Ireland's Star keelboat sailors Peter O'Leary and Stephen Milne clinched victory in race 4 of the 97th Bacardi Cup, marking a new winner for the day in Miami, Florida. Despite their turbulent scorecard of 39, 9, 33, the duo managed to take the lead and move up to 16th place overall. The weather conditions continued to pose challenges for the teams, with the race being postponed due to rain and clouds affecting the wind. However, the teams managed to push through the squalls, rain, and sunshine, with the breeze ranging from 5-15 knots across the three courses.

O'Leary expressed his satisfaction on winning the race, stating that the Cork-Belfast duo tend to perform well in strong winds and heavy rain, which is similar to their home conditions. Looking ahead to the next two races, O'Leary acknowledged the tough competition, saying, "This is proper racing, there is nowhere to hide, really good sailors and you are sailing against the best of the best. That’s what you get in the Star. The racing is really every inch. We have left ourselves a bit of work to do, but that is ok."

The defending champions of the Bacardi Cup, Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Bruno Prada, regained their top spot in the Star fleet, ahead of the 2019 Bacardi Cup winners, Eric Doyle and Payson Infelise. While the top two teams seem to be heading towards a thrilling duel, any of the top five teams could still unseat them with the series discard set to kick in after tomorrow's race 5. Facundo Olezza and Ricardo Vadia became the top-placed U30 team in 19th place overall after their impressive 3rd place finish.

Provisional Results – Top 3 after Race 4

1. Mateusz Kusznierewicz / Bruno Prada (POL 8559) - 13 pts
2. Eric Doyle / Payson Infelise (USA 8580) - 13 pts
3. Augie Diaz / Henry Boening (USA 8509) - 24 pts

There's Irish sailing interest in the RC44 Cup fleet in Slovenia’s Adriatic coast this week as Dun Laoghaire Harbour's Cian Guilfoyle lies second on French boat Aleph Racing after three races sailed and Belfast Lough's Stephen Milne is seventh on Artemis.

As Afloat previously reported, the umpire for the week is Northern Ireland race judge Bill O'Hara in Portorož - Piran.

With its light start, brilliant sunshine and the ancient town of Piran and the still snowcapped Slovenian Alps as a backdrop, the day could not have been better for the 44Cup fleet to blow away any cobwebs after such a long absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 44Cup in Portorož Photo: Martinez/RC44

Having not lined up since November 2019, 44Cup competition resumed today for the high-performance owner-driver one designs, with three races successfully held on the Bay of Piran. These started in a 6 knots and built to 12 over the afternoon.

The 44Cup Portorož is being hosted by Vladimir Prosikhin and Igor Lah, owners of Team Nika and Team CEEREF respectively. Team CEEREF is the 44Cup's Slovenian-flagged RC44 while two key crew on board Team Nika once represented Slovenia in the Olympic Games, come from Portorož and one, Mitja Margon, is this event's organiser. It was appropriate therefore that these two RC44s won the first two races. Team Nika posted by far the most consistent results today, returning ashore with a four point lead. Behind her the competition is far closer with just four points separating second from seventh places.

As someone who shows jubilation well, being back was a sheer delight for Prosikhin: "Everyone here is extremely happy, because we were missing our RC44 regattas SO much - one of the worst things about this pandemic was that we couldn't sail our beautiful boats. Coming here is like returning home to your family, the relations with everyone are so good. Some of the guys on the boat have been with me for 10 years."

Having on board Margon and his former 470 Olympic helm Tomaž Copi, who are both from Portoroz, also helps. "They know what to expect. It was important - in the morning it was a bit more predictable, but in the afternoon it changed and we had some random headers and lifts, when the locals helped."

In addition, Team Nika is the only RC44 here with a 'new' tactician, in Spanish keelboat champion Manu Weiller, who stepped into the role, previously been filled by Russell Coutts, Dean Barker, Ed Baird and Terry Hutchinson. With everyone wanting the pin and the left due to the wind bend on the Croatian shore and the sea breeze building, Weiller said they had focussed more on getting clean, conservative, mid-line starts. "This crew is incredible. They know the boat perfectly which helps me a lot, deciding modes, etc."

Racing started in 6 knots and built to 12 over the afternoon

Team Nika was lining up to win today's final race until on the final beat they were forced to tack away from starboard tackers on two occasions. At the top mark for the final time Pavel Kuznetsov's Atom Tavatuy led, but the Russian team was eventually pipped at the post by Hugues Lepic's Team Aleph.

"It would have been better to be first, but it was compensation from the first race," said Kuznetsov, who has raced a few times on sportsboats since the last 44Cup event in Palma in November 2019.

Team Aleph's Hugues Lepic was delighted by the results of his team, on which Italian keelboat specialist Michele Ivaldi is calling tactics. He has not sailed at all since Palma 17 months ago. "It was an amazing finish - quite unexpected. I am very very pleased that we got to first position. The start was tough for us, but in the end it worked out okay." Despite losing a crew overboard after a winch handle broke at one point, Team Aleph currently holds second overall, on the same points at Team CEEREF which bracketed their race two win with two deeper results.

John Bassadone's newly rechristened Peninsula Racing had a tough day. After a solid second in the first race, they were unable to fight back from an OCS in race two and then had the top of their rig damaged and Windex torn off after Chris Bake's Team Aqua clashed rigs with them at the start of the third race (for which Bake's team was awarded two penalty points).

Racing resumes today with stronger winds forecast. 

44CUP OVERALL RANKING

(After three races)

1. Team Nika 1 3 4 - 8
2. Aleph Racing 5 6 1 - 12
3. Team CEEREF 6 1 5 - 12
4.Peninsula Racing 2 8 3 - 13
5. Atom Tavatuy 8 4 2 - 14
6. Team Aqua 4 2 7 (2) - 15
7. Artemis Racing 3 5 8 - 16
8. Charisma 7 7 6 - 20

Penalty points shown in brackets.

Northern Ireland yachtsman Stephen Milne from Bangor in County Down is currently in Slovenia as part of the eight-man Swedish Artemis racing team taking part in the RC44 Cup in Portoroz.

Co-incidentally another Bangor man Bill O'Hara is the Class Umpire. The team is subject to the RC44 class strict Covid protocol.

The competition is back after 18 months and starts today (Wed 19th) with a practice race. This follows a huge effort on the part of the local organisers in Slovenia, the class, as well as the owners and teams arriving from the four corners of the globe. The event finishes on Sunday 23rd May.

Portorez is is a Slovenian Adriatic seaside resort and spa town located in the southwest of the country.

This will be the first time that the high performance 44ft one-design monohulls and their owner-drivers will have met on the racecourse since Palma in November 2019, following the cancellation of the entire 44Cup in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The boat owner/driver is Torbjorn Tornqvist from Sweden and the tactician Andy Horton (USA). Led by Tornqvist Artemis Racing has been involved with the 44Cup since 2008. A force within the fleet, the Swedish team have finished on the match racing or fleet racing podium for the past seven seasons.

Other well-known GBR sailors among the crew are double Olympic champion, Iain Percy (Main trimmer) and bowman Matt Cornwell, a professional sailor with three America's Cup challenges under his belt.

Stephen began his sailing career in Bangor, on Belfast Lough, in Lasers, and campaigned the Star keelboat for Ireland with Peter O'Leary in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Qingdao, China. He has since competed in various keelboat classes.

#star – Ireland will rejoin the Star sailing circuit when Peter O'Leary's former crew Stephen Milne from the Beijing Olympics teams up with British Finn superstar Giles Scott for the Star Sailors League Finals, organised by the Nassau Yacht Club for December 1st to 7th 2014.

The list of champions taking up the invitation to the regatta is getting longer by the week.

After the recent announcement of the first 12 competitors, who gained automatic access to the SSL Finals because of their positions in the Skipper Ranking, and the first guest star, London 2012 gold medallist, Freddy Loof, it is the turn of the very young but also very promising Giles Scott. Now virtually a certainty for the British Olympic squad, the rising star is also seen as a natural successor to Ben Ainslie who has retired from that side of the sport to devote himself full-time to the America's Cup.

Milne from Belfast Lough said: "I started sailing the Star Class on the run up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing for Team Ireland with Peter O'Leary. Our best result being a second place finish at the Bacardi Cup. Training closely with Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson, we developed our skills pretty quickly and managed to qualify for Ireland and took our place on the start-line in Qingdao. Sailing in the SSL finals and crewing for my good friend Giles this year will be fantastic. It will be nice to be back in a Star boat and to see, race against and learn from some old pals and great sailors. I guess my sailing goals change as the dynamics and politics of the sport change as they have done in recent years. Some decisions I guess are decided for us by others. But one dream to sail in or be involved with an Americas Cup team has always stayed a constant."

Unbeaten in 2014, Scott repeated his brilliant double of 2011 this year to become both Finn European and World Champion. He now tackles the first Star fleet of his career flanked by old hand Stephen Milne, who has just won the Etchells Europeans with fellow Star Class sailor and pal, Ante Razmilovic. The duo is up against a truly superb fleet that will most likely feature a record gathering of medal winners.

The SSL is also growing fast and looking set to hold plenty more big surprises in the coming weeks. The hottest tips on the water will be Robert Scheidt, who has won five Olympic medals, two in the Star class, London 2012 Star champion Freddy Loof, top-ranked SSL skipper Diego Negri, Robert Stanjek, World Champion 2014 at Malcesine, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Gold Star and two-time Olympic medallist, Xavier Rohart, bronze at Athens and two-time World Champion, and many more besides.

Giles Scott says:
"I've recently won the first Olympic test event, European Championships and World Championship in the Finn class. My career goals are to have success at the Olympics and go on to win the America's Cup. I'm super excited to come and race in the Star League, a chance to race against some of the best sailors in the world, both young and old, is a chance that I was not going to give up, I can't wait."