J/120 CARINTHIA Wins Epic Wirth Munroe Race!

(Palm Beach, Florida)- This year's fleet in the annual Wirth Munroe Memorial Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach Yacht Race got a bit more than they bargained for.  To say the least, race conditions were challenging, with 20+ knot ENE winds gusting to 30 knots and sea conditions considered “sporty” as the northbound Gulf Stream built waves to 8-12 feet, many with breaking wave-tops.  For some of the modern ocean-racing machines (TP 52s and similar stuff), it was a bit too much as once the fleet got out of the southbound "flat water" just off Fort Lauderdale and they hit the current wall (a.k.a. "the conveyor belt") only a few miles offshore, the wave conditions made even the hardiest of San Francisco Bay or Solent sailors stand up and take notice-- these were ginormous, vertical-walled waves that often broke across the bows and down the deck in a wall of water, doing their best to wash crews down the deck and over the side.  Epic conditions, indeed! But also scarily spectacular.  The northbound Gulf Stream running 2-4 nm offshore was screaming, making the water look like a monstrous washing machine. As a result, several competitors abandoned racing and arrived at Palm Beach's Lake Worth Inlet under power, although no one reported injuries or damage.

Reveling in the tough conditions were the tough hombres from Lake St Clair, Michigan, all experienced Mackinac Race veterans who've seen far worse stuff than what the Stream was throwing at them.  Frank Kern's cracker-jack team aboard his J/120 CARINTHIA smashed through the massive waves and proceed to take 1st overall in PHRF Division on corrected time, taking the Sailfish Club/ Cruising Club of America's silverware back to Detroit for safe-keeping!  Just behind them in third place was David Bond's well-sailed offshore team aboard the J/105 LOKI and finishing a respectable fourth was Bob Kirkman's J/120 HOT TICKET.

In the IRC Class, Jim Bishop’s J/44 WHITE GOLD also cleaned out the trophy shelves at the Sailfish YC, taking the "First CCA Yacht to finish" and "First Sailfish Club Yacht to finish".  

Here's some commentary from Frank's CARINTHIA blog on the race- "Carinthia has done this race now a number of years so it was very close to the conditions we have seen before. As part of the southern circuit Hot Ticket again joined us for the "race to the buffet". She was late getting to the start for which was explained to us later.

Apparently a crew member who was late delivering a sail caused HT to miss the 9am opening of the Fort Lauderdale 17th street bridge to reach the Atlantic Ocean. After much discussion the decision was made that they would be able to clear it.  Except a scary moment occurred when the radio antenna on top of the mast scraped the bottom of the bridge and navigation lights on the spans in spite everyone sitting on the end of the boom to tilt her.

To make things worse after arriving in the starting area their #3 genoa went up incorrectly and had to be taken down minutes before the start. With all that distractions we were the first boat to the ocean side of the line at the gun with the J105 Loki a little behind and to our leeward. HT was noticeably late on the shore side of the line. We decided that we would start with our #1 with the wind speed in the high teens close hauled and from the northeast. In the first 10 to 15 miles Hot Ticket managed to match speed with us, but we made every opportunity to point as high as we could so we could sail into the gulf stream. Loki soon fell back and we were the farthest right in our fleet. We started getting lifted and continued to get out farther right. About 20 miles up we were heavy in the Gulf Stream with the miserable 8 foot pounding waves that accompanied it. On the conveyor we got nearly a 2 knot kick that catapulted us ahead of everyone in the PHRF fleet including Ticket. By the time we reached the end of the 40 mile course the other J120 was nearly 4 miles behind us. At the end we were headed but made the finish line without tacking. The boats behind had to tack 4 times to stay off the beach."
  
Of note, the Wirth Munroe Memorial Yacht Race has been held each of the last 55 years on the first Friday in December, co-sponsored by The Sailfish Club of Florida and the Cruising Club of America.  First raced in 1957, the invitational competition was organized by Richard Bertram (famous for creating the Bertram Yachts line of powerboats) to remember Miami-based yacht designer Wirth Munroe, whose renowned craft included "Comanche" (the Columbia 33) and the 30’ Sea Sailer class. Originally contested from Miami north to Palm Beach as a warmup to the SORC, the course has now been shortened to start from Fort Lauderdale. Over the years winners of the race have included Ted Turner, the billionaire CNN cable news media mogul-- also famous for racing the 12 meter COURAGEOUS in the America's Cup and winning his first SORC on the Ranger 37 MUNEQUITA.    Read more on CARINTHIA'S blog here.   For more Wirth Munroe Race sailing results.