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ACURA Miami Grand Prix
Miami Beach, Florida, USA: There was no slam dunk choice for the Boat of the Week honoree at the 2008 Acura Miami Grand Prix. That’s because all four classes were hotly contested throughout the regatta.

Colm Barrington and his crew aboard Flash Glove counted all first and second place finishes and did not need to sail the final race en route to winning IRC 1 class in convincing fashion.

Andy Fisher skippered Bandit to a hard-earned victory in IRC 2, which had four different leaders over the course of the four-day regatta.

Michael Illbruck and the Pinta team led at the end of each day in Melges 32, an amazing feat considering it was the German skipper’s second regatta in the highly-competitive class.

Ultimately, the three-part criteria that officials with Premiere Racing use to select the Acura Trophy winner favored the Farr 40 Barking Mad, owned by Jim Richardson of Newport, R.I. won three of 10 races and overcame some double-digit results to capture what proved to be the closest, most competitive class at Acura Miami Grand Prix.

Richardson and company are hot, having won all three winter regattas in Farr 40 class. The part-time Boston resident got a gorilla off his back by winning both Key West and Miami for the first time in 11 trips to capture the Acura Grand Prix Championship in Farr 40. That trophy goes to the boat with the best combined score at the two international events organized by Premiere Racing.

Illbruck is a newcomer to the up-and-coming Melges 32 class, taking delivery of his boat just prior to Acura Key West 2008. The German skipper did not steer as Pinta placed seventh in that regatta. He made his debut as helmsman in Miami and performed admirably, winning four races and second or third in five others in totaling 16 points - 10 better than runner-up New Wave.

John Kostecki, who skippered Illbruck’s victorious entry in the 2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race and is now with the BMW Oracle America’s Cup syndicate, called tactics aboard Pinta. Ross Halcrow of BMW Oracle and Dan Cowie of Emirates Team New Zealand served as trimmers.

Volvo Ocean Race veteran Rob Greenhalgh helped optimize Flash Glove to IRC and served as tactician onboard while boat captain James Hynes oversaw the alterations.

IRC 2 class wasn’t decided until the final leg of the last race when the Aerodyne 38 Thin Ice played spoiler by winning on corrected time. That assured the Swan 42 Bandit of the overall victory by the narrowest of margins. Skipper Andy Fisher steered Bandit to six finishes of third or better in totaling 25 points, a mere half point ahead of the J/122 Teamwork.

Farr 40 (28 entries) - no discard
1. Barking Mad, Jim Richardson, USA, 62
2. Mascalzone Latino, Vincenzo Onorato, ITA, 66
3. Warpath, Fred & Steve Howe, USA, 67

Melges 32 (20 entries)
1. Pinta, Michael Illbruck, GER, 16
2. New Wave, Mike Carroll/Marty Kullman, USA, 26
3. Star, Jeff Ecklund, USA, 37

IRC 1 (6 entries)
1. Flash Glove, J/V 52, Colm Barrington, IRL, 14
2. Windquest, TP52, Doug DeVos, USA, 23
3. Rusal Synergy, Sergey Pichugin, RUS, 5

IRC 2 (6 entries)
1. Bandit, Swan 42, Andy Fisher, USA, 25
2. Teamwork, J/122, Robin Team, USA, 25.5
3. Gold Digger, J/44, James Bishop, USA, 26.5

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 6:11 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.