Zach Railey could do no wrong

Racing summary:  US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics won one gold, two silver and one bronze medals on the concluding day of US Sailing’s 2012 Rolex Miami OCR in the Finn, Women’s RS:X, 49er and Women’s Match Racing, respectively. The regatta was capped off today with the final medal race, a double-points race to determine overall medalists where USSTAG won four of the medal races.

Performance highlights include: Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) could do no wrong this week, winning the medal race and securing his first ISAF Sailing World Cup gold medal. “Yesterday I was able to put myself into a good situation before the medal race,” said Railey. “I definitely knew there would be some pressure from the Danish sailor. We were locked into a really tight match race right before the start, I was able to break away before the start and sail my own race.”

After a somewhat disappointing World Championship last month in Australia, Railey refocused and came back stronger. “That was the goal going in; I wanted to capitalize on the week, and go out in a dominating fashion for the week. Getting that goal accomplished is definitely a huge plus for us. It’s been a great week. I’ll be very honest. I was disappointed with the World Championships. I had a black flag in the third race. I really had to change the way I approach my regattas. I wanted to come here and show that all of the training we’ve putting in is paying off. We worked a lot on boat speed and technical set up. We really want to try and start putting it together and performing at events. At the Worlds, getting a black flag was my fault. I had to switch my focus and match the other USA boat.” (photo Mick Anderson/SailingPIX.dk)

USSTAG’s Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif.) finished 5th in the medal race for 5th overall.