Improving our Game...

Bacio wins Audi Melges 20 Winter Series!!!

Happy Faces on Bacio: Chris, Mitchell and Michael

Well we just finished the Audi Melges 20 Winter Series in Miami. With a 2nd place at the Bacardi Miami Race Week we secured the title and we are still the team to beat. The series consisted of three regattas, concluding with the Bacardi Miami Race Week which boasted a total of 26 Melges 20s! How is that for one design racing! Every event saw a different winner. We won the first event, Red Sky (Paul Reilly) won the second event and the last event was won by Mary-Ann Ward on M&M Racing.

An ecstatic Mary-Ann Ward!

This is a testament to the great nature of the Melges 20 class. Everybody has improved their game since we last won the Nationals in August and we are having to work harder and harder to stay ahead or at least stay even with the other teams.
When Michael Kiss got me on board his Audi Melges 20 Bacio back in Charleston last year, we immediately got along. We are both quite technically inclined and enjoy bouncing ideas back and forth.
I consider the AM 20 one of the best sailing training platforms out there. Apart from offering great racing on the water, the owners are a pretty tight knit group that enjoy the social aspects of the class as much as the racing.
For me as a pro-sailor my main objective is to help my owner improve his own personal sailing game. I believe it is way more satisfying for the owner to keep taking more and more responsibility on the boat than having a Pro-Sailor baby him around the course. With this in mind Michael and I set up a pretty intense schedule that would allow us to do exactly that. For every regatta we set attainable goals which aren't based on results but primarily on certain parts of racing. I keep pushing responsibility back in the boat (I do bow) and we talk about our mistakes openly after each race.
At times this can be frustrating but long-term I'm convinced its the way to go.

Enjoying having the fleet behind us

Bacio is now off to Europe where we will see how we face off against the top Italian crews. The Italians will certainly push us and make us work harder at improving our game once again.
Last but not least we would like to thank our teamgear suppliers Point Loma Outfitting and SLAM for their continued support.


Chris out