ROAD TO THE ETCHELLS WORLDS: LOUIS PIANA CUP

Top Ten Boats Powered by North Sails

By: North Sails Expert, Skip Dieball

The kick off to the 2019 Etchells Biscayne Bay Series couldn’t have been better from a weather and racing perspective. All five races were competed in good, challenging conditions and the 49-boat fleet was treated to outstanding sailing at the 2018 Louis Piana Cup.

Saturday’s racing was held in 12-15 knot easterly with moderate chop. The first race saw Michael Goldfarb’s WarCanoe taking the lead at the top mark and not looking back. Michael took delivery of his boat the week before and was pleased with the setup and speed out of the box. In fact, there were four brand new boats debuting at the event, which is a testament to class strength as folks prepare for the Worlds in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The 2nd and 3rd races were won by the 2017 World Champion, Steve Benjamin. Benj’s team had a solid 1st day with a 4-1-1. In pursuit were Jim Cunningham, Luis Doreste, Scott Kauffman, Tony Rey and Goldfarb.

Sunday started off fairly light SWerly. After a passing shower and some dark clouds over Coconut Grove, the breeze filled in nicely out of the same direction. The chop increased as the ebb tide fought the breeze, making it a full focus game in keeping the boats going fast and in the right direction. Marvin Beckmann’s team won the day with a 3-3 and moving up to 7th overall. Tony Rey’s team scored a 6-1 to claim their spot in the top 5. Benj’s team shook off an early 11 to secure victory over Jim Cunningham’s team.

North Sails expert and Etchells World Champion Skip Dieball sailed the event with WarCanoe and helped set up the new boat in advance of the event. Here are his comments:

“I was focused on the sail set up and I was delighted with how our sails set up to the new Wale Spar. We used off-the-shelf PCF-RM mainsail. It was incredibly smooth and was versatile in the many different conditions we saw in the days leading up to the Piana Cup.

Our headsail analysis pre-event had us looking at 4-5 different sails and in the end, we used a new LM-2L in the first 4 races and the LM-2H in the 5th race. I am, again, amazed at the versatility of the LM-2L. We have a selection of battens that we use as we work this sail through 0-15 knots and the sail simply never lets us down.”

Boats powered by North Sails finished 1, 2, 3, 4*, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Full Results

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