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Our Paralympic Winter Season
Caviglia Blue Water Classic, Rolex Miami OCR and St. Pete Open
We had prepared thoroughly for the invasion of paralympic sailors from around the world. All of our boats were racing in the main event, the Rolex Miami OCR. Our Sonar #711 won the Sonar fleet for the 3rd straight time, it must be a fast boat. Our Skud18 #004 was runner-up. We had mixed results in the 2.4mR class. All together we had 9 boats competing, which equates to 20% of all the boats racing were owned by Team Paradise. Our sailors represented six different countries. We have served 13 nations to date. US Sailing team members use our boats on a regular basis. How about that for a fact?
Please visit www.teamparadise.org for more info.
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Fleet Report
Two new Sonar boats
We now have five 2.4mR and five Sonars in our Miami fleet. Both of our Skud18 are based in St. Pete. Our boats are in great shape, much thanks to Oren Beach who has worked hard on making fiberglass repair and making scratches disapere. He is know as our "Plastics Surgeon" and he is the BEST in the business. Shake-A-Leg Miami Water-Sports Center is an awesome facility. We have access to indoor storage when we need it, there is a full wood shop and many helpful tools. How about the nice A-frame lift in the picture above. It works perfect for our needs.
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Bacardi Cup
Leg amputee takes 7th place major Star regatta
Lars Grael
 | Brazilian ace sailor Lars Grael sailed to yet another top finish at a major Olympic Star Class event. Time and time again he proves that sailing is a mental sport more so than not. Lars and his team mate Ronald Seifert had a chanse for the overall victory going into the last race, but strong shifty winds made the task of winning so much more difficult. Philip Carlson (our intern) and I were able to take time off from regular Team Paradise duties to sharpen our skills and race in the regatta. Gerhald Carlson was crewing for his son while I crewed for Peter Bromby (BER). We both sharpened our skills, which we need in order to better support our disabled sailors. Two races were scheduled for the final day. Peter and I were in dire need of at least one a race in order to be able to drop our 54th place finish from the first day. We had hoped to still be in the hunt at this point of the regatta and we were, but we did not have destiny in our own hands.
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