at the Games. (For both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, a country must qualify itself before it can send a representative.)

The Netherlands match racing team of Mandy Mulder/Merel Witteveen/Annemiek Bekkering have been training here since early January with the American, Russian and Finnish teams, living the ideal that sailors even at the highest levels help each other. “Sally Barkow (another top U.S. contender who sails with Elizabeth Kratzig-Burnham and Alana O’Reilly) organized recent races for us, with umpires and all,” said Mulder. “Our goal is to be in the top four. Our Trials are in May, so what happens here doesn’t count, but for our own progress, of course, it is important.”

Other top-five competitors from the ISAF Worlds competing here are Laser Radial gold medalist Marit Bouwmeester (NED) and silver medalist Evi van Acker (BEL); 470 Men’s gold medalists Mathew Belcher/Malcolm Page (AUS); 470 Women’s silver medalists Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR); and Star gold medalists Robert Scheidt/Bruno Prada (BRA).

Seemingly the underdogs when compared to Scheidt/Prada (who, together, have won two Olympic gold medals), John Foster and his son Johnny Foster have only to mention their own Olympic history to be re-considered a threat by virtue of experience. The 74-year-old father has represented the U.S. Virgin Islands in Star class at five Olympic Games, starting with Munich in 1972 and finishing with Barcelona in ’92, while his 48-year-old son has crewed with him at three of those. (John also competed on his country’s bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics.) The team has been officially designated the USVI’s representative at the upcoming Olympic regatta but first must qualify the USVI for its country berth. The next chance for that is at Hyeres in April and Scheidt/Prada will in no small way be a help in preparation for that.

“That’s why we are here, to match our speed with theirs and come to a conclusion of whether it’s the tune of the boat or our own abilities that are the difference,” said John Foster, who thinks nothing of his age as the oldest here at the Rolex Miami OCR. “Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional,” he said with a wink.

For fleet racing in the Olympic classes, the Rolex Miami OCR will consist of a five-day opening series (Monday - Friday) and a double-point medal race (Saturday). The top 10 finishers in the opening series of each class will advance to the medal race. For match racing (Elliott 6m), which makes its debut in the 2012 Olympic Games, the regatta will consist of an opening series, a knockout series, and a sail-off for boats not advancing to the knockout series. Competitors in the Paralympic classes will have five days of fleet racing (Monday-Friday) and no medal race.

Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class on Saturday, January 28.

The event’s website http://rmocr.ussailing.org is where real-time racecourse blogging, commentary and fan interaction, regatta results, photos and news updates will be integrated into a live coverage platform once racing begins.

[mpowlison]

Jan 23 2012

Heavy Lifting in Light Air

It started out a perfect day on Biscayne Bay, with sunshine and 12 knots of breeze, but those conditions gave way to struggling light winds by late afternoon, when several of the ten Olympic and three Paralympic classes at the Rolex Miami OCR regatta were trying to finish opening day races. The six-day event is the second of seven ISAF Sailing World Cup regattas and the only one of those to be sailed in North America. In its 23rd edition, it is hosting 529 sailors from 41 countries sailing on 354 boats.

Canada’s David Wright took two first-place finishes in the Laser Blue Fleet, putting him in second place overall and three points ahead of his prime competitor Chris Dold. Dold, in third place overall (behind GBR’s Paul Goodison) with a 2-3 today in the Yellow fleet, is duking it out with Wright for Canada’s berth at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

“This is the second part of our Olympic championship qualifiers, and he (Dold) is leading me by three places, so I have to outperform him,” said Wright, adding that Dold was in a different fleet from him today, because the Laser numbers were so large (78) they had to be split into two racing groups, then combined again for the purpose of overall scoring. “When we are in a split fleet like that we have to just make sure to finish with little points. I did it today, so hopefully I can do it again tomorrow.”

“It was a good day—light, but good,” said Chris Dold adding that he has been training against Wright for about five years. “I’m excited and sticking to my guns; if there’s any match racing between us it’s going to be later on in the week.”

One team who doesn’t have to worry about snagging an Olympic berth is Miami’s own Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih, who finished a solid 3-4 today in the Star class to take second overall on tied points with Sweden’s leader Fredrik Loof/Max Salminen. They were named to the USA’s 2012 Olympic Sailing Team after they recently finished third in their World Championship. “This is not a major regatta for us in the same regard, but we definitely want to train and improve our standing in the World Cup,” said Fatih, adding that this will be his first time to the Olympics after four times trying and Mendelblatt’s second (in Laser class).

Fatih said the wind was 8-9 knots at best for today’s Star racing, and he felt badly for the Finn sailors who would “have a tough time” racing—according to the staggered-start schedule—in dying winds on Course D after them. (There are four competition circles, each for multiple classes, and a fifth reserved solely for Women’s Match Racing.)

For Loof/Salminen, today they practiced “no risk” sailing. “We were not hitting the corners or anything, just one thing at a time,” said Loof, who added that he even wisely held back, but only “a bit,” for the second start, which was black-flagged (meaning any boats over the line prematurely would be disqualified). “Our two goals were to have good starts and hold the lane for a while to control our own destiny on the first shift.”

In Sonars, the USA’s Paul Callahan (Newport, R.I.)/Tom Brown (Castine, Maine)/Bradley Johnson (Pompano Beach, Fla.) finished 1-3 to finish second overall behind Norway’s Aleksander Wang-Hansen/Marie Solbert/Per Eugen Kristiansen and better their chances of being awarded a Paralympic berth at the conclusion of this regatta. “It’s one day at a time,” said Callahan, “but we are in an extraordinary groove, sailing extremely confidently, and appear to be peaking just as we planned after hundreds of days of training over the last year.” Although Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.)/Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.)/Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Maine), also sailing here and currently in third overall, are their rivals for the U.S. berth, Callahan says the 11-boat fleet is so competitive his team needs to keep its eyes on everyone. “Mainly, though, we just put the boat on the starting line and try to win.”

In the 470 Women’s class, with 16 boats, Great Britain’s Olympic-bound Hannah Mills and crew Saskia Clark battled the light wind and came out on top, taking first in the only race of the day. “The fleet size is similar to what the Olympics will be like, so it’s quite good practice,” said Mills who added that there are a handful of teams competing against her this week who are also qualified for the Olympics. “We came here to do as well as we possibly can and have goals that we want to achieve throughout the week. We are excited to be back in Miami and really love it here.”

US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR, established in 1990, is open to boats competing in events chosen for the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. The 10 Olympic classes for 2012 are: Laser Radial (women), Laser (men), Finn (men), Men’s RS:X, Women’s RS:X, 49er (men), Men’s 470, Women’s 470, Star (men) and Elliot 6m (women). The three Paralympic classes are: 2.4mR (open), SKUD (mixed) and Sonar (mixed).

For fleet racing in the Olympic classes, the Rolex Miami OCR consists of a five-day opening series (Monday - Friday) and a double-point medal race (Saturday). The top 10 finishers in the opening series of each class will advance to the medal race. For match racing (Elliott 6m), which makes its debut in the 2012 Olympic Games, the regatta will consist of an opening series, a knockout series, and a sail-off for boats not advancing to the knockout series. Competitors in the Paralympic classes have five days of fleet racing (Monday-Friday) and no medal race.

Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class on Saturday, January 28.

Regatta Headquarters are located at the US Sailing Center Miami, an official Olympic training center, in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, Fla. Event organizers have partnered with the city of Miami to provide world-class venues for competition. Additional hosts for the event include Coral Reef Yacht Club, Key Biscayne Yacht Club, Coconut Grove Sailing Club, Miami Rowing Club and Shake-a-Leg Miami. These sailing organizations host classes onshore, as well as help run the on-the-water racing. The Coral Reef Yacht Club also hosts the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

In addition to title sponsor Rolex Watch U.S.A., the 2012 Rolex Miami OCR is also sponsored by AlphaGraphics, Sperry Top-Sider, Harken McLube, Kattack, Gowrie-Chubb, Trinity Yachts and the University of Miami Hospital.

A complete roster of competitors can be viewed at the event website http://rmocr.ussailing.org, where real-time racecourse blogging, commentary and fan interaction, regatta results, photos and news updates have been integrated into a live coverage platform. Video highlights produced by T2p.tv and presented by Rolex will air beginning Wednesday, January 25, and will be available on-demand on the event website. Fans can also follow the event on Facebook/RMOCR and Twitter/RMOCR.

A complete roster of competitors can be viewed at the event website http://rmocr.ussailing.org, where real-time racecourse blogging, commentary and fan interaction, regatta results, photos and news updates have been integrated into a live coverage platform. Video highlights produced by T2p.tv and presented by Rolex will air beginning Wednesday, January 25, and will be available on-demand on the event website. Fans can also follow the event on Facebook/RMOCR and Twitter/RMOCR.

Sonar (11 boats) – 2 races
1. Paul Callahan (Newport, R.I.)/Tom Brown (Castine, Maine)/Bradley Johnson (Pompano Beach, Fla.) (USA) 1,3 (4)
2.John Robertson/ Hannah Stodel/ Steve Thomas (GBR) 4, 2 (6)
3.Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.)/Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.)/Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Maine) (USA) 6, 1 (7)

Star (30 boats) – 2 races
1.Fredrik Loof/Max Salminen (SWE) 2, 5, (7)
2.Mark Mendelblatt (Miami, Fla.)/ Brian Fatih (Miami, Fla.) (USA) 3,4 (7)
3.Robert Scheidt/Bruno Prada (BRA) 1, 8 (9)

49er (23 boats) – 3 races
1.Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y.)/Trevor Moore (Naple, Fla.) (USA) 1, 2, 6 (9)
2.Nico Luca Marc Delle Karth/Nikolaus Resch (AUT) 5,4,5 (14)
3.Jon Ladha/Daniel Inkpen (CAN) 3,7,9 (19)

Skud-18 (6 boats) – 2 races
1.Alexandra Rickham/Niki Birrell (GBR) 1, 2 (3)
2.Jennifer French/Jean-Paul Creignou (USA) 2, 3 (5)
3.Daniel Fitzgibbon/Liesl Tesch (AUS) 5, 1 (6)

2.4mR (29 boats) – 2 races
1.Damien Seguin (FRA) 2, 1 (3)
2.Helena Luca (GBR) 9, 2 (11)
3.Megan Pascoe (GBR) 7, 4 (11)

Laser Radial (60 boats) – 2 races
1.Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 1, 2 (3)
2.Danielle Dube (CAN) 2, 5 (7)
3.Charlotte Dobson (GBR) 3, 8 (11)

470 Men (23 boats) – 1 race
1.Sven Coster/Kalle Coster (NED) 1 (1)
2.Panagiotis Mantis/ Pavlos Kagialis (GRE) 2 (2)
3.Mathew Belcher/Malcolm Page (AUS) 3 (3)

470 Women (16 boats) – 1 race
1.Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR) 1 (1)
2.Lisa Westerhof/Lobke Berkhout (NED) 2 (2)
3.Maria Fernanda Sesto/Consuelo Monsegur (ARG) 3 (3)

Laser (78 boats)-2 races
1.David Wright (CAN) 1, 1 (2)
2.Paul Goodison (GBR) 3, 1 (4)
3.Chris Dold (CAN) 2, 3 (5)

Finn (27 boats) – 1 race
1.Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA) 1 (1)
2.Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif., USA) 2 (2)
3.Jonas Hogh Christensen (DEN) 3 (3)

RS: X Men (14 boats) – 2 races
1.Nick Dempsey (GBR) 1, 1 (2)
2.Elliot Carney (GBR) 2, 3 (5)
3.Sebastian Wang- Hansen (NOR) 5, 2 (7)

RS: X Women (12 boats) – 2 races
1.Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md., USA) 2, 1 (3)
2.Demita Vega De Lille (MEX) 1, 2 (3)
3.Carolina Mendelblatt (POR) 3, 3 (6)

Women’s Match Racing
Group A (Only A sailed)

Silja Lehtinen/Silja Kanerva/Mikaela WUlff (FIN) 8-1
Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.)/Elizabeth Kratzig-Burnham (Miami, Fla.),/Alana o'Reilly (Charleston, SC) (USA) 6-0
Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.)/Molly O'Bryan (Stanford, Calif.)/Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) (USA) 6-1
Ekaterina Skudina/Elena Siuzeva/Irina Lotsmanova (RUS) 5-2
Juliana Senfft/Fernanda Decnop/Luciana Kopschitz (BRA) 4-3
Renata Decnop/Gabriela Nicolino/Larissa Juk (BRA) 3-3
Silke Hahlbrock/Maren Hahlbrock/Anlee Lukosch, (GER) 3-4
Nicky Souter/Jessica Eastwell/Katie Spithill (AUS) 3-4
Ru Wang/Pan Ting Ting/Li Xiaoni (CHN) 3-5
Vesna Dekleva Paoli/Katarina Kersevan/Lena Koter (SLO) 2-7
Rita Goncalves/Mariana Lobato/Diana Neves (POR) 1- 6
Jinnie Gordon/Laurel Gordon-Taylor/Catherine Belange (CAN) 0-8

[mpowlison]

Jan 24 2012

Experience of Olympic Proportions

Today’s 8-11 knot breeze on Biscayne Bay allowed three of the Rolex Miami OCR’s 10 Olympic classes to catch up on the races they lost due to dying winds yesterday afternoon, and 529 sailors from 41 countries now have two days behind them in this important ISAF Sailing World Cup event. Three Paralympic classes also are competing here, adding to a total of 354 boats scattered across four racing circles plus a separate arena for women’s match racing.

“It was way better than yesterday, and the Finns got the best of it because the wind was building all day,” said Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla.), adding that his class started racing an hour earlier (12:30) than scheduled to add three races to yesterday’s single race. The leader going into today, Railey could do nothing wrong as he methodically picked off his competition—most notably Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif., USA) and Jonas Hogh Christensen (DEN)--to quadruple the victories in his score line today.

“In the first race, I was in a great battle with Caleb,” said Railey. “We were two boat lengths apart from each other and on the last leg back and forth the whole time. In the second race, it was a battle up the second windward leg with Jonas, but he got separated by two boats that were on his heels--he had to concentrate on them.”

Railey said that even if he keeps doing well over five days of fleet racing, it will come down to the ten-boat medal race on Saturday to determine who takes home gold here, since only the top ten boats on the scoreboard at the end of Friday move on to that race, which counts double in the scoring. “Even going in with the lowest points, you could gain 18 points on that day,” he said, adding that it replicates the format of the Olympics, to which he will go this summer as the USA’s Finn representative. “Everything will be very much like here, even the 26- boat fleet.”

For Railey, a bonus will be trying to win his second Olympic medal (his first was a silver in the Finn class in 2008) alongside his sister, Paige Railey, who qualified to compete for the USA in Laser Radial class.

“It has been a dream of ours to go together since I started sailing at age eight and she started shortly after me. We fell in love with the idea of walking into Opening Ceremonies together; I don’t know if it really will sink in until we look over at each other and say, ‘we did it!’”

470 Men’s and Women’s classes flip-flopped their afternoon race schedule (2:15 and 2:00, respectively) with the Lasers’ morning slot (10:30 and 10:45 for blue and yellow fleets, respectively) to ensure they also would be able to fit in three races. Consequently, it allowed Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS) to knock brothers Sven and Kalle Coster (NED) out of first place. “It’s too early in the regatta to tell, and a lot can happen, so we’re just focusing on ourselves, but it was nice to come away with three good races today,” said Belcher, explaining that he and Page, who posted finish positions of 1-2-6 today, also will be representing their country at the London 2012 Olympic Games. “Our stronger wind performance is certainly much better than our lighter wind, so these conditions are perfect for us, and exactly why we’re here: to enjoy the challenge.”

In the 49er Class, Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y.) and Trevor Moore (Naples, Fla.) are still holding on to first place. “We were in first going into today and put up three solid races today so we’re still standing in first,” said Storck who added that within the 23-boat fleet, there are a handful of competitors who will be joining them at the summer Olympics, including the Austrian team of Nico Luca Marc Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch, who are currently five points behind them in overall scoring. “We’ll keep an eye on them going forward in the regatta, but it is still early. Our goal is to keep going out and putting up top-threes and going to the medal race with a little gap.”

In the Women’s Match Racing today, Group B completed 11 flights, a full round robin, and though all of the teams were extremely close in scores, Mandy Mulder/Annemiek Bekkering/Merel Witteveen (NED) prevailed with 6 wins and 1 loss. Yesterday, Group A also completed 11 flights, and the leader was Silja Lehtinen/Siljan Kanerva/Mikaela Wulff (FIN) with 8 wins and 1 loss. For this discipline, medals will be determined by the “last women standing” in Saturday’s two-boat Finals and Petit Finals.

US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR, established in 1990, is open to boats competing in events chosen for the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. The 10 Olympic classes for 2012 are: Laser Radial (women), Laser (men), Finn (men), Men’s RS:X, Women’s RS:X, 49er (men), Men’s 470, Women’s 470, Star (men) and Elliot 6m (women). The three Paralympic classes are: 2.4mR (open), SKUD (mixed) and Sonar (mixed).

For fleet racing in the Olympic classes, the Rolex Miami OCR consists of a five-day opening series (Monday - Friday) and a double-point medal race (Saturday). The top 10 finishers in the opening series of each class will advance to the medal race. For match racing (Elliott 6m), which makes its debut in the 2012 Olympic Games, the regatta will consist of an opening series, a knockout series, and a sail-off for boats not advancing to the knockout series. Competitors in the Paralympic classes have five days of fleet racing (Monday-Friday) and no medal race.

Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class on Saturday, January 28.

Regatta Headquarters are located at the US Sailing Center Miami, an official Olympic training center, in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, Fla. Event organizers have partnered with the city of Miami to provide world-class venues for competition. Additional hosts for the event include Coral Reef Yacht Club, Key Biscayne Yacht Club, Coconut Grove Sailing Club, Miami Rowing Club and Shake-a-Leg Miami. These sailing organizations host classes onshore, as well as help run the on-the-water racing. The Coral Reef Yacht Club also hosts the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

In addition to title sponsor Rolex Watch U.S.A., the 2012 Rolex Miami OCR is also sponsored by AlphaGraphics, Sperry Top-Sider, Harken McLube, Kattack, Gowrie-Chubb, Trinity Yachts and the University of Miami Hospital.

A complete roster of competitors can be viewed at the event website http://rmocr.ussailing.org, where real-time racecourse blogging, commentary and fan interaction, regatta results, photos and news updates have been integrated into a live coverage platform. Video highlights produced by T2p.tv and presented by Rolex will air beginning Wednesday, January 25, and will be available on-demand on the event website. Fans can also follow the event on Facebook/RMOCR and Twitter/RMOCR.

US SAILING’s 2012 Rolex Miami OCR
Top-three Finishes
Day 2

Sonar (11 boats) – 4 races
1. Jourden Bruno/ Vimont Vicary Nicolas/ Flageul Eric (FRA) 1,5,1,1 (8)
2. Paul Callahan (Newport, R.I.)/ Tom Brown (Castine, Maine)/ Bradley Johnson (Pompano Beach, Fla., USA) 1,3,5,2 (12)
3. John Robertson/ Hannah Stodel/ Steve Thomas (GBR) 4, 2, 3, 6 (15)

Star (30 boats) – 4 races
1. Eivind Melleby/ Petter Moerland Pedersen (NOR) 8, 2, 4, 3 (17)
2. Mark Mendelblatt (Miami, Fla.)/ Brian Fatih (Miami, Fla., USA) 3,4,6,4 (17)
3. Fredrik Loof/ Max Salminen (SWE) 2, 5, 2, 9 (18)

49er (23 boats) – 6 races
1. Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y.)/Trevor Moore (Naples, Fla., USA) 1, 2, 6, 2, 3, [24/OCS] (14)
2. Nico Luca Marc Delle Karth/Nikolaus Resch (AUT) 5,4,5,1,4,[7] (19)
3. Lauri Lehtinen/Kalle Bask (FIN) 2, [24/BFD], 7, 13, 2, 3 (27)

Skud-18 (6 boats) – 4 races
1. Alexandra Rickham/Niki Birrell (GBR) 1, 2, 2, 2 (7)
2. Daniel Fitzgibbon/Liesl Tesch (AUS) 5, 1, 1, 1 (8)
3. Jennifer French (St. Petersburg, Fla.)/Jean-Paul Creignou (St. Petersburg, Fla.,USA) 2, 3, 3, 3 (11)

2.4mR (29 boats) – 4 races
1. Damien Seguin (FRA) 2, 1, 3, 2 (8)
2. Paul Tingley (CAN) 6, 7, 2, 9 (24)
3. Megan Pascoe (GBR) 7, 4, 10, 3 (24)

Laser Radial (60 boats) – 4 races
1. Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 1, 2, 1, 5 (9)
2. Charlotte Dobson (GBR) 3, 8, 11, 4 (26)
3. Tania Elias Calles (MEX) 13, 4, 5, 7 (29)

470 Men (23 boats) – 4 race
1. Mathew Belcher/Malcolm Page (AUS) 3, 2, 1, 6 (12)
2. Sven Coster/Kalle Coster (NED) 1, 3, 3, 7 (14)
3. Lucas Calabrese/ Juan Maria de la Fuente (ARG) 5, 8, 2, 4 (19)

470 Women (16 boats) – 4 race
1. Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR) 1, 1, 1, 7 (10)
2. Kathrin Kadelbach/ Friederike Belcher (GER) 9, 4, 4, 1 (18)
3. Sophie Weguelin/ Sophie Ainsworth (GBR) 4, 10, 2, 4 (20)

Laser (74 boats) – 4 races
1. Paul Goodison (GBR) 3, 1, 1, 1 (6)
2. David Wright (CAN) 1, 1, 1, 4 (7)
3. Chris Dold (CAN) 2, 3, 3, 2 (10)

Finn (27 boats) – 3 races
1. Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA) 1, 1, 1 (3)
2. Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif., USA) 2, 2, 4 (8)
3. Jonas Hogh Christensen (DEN) 3, 4, 2, (9)

RS: X Men (14 boats) – 4 races
1. Mariano Reutemann (ARG) 3, 4, 1, 2 (10)
2. Sebastian Wang- Hansen (NOR) 5, 2, 3, 4 (14)
3. Nick Dempsey (GBR) 1, 1, 15/OCS, 1 (18)

RS: X Women (12 boats) – 4 races
1. Demita Vega De Lille (MEX) 1, 2, 1, 2 (6)
2. Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md., USA) 2, 1, 6, 6 (15)
3. Dominique Vallee (CAN) 5, 5, 2, 3 (15)

Women’s Match Racing
Group A (sailed yesterday win-loss)
Silja Lehtinen/Silja Kanerva/Mikaela Wulff (FIN) 8-1
Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.)/Elizabeth Kratzig-Burnham (Miami, Fla.),/Alana O'Reilly (Charleston, SC) (USA) 6-0
Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.)/Molly O'Bryan (Stanford, Calif.)/Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) (USA) 6-1
Ekaterina Skudina/Elena Siuzeva/Irina Lotsmanova (RUS) 5-2
Juliana Senfft/Fernanda Decnop/Luciana Kopschitz (BRA) 4-3
Renata Decnop/Gabriela Nicolino/Larissa Juk (BRA) 3-3
Silke Hahlbrock/Maren Hahlbrock/Anlee Lukosch, (GER) 3-4
Nicky Souter/Jessica Eastwell/Katie Spithill (AUS) 3-4
Ru Wang/Pan Ting Ting/Li Xiaoni (CHN) 3-5
Vesna Dekleva Paoli/Katarina Kersevan/Lena Koter (SLO) 2-7
Rita Goncalves/Mariana Lobato/Diana Neves (POR) 1- 6
Jinnie Gordon/Laurel Gordon-Taylor/Catherine Belange (CAN) 0-8

Group B (sailed today win-loss)
Mandy Mulder/Merel Witteveen/Annemiek Bekkering (NED) 6-1
Tamara Echegoyen/Angela Pumariega/Sofia Toro (ESP) 5-2
Olivia Price/Nina Curtis/Lucinda Whitty (AUS) 5-2
Lucy Macgregor/Annie Lush/Kate Macgregor (GBR) 4-2
Leroy Claire/Elodie Bertrand/Marie Riou (FRA) 4-3
Renee Groeneveld/Annemiek Bes/Marcelien de Koning (NED) 4-5
Julie Bossard/Pauline Chalaux/Pauline Courtois (FRA) 4-3
Genevieve Tulloch (Sausalito, Calif.)/Alice Manard Leonard (East Haven, Conn.)/Jennifer Chamberlin (Washington, D.C.) (USA) 4-5
Stephanie Roble (East Troy, Wisc.)/Maggie Shea(Wilmette, Ill.)/Darby Smith (Marblehead, Mass.) (USA) 3-5
Anna Kjellberg/Malin Kallstrom/Lotta Harrysson (SWE) 3-6
Martina Silva/ Ana LucA-a Silva/ MarA-a Trinidad Silva (ARG) 1-5
Sharon Ferris-Choat/Barbara Kaars Sijpesteijn/Joanne Prokop (CAN) 1-7

[mpowlison]

Jan 25 2012

Mid-Week Battles

The weather has been “stuck on beautiful” at the Rolex Miami OCR, but more important to the 529 sailors competing here from 41 countries has been the wind on Biscayne Bay, which today strengthened in knots to reach low double digits and helped re-ignite several key performances of sailors turning the corner to enter the regatta’s home stretch. Six days of racing, which count toward standings in the ISAF Sailing World Cup Series, began on Monday for 354 boats sailing in the same 13 classes that will be featured at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Making the most out of the zippy conditions were the 24 teams split into Groups A and B in the Women’s Match Racing discipline. Today’s goal was to complete the second of two round-robin series in each group. This was realized in Group A but not Group B, which will finish up tomorrow and add its top four finishers to the top four from Group A that have won the honor of proceeding to the quarter finals, a single elimination “knock-out” round.

Group A’s top finisher Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.), who sails with Elizabeth Kratzig-Burnham (Miami, Fla.) and Alana O'Reilly (Charleston, S.C.), was especially exhilarated by her 10-1 win-loss record, which was helped by a victory in today’s closely watched match-up with fellow US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics member Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), who sails with Molly O'Bryan Vandemoer (Stanford, Calif.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) and has a 7-4 record. “I don’t think we were ever more than a length apart the entire way around the course, so that was pretty cool,” said Barkow. “There were probably about four lead changes; nobody got penalties but everything was really close.”

Match Racing courses are two laps around (windward/leeward), with a five-minute pre-start sequence, where boats are allowed to enter the starting area at four minutes. Then it is a full battle from there until the finish line.

Said Barkow, who won bronze here last year to Tunnicliffe’s silver: “Sometimes when you get a two-length lead, then it’s not so much of a big battle, and you don’t have to defend things so hard. But you can imagine when it’s really close that upwind it’s kind of good for the boat ahead, but as soon as you go downwind, it’s good for the boat behind. So, if you only have a length between the boats, it’s really hard to be the boat ahead and stay ahead. That was what it was with Anna.”

Also moving on to the quarter finals are Silja Lehtinen/Silja Kanerva/Mikaela Wulff (FIN), with an 8-1 record, and Ekaterina Skudina/Elena Siuzeva/Irina Lotsmanova (RUS) with a 5-2.

“We made one or two mistakes out there,” said Tunnicliffe, the four-time (consecutive and current) Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year and two-time ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year (also current), “but we still made the quarter finals.” As for her match with Barkow, she said, “It was full on, lots of fun. It shows that team USA has what it takes, and we will all be pushing hard leading up to the Olympics.” Tunnicliffe, who also has an Olympic gold medal in Laser Radial class, explained that the Women’s Match Racing U.S. Trials are in May in Weymouth where the “winner takes all” and goes on to compete in the Olympics.

Conditions were prime for the RS:X Men’s windsurfing fleet, and Nick Dempsey (GBR), who was sitting in third in the Men’s class coming into today, moved to first, with fellow teammate Elliot Carney moving up right behind him. “Elliot and I had a good couple of races today – kind of like training races for the two of us in a way – and it was great to get the conditions we did,” said Dempsey. “It was the first time we’ve got to planing since we got here, so it gave the body a bit of a rest from the pumping, and it was nice to be going well in those conditions.”

Although some big names are missing in the RS:X fleet, which is relatively small this year compared to others, there is still stiff competition. “You have to work just as hard to get the results,” said Dempsey. “It’s never as easy as the score line might look, so it’s definitely been worthwhile coming here, and I’ll be pushing hard for the rest of the week.”

In RS:X Women’s, Demita Vega De Lille (MEX) maintained her lead from yesterday and added two more victories to the two already existing in her six-race scoreline. Like most of the classes here, the RS:X Women were allowed to discard their worst score after six races, which came today and also helped shuffle many scores.

Another sailor who did not change positions on the scoreboard was Marit Bouwmeester (NED), the World Champion in Laser Radial class who has held on to first place overall all three days. “Today I was struggling a bit because the wind pressure kept going up and down, and in the first race I got a yellow flag (a penalty for unallowed kinetics), but it's good to get out and experience the Miami weather,” said Bouwmeester. “This regatta has been great practice. I’ve been sailing against all these girls in many previous regattas and they are all major competition. It's great that so many of them took the time to come here after the Worlds in Perth.”

US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR, established in 1990, is open to boats competing in events chosen for the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. The 10 Olympic classes for 2012 are: Laser Radial (women), Laser (men), Finn (men), Men’s RS:X, Women’s RS:X, 49er (men), Men’s 470, Women’s 470, Star (men) and Elliot 6m (women). The three Paralympic classes are: 2.4mR (open), SKUD (mixed) and Sonar (mixed).

For fleet racing in the Olympic classes, the Rolex Miami OCR consists of a five-day opening series (Monday - Friday) and a double-point medal race (Saturday). The top 10 finishers in the opening series of each class will advance to the medal race. For match racing (Elliott 6m), which makes its debut in the 2012 Olympic Games, the regatta will consist of an opening series, a knockout series, and a sail-off for boats not advancing to the knockout series. Competitors in the Paralympic classes have five days of fleet racing (Monday-Friday) and no medal race.

Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class on Saturday, January 28.

Regatta Headquarters are located at the US Sailing Center Miami, an official Olympic training center, in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, Fla. Event organizers have partnered with the city of Miami to provide world-class venues for competition. Additional hosts for the event include Coral Reef Yacht Club, Key Biscayne Yacht Club, Coconut Grove Sailing Club, Miami Rowing Club and Shake-a-Leg Miami. These sailing organizations host classes onshore, as well as help run the on-the-water racing. The Coral Reef Yacht Club also hosts the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

In addition to title sponsor Rolex Watch U.S.A., the 2012 Rolex Miami OCR is also sponsored by AlphaGraphics, Sperry Top-Sider, Harken McLube, Kattack, Gowrie-Chubb, Trinity Yachts and the University of Miami Hospital.

A complete roster of competitors can be viewed at the event website http://rmocr.ussailing.org, where real-time racecourse blogging, commentary and fan interaction, regatta results, photos and news updates have been integrated into a live coverage platform. Video highlights produced by T2p.tv and presented by Rolex will air beginning Wednesday, January 25, and will be available on-demand on the event website. Viewers also can follow the racing using the Kattack feature starting Thursday, January 26, on the Star, 470 (Men and Women) and Finn courses. Fans can also follow the event on Facebook/RMOCR and Twitter/RMOCR.

US SAILING’s 2012 Rolex Miami OCR
Top-three Finishes
Day 3

Sonar (11 boats) – 6 races
1.Jourden Bruno/ Vimont Vicary Nicolas/ Flageul Eric (FRA) 1, 5, 1, 1, 2,
[8] (10)
2.John Robertson/ Hannah Stodel/ Steve Thomas (GBR) 4, 2, 3, [6], 3, 3 (15)
3.Paul Callahan(Newport,R.I.)/Tom Brown(Castine,Maine)/Bradley
Johnson(Pompano Beach,Fla.,USA) 1, 3, 5, 2, [7], 5 (17)

Star (30 boats) – 6 races
1.Robert Scheidt/ Bruno Prada (BRA) 1, [8], 7, 5, 2, 1 (16)
2.Fredrik Loof/ Max Salminen (SWE) 2, 5, 2, [9], 7, 2 (18)
3.Eivind Melleby/ Petter Moerland Pedersen (NOR) [8], 2, 4, 3, 8, 4 (21)

49er (23 boats) – 9 races
1.Nico Luca Marc Delle Karth/Nikolaus Resch (AUT) 5, 4, 5, 1, 4, [7], 1,
1, 1 (22)
2.Erik Storck(Huntington,N.Y.)/Trevor Moore(Naples, Fla., USA) 1, 2, 6, 2,
3, [24/OCS], 4, 2, 3 (23)
3.Lauri Lehtinen/Kalle Bask (FIN) 2, [24/BFD], 7, 13, 2, 3, 2, 5, 7 (41)

Skud-18 (6 boats) – 6 races
1.Alexandra Rickham/Niki Birrell (GBR) 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, [3] (9)
2.Daniel Fitzgibbon/Liesl Tesch (AUS) [5], 1, 1, 1, 4, 4 (11)
3.Jennifer French (St. Petersburg, Fla.)/Jean-Paul Creignou (St.
Petersburg, Fla.,USA) 2, 3, 3, 3, [5], 1 (12)

2.4mR (25 boats) – 6 races
1.Damien Seguin (FRA) 2, 1, [3], 2, 1, 3 (9)
2.Mark Le Blanc (New Orleans, La., USA) 1, [26/OCS], 5, 1, 6, 1 (14)
3.Barend Kol (NED) 5, [16], 4, 5, 3, 2 (19)

Laser Radial (60 boats) – 6 races
1.Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 1, 2, 1, 5, [9], 6 (15)
2.Lijia Xu (CHN) 5, [35], 2, 1, 6, 2 (16)
3.Evi Van Acker (BEL) 4, [18], 10, 2, 10, 9 (35)

470 Men (23 boats) – 6 races
1.Mathew Belcher/Malcolm Page (AUS) 3, 2, 1, 6, [7], 1 (13)
2.Sven Coster/Kalle Coster (NED) 1, 3, 3, [7], 5, 6 (18)
3.Panagoitis Kampouridis/Efstathios Papadopoulos (GRE) [9], 6, 8, 2, 4, 3
(23)

470 Women (15 boats) – 6 races
1.Lisa Westerhof/Lobke Berkhout (NED) 2, 3, 4, [16/OCS], 2, 1 (13)
2.Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR) 1, 1, 1, [7], 4, 7 (14)
3.Sophie Weguelin/ Sophie Ainsworth (GBR) 4, [10], 2, 4, 3, 6 (19)

Laser (74 boats)-6 races
1.David Wright (CAN) 1, 1, 1, [4], 1, 2 (6)
2.Paul Goodison (GBR) [3], 1, 1, 1, 3 (7)
3.Chris Dold (CAN) 2, 3, 3, 2, 2, [4] (12)

Finn (25 boats) – 6 races
1.Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA) 1, 1, 1, [2], 1, 2 (6)
2.Jonas Hogh Christensen (DEN) 3, [4], 2, 3, 2, 1 (11)
3.Brendan Casey (AUS) 4, [5], 3, 1, 4, 5 (17)

RS: X Men (14 boats) – 6 races
1.Nick Dempsey (GBR) 1, 1, [15/OCS], 1, 1, 1 (5)
2.Elliot Carney (GBR) 2, 3, [15/OCS], 3, 2, 2 (12)
3.Mariano Reutemann (ARG) 3, [4], 1, 2, 4, 3 (13)

RS: X Women (12 boats) – 6 races
1. Demita Vega De Lille (MEX) 1, [2], 1, 2, 1, 1 (6)
2. Carolina Mendelblatt (POR) 3, 3, [13/OCS], 4, 3, 3 (16)
3. Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md., USA) 2, 1, 6, 6, [13/OCS], 2 (17)

Women’s Match Racing
Group A
Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.)/Elizabeth Kratzig-Burnham (Miami,
Fla.),/Alana O'Reilly (Charleston, SC) (USA) 10 wins-1 loss
Silja Lehtinen/Silja Kanerva/Mikaela Wulff (FIN) 9 wins-2 loss
Ekaterina Skudina/Elena Siuzeva/Irina Lotsmanova (RUS) 8 wins- 3 loss
Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.)/Molly O'Bryan (Stanford,
Calif.)/Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) (USA) 7 wins-4 loss
Renata Decnop/Gabriela Nicolino/Larissa Juk (BRA) 6 wins- 5 loss
Nicky Souter/Jessica Eastwell/Katie Spithill (AUS) 6 wins- 5 loss
Juliana Senfft/Fernanda Decnop/Luciana Kopschitz (BRA) 5 wins- 6 loss
Silke Hahlbrock/Maren Hahlbrock/Anlee Lukosch (GER) 5 wins- 6 loss
Rita Goncalves/Mariana Lobato/Diana Neves (POR) 4 win- 7 loss
Vesna Dekleva Paoli/Katarina Kersevan/Lena Koter (SLO) 3 wins-8 loss
Ru Wang/Pan Ting Ting/Li Xiaoni (CHN) 3 wins- 8 loss
Jinnie Gordon/Laurel Gordon-Taylor/Catherine Belange (CAN) 0 win- 0 loss

Group B (Continue racing tomorrrow)
Mandy Mulder/Merel Witteveen/Annemiek Bekkering (NED) 7wins- 2 loss
Olivia Price/Nina Curtis/Lucinda Whitty (AUS) 7 win- 3 loss
Claire Leroy/Elodie Bertrand/Marie Riou (FRA) 6 win- 3 loss
Tamara Echegoyen/Angela Pumariega/Sofia Toro (ESP) 6 wins- 3 loss
Lucy Macgregor/Annie Lush/Kate Macgregor (GBR) 5 wins- 3 loss
Renee Groeneveld/Annemiek Bes/Marcelien de Koning (NED) 5 wins- 3 loss
Julie Bossard/Pauline Chalaux/Pauline Courtois (FRA) 5 wins- 4 loss
Stephanie Roble (East Troy, Wisc.)/Maggie Shea(Wilmette, Ill.)/Darby Smith
(Marblehead, Mass.)(USA) 4 wins- 6 loss
Genevieve Tulloch (Sausalito, Calif.)/Alice Manard Leonard (East Haven,
Conn.)/Jennifer Chamberlin (Washington,D.C.)(USA) 4 wins - 7 loss
Anna Kjellberg/Malin Kallstrom/Lotta Harrysson (SWE) 3 wins- 7 loss
Sharon Ferris-Choat/Barbara Kaars Sijpesteijn/Joanne Prokop (CAN) 2 win- 8
loss
Martina Silva/ Ana LucA-a Silva/ MarA-a Trinidad Silva (ARG) 1 win- 8 loss