Miami, FL (February 23, 2020) – Biscayne Bay delivered its third consecutive day of epic conditions for the 2020 J/70 Midwinter Champs in Miami, Florida which wrapped up on Sunday, Feb. 23.
A number of Doyle teams dominated the regatta with final placements of 2*, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 10 after a relentless eight-race battle against a 54-boat fleet.
Our Doyle customer and team presence was strong throughout with Ignacio Perez’s Zaguero leading the event until suffering a Black Flag in race seven, with his lead overtaken by Joel Ronning’s Catapult and Ryan McKillen’s Surge, who finished second and third overall, respectively. In the end it was Team Vineyard Vine’s John Baxter who won the overall title, tallying 27 net points.
We asked Santiago Perez, crew on Zaguero, who were leading the second day some questions regarding the event and asked about their speed edge.
“One of the keys to our success this weekend was the hard work of the many years my family and I have put in to the J70. Big shout out to Doyle’s tuning guide as it has been our partner all along our journey,” Perez said. “Our team is almost 100% family members. The skipper is my father (Ignacio), the tactician is my brother (Juan), our bow man is a friend from Austria (Moritz), and I am the trimmer (Santiago.) The harmony of the team is fantastic. We all get along very well on and off the water, which makes the result even more special to us.”
With such a great result, the team suffered a set back at the start of race 7 when they were black flagged. They led the regatta going in to the final race 8.
“We were very unlucky in that black flag. We thought we had our pins right and when the team double checked after being called over early, we were off by only a few meters,” Perez said. “We are still a very young and ambitious team. Next time we’ll be a little more conservative. Lesson learned the hard way. With such a competitive fleet, it was very hard for us to get back in the game and we could not hold on to our lead.”
In the 12-boat Corinthian division, Doyle customer Eker Kaymak of Turkey took first place with Ahmet Eker, Burak Zengin, Bilge Kerem Ozkan and Yasar Doga Aribas. Zachary Segal’s USA1154 and Andrew Fisher’s Button Fly followed.
Along with final results of second, third and fourth, Doyle customer Pamala Rose placed sixth overall on Rosebud, Bruce Golison’s Midlife Crisis place 7th overall, and Kevin Downey’s Mr Pitiful placed 10th overall.
Jud Smith, Doyle’s One Design Chief and J/70 World Champion himself said of the day – “this J/70 midwinter event attracted both professional and Corinthian sailors- all great sailors—the best in the world— and many are gearing up for the Barcardi Cup in early March. The sailors here are racing hard and learning fast. This fleet is also a huge draw for our top professional sailors from around the world. We are so pleased that so many of them use Doyle One Design sails. “
The Doyle Sails One Design group of experts boast some of the world’s leading sailors and sail designers, all with equally impressive lists of accomplishments and accolades across a wide variety of classes and events. We pride ourselves on working closely with our customers to engineer sails that are faster out of the bag and easy to trim and maintain their designed shape through a greater wind range.
For more information or to speak to our One Design team email onedesign@doylesails.com
*indicating Doyle main and jib used