Douglas DeCouto and the crew of Man ‘O War made a flying start to Bacardi Miami Sail Week in the one design Viper 640 in Biscayne Bay, yesterday.

Provisional results showed the Bermuda team, that also consists of Rockal Evans and Bill McNiven, sixth in the 32-boat fleet after four races.

DeCouto and crew thrived in the 14-16 knot southerly breezes, posting four top ten finishes on the windward-leeward racecourse.

It was a solid display that surpassed DeCouto’s expectations.

“This was actually a little beyond what I felt we would have gotten because we haven’t really all sailed together, especially in this kind of breeze, so we are pretty happy,” the Bermuda Viper 640 Class Association president said. “I would chalk up a lot of what we did today to Rockal who gave lots of good information at the start and downwinds and Bill was great as well. I just hold the little stick [Tiller] at the back and they do all the hard work.”

DeCouto, who placed fifth in a fleet of 20-boats at the EFG Winter Cup in Miami earlier this week, is racing in a new Viper 640 that he recently purchased and will ship back to Bermuda following the regatta.

“We had the regatta last week that allowed us to shake out a couple of little kinks,” he said. “We just go racing and come in check the tuning and then just dial it a little bit. The boat has a good consistent build quality so we are pretty happy.”

In contrast to DeCouto, Somers Kempe and the crew of Overproof did not enjoy the best of starts to the regatta.

Kempe, who won the EFG Winter Cup earlier this week, managed just one top ten finish that left the local team further down the leader board in 13th.

“We didn’t have a very good day,” Kempe, who is sailing with crew Adam Barboza and Butch Agnew, said. “We didn’t start very well and sailed in bad air most of the day which doesn’t win you championships.”

British skipper Lawrence Crispin, who finished runner up to Kempe at the recent EFG Winter Cup, led the Viper 640 fleet after four races.

Also finding the going tough yesterday was Chuck Millican and crew of Elusive in the J-70 fleet.

After three races Millican, who is sailing with crew Corola Cooper, Dave Brining and Dan Couglin, was 38th in the 46-boat fleet.

Julian Fernandez Neckelmann, of Mexico, tops the leader board in the J-70s heading into today’s races.