26 Jan 2012
Rolex Miami OCR at Halfway Stage
Another two races were added to the scoreline on day 3 of Rolex Miami OCR for the 470 Men and 470 Women teams, which sees a new leader in the 470 Women with Lisa Westerhof/Lobke Berkhout (NED) taking over up front. The weather has been “stuck on beautiful” at the Rolex Miami OCR, but more important has been the wind on Biscayne Bay, which on Wednesday 25 January strengthened in knots to reach low double digits and helped re-ignite several key performances of sailors turning the corner to enter the regatta’s home stretch.
Six days of racing, which count toward standings in the ISAF Sailing World Cup Series, began on Monday and go through until the medal race on Saturday 28 January.
Posting a 7,1 series leaders Mat Belcher/Malcolm Page (AUS) remain firmly at the front of the 470 men pack scoring their second race win of the series in the day’s final race 6. Still on a mission to claim back their opening day series lead are Sven and Kalle Coster (NED) who sit in second on a 5 point deficit to the Australians.
Moving up into third overall after tidy finishes of 4 and 3 are Greece’s Panagoitis Kampouridis/Efstathios Papadopoulos.
470 Men - Top 10 Overall
| Pos | Sail | Skipper/Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
| 1 | AUS 11 | Belcher, Mathew/Page, Malcolm | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | [7] | 1 | 13 |
| 2 | NED 1 | Coster, Sven/Coster, Kalle | 1 | 3 | 3 | [7] | 5 | 6 | 18 |
| 3 | GRE 165 | Kampouridis, Panagoitis/Papadopoulos, Efstathios | [9] | 6 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 23 |
| 4 | ARG 7 | Calabrese, Lucas/de la Fuente, Juan Maria | 5 | 8 | 2 | 4 | [15] | 5 | 24 |
| 5 | SWE 346 | Dahlberg, Anton/Ostling, Sebastian | 10 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 2 | [14] | 27 |
| 6 | USA 1713 | McNay, Stuart/Biehl, Graham | 6 | 4 | 5 | 9 | [11] | 7 | 31 |
| 7 | GRE 1 | Mantis, Panagiotis/Kagialis, Pavlos | 2 | 5 | 9 | [23/OCS] | 10 | 9 | 35 |
| 8 | GBR 857 | Saxton, Ben/Mason, Richard | 4 | 1 | 13 | 5 | [14] | 13 | 36 |
| 9 | CHI 11 | Grez Ahrens, Benjamin/Gonzalez, Diego | 7 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 6 | [16] | 36 |
| 10 | FIN 7 | Lindgren, Joonas/Lindgren, Niklas | 8 | 9 | [14] | 13 | 3 | 11 | 44 |
In the 470 Women’s event, Lisa Westerhof/Lobke Berkhout (NED) have swept into the lead with a second and race win from races 5 and 6 – an outcome which will have put big smiles on their faces. The Dutch pair went into the Perth ISAF Sailing World Championships as defending World Champions but just couldn’t find their usual groove and ended the Championship in tenth place, a result which was understandably disappointing for them. An OCS in race 4 in Miami knocked them down the leaderboard, but with that now discarded they are on target for a podium outcome.
Knocked down to second overall are Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR) with just a 1 point margin, with team mates Sophie Weguelin/Sophie Ainsworth in third.
470 Women - Top 10 Overall
| Pos | Sail | Skipper/Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
| 1 | NED 11 | Westerhof, Lisa/Berkhout, Lobke | 2 | 3 | 5 | [16/OCS] | 2 | 1 | 13 |
| 2 | GBR 118 | Mills, Hannah/Clark, Saskia | 1 | 1 | 1 | [7] | 4 | 7 | 14 |
| 3 | GBR 855 | Weguelin, Sophie/Ainsworth, Sophie | 4 | [10] | 2 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 19 |
| 4 | GER 21 | Kadelbach, Kathrin/Belcher, Friederike | [9] | 4 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 20 |
| 5 | ARG 8 | Sesto, Maria Fernanda/Monsegur, Consuelo | 3 | 7 | 8 | [11] | 1 | 9 | 28 |
| 6 | USA 1736 | Clark, Amanda/Lihan, Sarah | [8] | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 28 |
| 7 | USA 1712 | Haeger, Anne/Provancha, Briana | 7 | [12] | 6 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 30 |
| 8 | AUT 431 | Vadlau, Lara/Schimak, Eva-Maria | 5 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 8 | [12] | 33 |
| 9 | SWE 348 | Ericson, Lisa/Gabrielsson, Astrid | 6 | 6 | [16/OCS] | 9 | 9 | 4 | 34 |
| 10 | NED 24 | Keijzer, Nina/van Veen, Anneloes | 13 | 2 | 9 | 5 | [15] | 8 | 37 |
More Information:
Event Website
Rolex Miami OCR News
Image: Lisa Westerhof/Lobke Berkhout (NED) at Perth 2011 ISAF Worlds © Richard Langdon