New Teams from VEN and PUR at 470 North Americans

The 2011 470 North American Championships has attracted some of the world's top 470 sailors to the Coconut Grove Sailing Club in Miami, including both the men's and women's reigning World Champions, where day 1 of racing got underway yesterday.

Joining these illustrious and renowned sailors are some new faces, including teams from Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico's Paul Rios/Gerardo Fernandez made an impression from the outset with a brilliant first race which most probably made a few of the other teams' eyes open wide, as they finished seventh just behind reigning World Champions Mathew Belcher/Malcolm Page (AUS). Rios/Fernandez finished 18th at last year's ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships in the 420 and are now making the transition across to the 470.

In both the men's and women's fleets the race wins in yesterday's three races went to different teams, but the star performers of day 1 were Stuart McNay/Graham Biehl (USA). The pair took a bullet in the opening race of the series, which was followed up by a 4,2 to put them straight into the lead. Pierre Leboucher/Vincent Garos (FRA) took the win in race 2, but really couldn't get anywhere near that performance in the other races. A similar situation for brothers Sven and Kalle Coster (NED) who won the last race of the day, which was a much needed results after an OCS in race 1.

The women's fleet is currently led by British pairing Penny Clark/Katrina Hughes, who snuck in a win in the final race of yesterday to nip into the lead after day 1. Erin Maxwell/Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar (USA), will have have their eyes on claiming the North American Championships title, put in the most consistent performance of the day to hold tight in second. Rounding out the top three are Camille Lecointre/Mathilde Geron (FRA) who also sailed a tidy opening day with solid top 10 results.

Three races a day, for a total of 9 races including the Medal Race, are scheduled, with racing continuing through until Sunday 16 January 2011.

More Information:
Event Website
Results

Image: Stuart McNay/Graham Biehl (USA) at the 2010 Rolex Miami OCR © Rolex/Dan Nerney