Somers Kempe will not be short on morale when the Viper 640 Class commence competition at the Bacardi Miami Sail Week today in Biscayne Bay, Miami.

The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club commodore warmed up for the event in the best possible way earlier this week, winning the 2015 EFG Winter Cup in the Viper 640 Class with crew Adam Barboza and Butch Agnew.

Kempe will now look to carry that momentum into the Bacardi Miami Sail Week regatta where he has targeted a top ten finish.

“We are definitely aiming for a top ten finish and there’s no one in the fleet who is an unknown so we have sailed against pretty much everybody now before,” Kempe said. “We know how they sail and have an idea of what they like and where they like to go so we are just going to go out there and try and sail as fast and clean as possible and minimise mistakes.”

As for his morale boosting victory earlier this week, Kempe added: “It was a good warm up and the real competition obviously starts now, but it was good to get out there and get the boat set up and see how fast we were with a couple of other teams.”

While his confidence may be sky high, Kempe knows his team have their work cut out for them in a formidable Viper 640 fleet.

“It is quite a solid fleet,” Kempe said. “We’ve got multiple North American champions so it should be fun.”

Kempe and his crew appear to have gelled nicely in Miami over the past several days and it is this cohesiveness that the local team is relying upon to help them achieve their objective heading into the Bacardi Miami Sail Week.

“We are definitely working well together and communicating well,” Kempe said. “Hopefully we can continue to put good scores on the board and not have too many throwouts.”

Barboza is tending to duties with the mainsheet and spinnaker while Agnew is on the jib.

Also representing Bermuda in the Viper 640 Class at the Bacardi Miami Sail Week is Kempe’s former crew mate and president of the Bermuda Viper 640 Class Association Doug DeCouto.

Like Kempe, DeCouto also enjoyed a solid warm-up for the regatta after placing fifth earlier this week at the EFG Winter Cup, scoring a bullet in the final race with crew Rockal Evans and Bill McNiven to finish the regatta with a bang.

“Doug took delivery of a brand new boat and it looks like he has it all up to speed,” Kempe said. “He sailed very fast in the last regatta and was going well. I wouldn’t be surprised if he puts another good regatta together and ends up doing very well.”

Chuck Millican is also competing at the Bacardi Miami Sail Week in the J-70 Class.