British 470 sailors Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell have only been sailing together for around six months, but it seems that this talented pair of individual sailors are gelling into an impressive unit. Last year at the Weymouth Sail for Gold Regatta they surprised many of the pundits with a silver medal position and last week they won the 470 US National Championship. They are clearly enjoying their sailing and their run of form is showing no signs of running out in Miami. After an 8,2,6 scoreline in the three opening races today, they sit in second place overall.

 

At the end of a long and enjoyable session on the water in the Miami sunshine, watching the racing on day two of the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, we made our way over to the Womens' Laser Radial course to observe the start of the second race of their series. After sticking with the race officer's two abandoned attempts to get the race away in a capricious ten knot breeze, the reward for our patience was to be able to witness US sailor Paige Railey ace the fleet at the pin end of the line. Railey's perfect execution of the classic 'win the pin, tack and cross the fleet' strategy was simply mesmerising to watch and all the more impressive given the near sixty boat fleet and the fact that this final start was under a black flag. Such was her advantage soon after the start that she led easily at the top mark and went on to win the race comfortably.

 

In the exclusive video below, you can analyse this text-book startline performance for yourselves, along with a post race interview with Railey in which she tells us exactly how she pulled it off. For the mere mortals amongst us it's pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about winning the pin, but never dared to ask.