| MIAMI, FL. USA-(18-11-2003) Jim Richardson and his Barking Mad
team won the inaugural Rolex Farr 40 Match Race today in Miami. Six
international teams competed in the two-day, double round-robin series as a
warm-up to the Rolex Farr One Design Invitational, an 11-race fleet racing
series scheduled to take place tomorrow through Saturday.
`This is terrific,` said Richardson (Boston Mass./Newport, R.I.). `We didn't
find out we had won until we reached the dock and someone congratulated us.
Overall it was a fun and challenging two days for all of us.` America's Cup
sailor Terry Hutchinson served as tactician onboard.
Early in the day, Nerone, owned by Massimo Mezzaroma and Antonio Sodo
Migliori (Rome, Italy), beat Barking Mad, but suffered two defeats, to
finish second overall. `Our loss to Nerone was a close one, but it was a
tough race.` said Richardson `We didn't realize that Nerone had lost to Le
Renard, so we thought that we were tied with them.`
In third place was Mean Machine, owned by Peter de Ridder (Monaco), and Erik
Maris's (Paris, France) Twins2 finished fourth.
`We were leading them (Twins2), but we lost the first downwind leg when they
got inside us and passed us,` said de Ridder who has Vovlo Ocean Race winner
Stu Bannatyne onboard calling tactics. `This has been like sailing a whole
fleet race regatta. We did 10 races in 1 1/2 days and improved our boat
handling.`
Le Renard, owned by 2000 Farr 40 world champion Steve Phillips (Annapolis,
Md.), finished the series in fifth with 3 wins, 7 losses, followed by Shadow
Rock, owned by Peter Stoneberg and Alex Geremia (Orinda, Calif.) in sixth.
There is a good chance in the future that other Farr 40 events will include
match racing in the format. `Because racing in the Farr 40 fleet is so
tight, it's a great advantage if you can be consistent and do things right,`
said Richardson, who is the Farr 40 class president. `I think a lot of the
crews looked at doing this regatta as an opportunity to practice for the
North Americans in a very organized and controlled way. Everyone got
markedly better over the past two days, as far as boat handling and start
procedures.`
Title sponsor is Rolex Watch U.S.A. Organizers include the Storm Trysail
Club, Mumm 30 and Farr 40 Class Associations. Avalon Majestic Hotel is the
official hotel. North Sails and Lewmar are supporting sponsors.
Daily reports, photos and results will be posted to
www.farrinternational.com/rolexinvite03.
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