11 races were sailed on Biscayne Bay, right in front of Miami, FL, from Friday December 9th to Sunday the 11th for the third event of the 69F US Select Series 2022. The conditions of the Bay were unlikely very light, so light that on Friday, after a long wait ashore, no racing could get underway. On the weekend the thin breeze only allowed marginal foiling conditions for the five Persico 69F fleet, nonetheless racing was tight and exciting.
Team Antigua – Rum Runners, winner of the previous event, Team Canada, coached by Olympian Tyler Bjorn, and three NYYC Youth and Women American Magic America’s Cup teams: Enterprise, Rainbow and Ranger. The AC US challenger uses the 69F Select Series to train and test its youth and women teams for the AC40 America’s Cup events that will take place in Barcelona in 2024.
The winners of the 69F US Select Series are NYYC Enterprise, helmed by Harry Melges, with Severin Gramm and Kyle Navin joining him onboard. They won only one race, but were the most consistent with plenty of second places and one fourth as worst result. They are followed by NYYC Rainbow, skippered by CJ Perez, a long acquaintance of the 69F circuits, four bullets for her, sailing here with Sarah Stone and Cam Farrah. Rocco Falcone’s Antigua Rum Runners finished third after winning four races. Sailing with Falcone, Junella King from Antigua and Filippo Amonti from Italy.
“It was an awesome event” commented Harry Melges. “A lot of close racing, we had pretty light air the whole time so we weren’t foiling as much, but the racing got super tight, it was a lot of fun. The level is really high, it was good to see very close races, no one really walked away with the Series, it was tight until the last race. We were definitely coming here to win, and we are very happy we have met our goal”.
The 69F fleet will be racing on Biscayne Bay again in just a few weeks, for the first of four events of the 2023 Youth Foiling Gold Cup, in Miami from January 16th to the 21st with 10 teams confirmed on the starting line – and close to reach the maximum of 12 teams sailing with six boats.
