Miami (USA), March 11, 2018

The star players Diego Negri (Diano Marina, IM) and Sergio Lambertenghi (Torbole, TN) after more than a luster of satisfactions around the world, and two years later a second place just one point away from the first, finally put the hands on the Bacardi Cup in its 91st edition. A vintage not any, because it is worth 3,000 points for the ranking of the Star Sailors League and, for this, has attracted a slew of champion to envy the world and the Olympics: just see the general classification to realize the level of the fleet. Behind the Spirit of Milica by Negri / Lambertenghi (14 pts), Scheidt / Fatih (16), Melleby / Revkin (22), L.Grael / Goncalves (24), Cayard / Strube (24), Doyle / Infelise ( 28), Percy / Ekstrom (28.4), Rohart / Guidoux (33), Lawrence / Trouche (47), Jennings / Kleen (51), followed by O’Leary and Diaz just off the top ten. With the update of the SSL ranking of Tuesday, March 13, Negri will return to the top in the coveted ranking of the skippers of SSL, where he holds the record of stay at the top of 74 weeks.

A thick victory, therefore, during the golden week of sailing in the Bay of Biscayne, in Miami, which saw prevalently strong middle winds and a stop day set by the organization for an oceanic storm front. Negri and Lambertenghi have almost always sailed the front of the fleet, collecting two seconds, two thirds and a quarter as best partials: more than enough results to put two lengths from a “giant” of this class like the Brazilian Robert Scheidt (7-3 -1-5-3-2) and eight from the current world champion, the Norwegian Eivind Melleby (2-1-3-8-9-8).

Negri’s hot comments: “We had already arrived very close, and in any case we sweated up to the last: the last test was in fact the most fought, where we had to keep Scheidt always in control and, even if he passed, we still had the math on our side. Winning Bacardi obviously has a special flavor, not only because we are the first Italians to succeed: when you start racing in Star, you immediately hear about this trophy, so putting the name above is just a dream for any sailor. An absolute prestige for the long tradition and for what made the famous sponsor great. And the great emotion of having remembered along with many old friends, at the beginning of the week, a legend of this sport, Sir Durward Knowles, the first Olympic gold medal for the Bahamas, obtained with the Star: the SSL he had made it known and frequented in Nassau in recent years, and was a beacon for many young people who were inspired by him “.