Top Spot Challengers

MIAMI, March 11, 2024 — The third event of the Miami Winter Series had reigning World Champions “Rated X” with skipper Jake Julien taking the top spot. However, it was not a walk in the park, and it came to the last (13th) race to solidify the win with several of the teams making sure there was no room for mistakes.

“Surge”,with skipper Ryan McKillen, “Pursuit” with Bill Ruh, “Golddigger” with James Prendergast and “Extreme2” with Dan Cheresh all took first places and showed, with a fighting spirit, that they are solid challengers. The battle continues for the rest of the season, leading up to the class pinnacle event, the World Championship being held this year in September in Riva del Garda.

The fleet welcomes new team “Lucky Dog” with skipper Travis Weisleder. The team is well known for their successes in the Melges 24 class and decided to try out catamaran racing on the M32 demo boat early this year. In March they joined the fleet in their own, very good looking, M32. The demo boat is available for teams wanting to try out the boat in action, and get to know the fleet. It is the pathway most of the current teams have had to join the class.

Fancy cocktail parties may have their charm but the M32 class is back at its roots with a much-appreciated on the dock after-sail welcome party for new team “Lucky Dog”. Of course the snacks served with the beverages were – Lucky Hot Dogs! Rumor has it that another team is taking on the challenge for the dock party prize on the next regatta in April, the last event of the M32 Miami Winter Series.

The weekend in Miami saw a mix of conditions in the light end of the wind spectrum. The 14-16 knots in the first races on Friday eased throughout the regatta where on the last day winds were in the 5-7 knots range. Teams were still able to maintain boat speeds 11 knots upwind and 16 knots downwind. The class continues to use an automated race course with a combination of Marksetbots for exacting course configurations and the Vakaros Race Sense for instant OCS calls and live distance to line information without pinging. The work to have easy accessible technology make the racing better continues and testing has begun for automated zone calls. Stay tuned for updates.