Cayard and Kleen Continue Star Run to Win Bacardi Cup
On March 7, Paul Cayard (USA) and Frithjof Kleen (Germany) capped off a banner year in the Star class by winning the 99th edition of the Bacardi Cup in South Florida. The duo won the 2025 Star World Championship back in September in Croatia, Cayard’s second world championship in the class (37 years after the first). Now, after topping a massive 76-boat fleet, Cayard has won his first-ever Bacardi Cup after 45 years of trying. It was the only major Star class championship that he had not yet won.
“Winning the Bacardi Cup completes my Star class résumé,” Cayard tells us. “After the annual Star World Championship, the Bacardi Cup is the biggest event in our class. Forty-six years after my first Bacardi, trying off and on over the years, grateful to get this one in the bag.”
Cayard and Kleen came out of the gates in nearly untouchable form, winning the first three races of the event to jump out to a commanding lead. The battle for the cup would come down to Cayard and Kleen and the Brazilian duo of Robert Scheidt and Austin Sperry.
While Cayard and Kleen could not have started the regatta better, with just three points after three races, competition was still fierce. Scheidt and Sperry had finished third in races one and two, and then fourth in race three for a total of 10 points. The Polish boat of Mateusz Kusnierewicz and Bruno Prada had finished second in races one and two, and then ninth in race three. In race four, Cayard and Kleen’s picket fence was finally snapped by Scheidt and Sperry, who were victorious (the eventual champions were second). “Paul is on fire,” Scheidt said during the regatta, per the Bacardi Cup’s official press release. “He’s having a super-great regatta. Not making any mistakes.”
Race five saw the regatta reach fever pitch, with Scheidt and Sperry winning, and Cayard and Kleen finishing sixth. Going into the final race, Scheidt and Sperry needed a top-two finish ahead of Cayard to claim the Cup.
Cayard and Kleen started match-racing the Brazilian boat 10 minutes before the start, and the two regatta leaders didn’t cross the start line until well after the gun. Scheidt and Sperry eventually battled back to a 10th-place finish, but with both boats still holding a drop, it wasn’t enough to top Cayard and Kleen, who ultimately DNF’d the race once their work was done. The final delta saw the American boat with a net total of 11 points and the Brazilians with a net total of 12. Kusznierewicz and Prada finished with 16 to round out the podium.
“I told the Star sailors last night at the awards that it is our turn on watch to continue writing the legendary history of the Star class,” Cayard tells us. “When I joined the class in 1978, it was North, Conner, Blackaller, Melges, Buchan and Schoonmaker who were writing. Before that it was Elvstrom, Knowles, Burnham, Smart, Straulino, Petterson. And now, you take the first 15 names of the 99th Bacardi results sheet and you have those on deck continuing to build what is already the greatest legacy of sailing talent ever assembled!” he continues. “And this group is paying it forward, bringing along the next Robert Scheidt, Mateusz, Diego and Eric. I think we are living up to ‘Star standard.’ Hopefully we can push the bar higher!”
You can find the full results for the Star Class in the 2026 BACARDÍ Cup here.
As a racer approaching 70, two things come to mind. The beauty of the fact that sailing, and sailboat racing, is mostly a mental event, and one can be all they can be into their 80s. Witness my friend Harold Easom, who destroyed, up to the point of transition. The second is that the key to winning is not just being precise as much as being joyful, grateful, and flexible. That frees one to be precise, without being dogmatic. It seems that Paul, who has embraced joy throughout his sailing life, still has the keys to the kingdom.