#MIAMI SAILING WEEK – Ireland's Conor Clarke won the first race of the day of the 21-boat Melges 24 class at Miami sailing week yesterday while Franco Rossini (Switzerland) placed second. Rossini then took the bullet in the second and third races of the day, not to mention the lead of the overall standings which he now holds with four points. Clarke is second overall with seven points, followed by Riccardo Simoneschi (Milan, Italy) who has 10 points after finishes of 3-5-2. One point back is Kristen Lane (Tiburon, Calif.) after placing 5-3-3, followed by Alan Field (Los Angeles, Calif.) who placed 4-11-5 for 20 points.
Maurice 'Prof' O'Connell blogs from Conor Clarke's entry: "NEVER AGAIN!!!!" are the words all of the 'Embarr' crew used when we finally made the weight limit of 360kgs yesterday. Four days of dieting, running and malnutrition do not a successful regatta make.
And so it was that on the opening day today in 20 knots of breeze, I had to hand over the spinnaker sheet to my team-mates and my arms went into cramp and spasm - not good - but entirely due to the previous crazy few days. Next event - we WILL be on the weight - end of story.
Anyway, after three awesome races on Biscayne Bay today, we are sitting in 2nd overall, three points off the leaders, former world champions "Blu Moon" from Switzerland. We had a 1,2,4 to their 2,1,1.
We have three races tomorrow and two races on Saturday.
Great day for the Irish too over here where Peter and David had a 1,4 to climb to second overall in the Stars. Well done lads.
All the results and news are http://www.miamisailingweek.com/ - wish us luck folks.
