J/122 PUGWASH Tied for IRC2 Lead, J/125 STARK RAVING MAD Dominates PHRF 1
(Key West, FL)- After a torrential downpour during the daytime Sunday that marked the passing of a typical cold front across the Keys, Sunday night broke into a spectacular star-studded evening, with good promise for Monday's racing. Sure enough, dawn broke with a gorgeous sunrise and a nice wind that ultimately settled in from North to Northeast (depending on the course) blowing 5-12 knots.
On IRC2 course, the furthest West from Key West and down near Sand Key, the day started light but the PRO Ken Legler managed to get two races off for the fleet. David Murphy's J/122 PUGWASH sailed to a 2-1 finish to be tied for the lead. Like many of the other courses, the NNE winds tend to favor going towards shore to get the backing puffs coming off land...going left appeared to help many of the leaders on all courses, including Division 1 where PUGWASH led the fleet home in the last race of the day.
The J/105s saw some very competitive racing and very tight mark rounding situations, especially at the first weather mark. Sailing on the Division 2 course, just off the middle of the island, the competitors had to contend with winds shifting at least 30 degrees with significant changes in velocity from the NNE. In the first race, Travis Weisleder racing LUCKY DOG won the first race, just beating out Brian Keane's SAVASANA. Just behind them was San Francisco's Scooter Simmons sailing BLACKHAWK. In the second race, there was a changing of the guard to some degree with Brian Keene's SAVASANA winning and Patrick Eudy's BIG BOOTY finishing second followed by Ed Palm's TENACIOUS. After the dust settled, Brian Keane on SAVASANA is winning by 3 points with a 2-1 over Patrick Eudy's BIG BOOTY with a 4-2 and Scooter Simmons on BLACKHAWK wtih a 3-5.
Going around the same race track as the J/105s were the J/80 Midwinters competitors. Establishing an early lead was Will Welles, from Newport, racing their new boat RASCAL. With a 1-3 they are leading by 3 points over the Swedish team sailed by Magnus Tyreman with Jay Lutz aboard as tactician- they have a 6-1. Sailing two solid, consistent races despite the rapidly changing conditions was England's Neil Martin racing JAMMY DODGER to a 3-5. Other class leaders like Glenn Darden on EL TIGRE, John Storck on RUMOR, Kerry Klingler on LIFTED and Jeff Johnstone on LITTLE FEAT were still sorting out tactical challenges from the starts, windward legs and certain mark roundings.
Over on the Division 3, "Stock Island course", they started out with a nice breeze and also got in two races. In PHRF 1, Jim Madden's STARK RAVING MAD simply took off from the port end of the starting line on the first race and sailed away with the first race, smartly playing the left hand side of the course. They repeated that effort and won the second race, too, for a 1-1 record to dominate PHRF 1. The two J/120s, Rick Wesslund's ELO OCASO and Bill Terry's TAMPA GIRL had a rough go of it in the oscillating winds with long wind streaks.
In PHRF 2, Bill Sweetser's J/109 RUSH is winning their class by virtue of having a 1-3. And, Steve Thurston's J/29 MIGHTY PUFFIN is hanging in there with a 5-4 to be in 5th overall.
In PHRF 3, the three J/24s are having fun, pretty close racing. Mark Milne's BLAH BLAH BLAH is in second with a 3-2 record and just behind is Naroski/LeBlanc's NOJOE in third with a 2-4.
Tuesday promises to be another nice day of sailing. Stay tuned! For regatta information and sailing results, please go to: http://www.premiere-racing.com/KW10_Results/kw10_results_reports.htm
