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Bacardi Cup
Miami, Florida, USA: Portugal’s Afonso Domingos and crew Bernardo Santos won the 2008 Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta on the waters of Biscayne Bay Friday, edging 2002 Star Class World Champion Iain Percy and crew Andrew Simpson in a tiebreaker.

Aided by substantial gains on each of the reach legs in both races, Domingos and Santos sailed to two second place finishes Friday - and a first place tie with Percy and Simpson, who held the lead entering the final day of the regatta, but finished fifth and ninth in Friday’s two races. The teams’ finishes in the regatta’s final race were used to determine the overall winner of the 81st Bacardi Cup.

The 2004 and now 2008 Bacardi Cup champions, Domingos and Santos remain the only European sailors ever to win the Bacardi Cup in the regatta’s 81-year history.

“There was much more wind today than on other days, and we had some great gains on the reach legs,” said Domingos, who benefited from the triangle course. “We knew where was, but we tried not to focus on him in the last legs. Our goal was to finish in front - to go fast - and not to cover anyone specifically.”

John Dane and crew Austin Sperry, the 2006 Bacardi Cup champions and the United States’ Star Class representatives in the 2008 Olympics in August, finished third and fifth Friday and climbed to third place overall following disappointing 20th and 39th place finishes in the regatta’s first two races.

More than 110 teams representing 26 countries competed in the 81st Bacardi Cup. — Janet Maizner

Final top ten:
1. Afonso Domingos / Bernardo Santos, POR, 20
2. Iain Percy / Andrew Simpson, GBR, 20.0001
3. John Dane / Austin Sperry, USA, 30
4. Mateusz Kusznierewicz / Dominik Zycki, POL, 32
5. Hans Spitzauer / Christian Nehammer, AUT, 33
6. Robert Scheidt / Bruno Prada, BRA, 38
7. Alberto Barovier / Nando Colaninno, ITA, 41
8. Diego Negri / Luigi Viale, ITA, 41.0001
9. Peter O’Leary / Stephen Milne, IRL, 42
10. Augie Diaz / Phil Trinter, USA, 42.0001

www.bacardicup.com
www.starclass.org

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 6:08 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.