Front of fleet results were spread around, with a fairly even performance amongst the top boats on day one.
Three races down and their 1,4,5 scorecard gives Caterpillar’ helmed by Peter Ill the lead. ‘Evil Hiss’ who finished 2nd in 2020, under the expert helm of Mary Ewenson raced a solid series, picking up a win in race 2 to end the day in nd.
Escaping from the snow in Ottawa is Canada’s ‘Jackpot’ skippered by Van Sheppard, Brad Sheppard and Quintin Gallon, who have only recently started sailing together and compete for the first time in Miami. Crew member Quentin Gallon grinned, “We are loving the sunshine and loving the people!”
“We had a phenomenal breeze all day,” continued Gallon on their fifth overall. “Awesome races. As we sailed throughout the day we just got better. We found our starts were our key thing, just bow down and power on. We are a little heavy crew, so we figured we could hike out the boat and really keep it powered up upwind. That worked great for us.”
The team finished 2nd in the last race 3 of the day, as Gallon explained, “On our last race we were doing great upwind and downwind it was all about the communication in the boat and finding the breeze. It was really key for us building as a team and we are excited for the next couple of days.”
Provisional Top 5 Results – after 3 races
1. Peter Ill / Stephen Sparkman / Maxwell Plarr (USA 277) – 11 pts
2. Mary Ewenson / Mark Zagol / Jane Moore / Max Vinocur (USA 297) – 13 pts
3. Cam Farrah / Cliff Farrah / Eric Heilshorn (USA 246) – 14 pts
4. Van Shephard / Brad Sheppard / Quentin Gallon (CAN 294) – 16 pt