Stu McNay (L) and Dave Hughes celebrate their win in men's 470 at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami on Jan. 29, 2017 in Miami.
Stu McNay and Dave Hughes opened the 2017 season on a high note Sunday by claiming gold in the men’s 470 class at the Sailing World Cup Miami, the most prestigious sailing regatta held in the United States.
The duo, which placed fourth at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, won two races and logged six top-five finishes to conclude the week-long regatta with 56 points, just four ahead of Tetsuya Isozaki and Akira Takayanagi of Japan.
Although the Japanese boat won Sunday’s medal race, the Americans stayed close enough to gather the points they needed and fend off the challenge. Wiley Rogers and Jack Parkin tallied 80 points to take sixth place, making Team USA the only nation to place two boats in the top six.
The win is the third in Miami since McNay, a three-time Olympian, joined forced with Hughes for a campaign to reach the Rio Games, picking up victories in 2013 and 2015.
Six other U.S. boats earned top 10 finishes off the Miami coast. Luke Muller placed fourth in the Finn class, while Riley Gibbs and 2016 Olympian Louisa Chafee took sixth in Nacra 17. Charlie Buckingham, a 2016 Olympian, was seventh in Laser, matching the same finish of Erika Reineke in Laser Radial. Atlantic and Nora-Lucia Brugman were eighth in women’s 470 and David Liebenberg and Ian MacDiarmid placed 10th in 49er.
