J/111 KONTIKI V Wins!(Key West, FL)- Yes, it is possible for the Caribbean trade winds to serve up a fifth (or ninth if you include practice days) straight day of nearly postcard, chamber of commerce conditions. Competitors certainly wished there may be more breeze, but one can hardly argue with a benign 6-11 knots of breeze from the SSW getting fed by an impending cold front from the NW coming across the Gulf of Mexico.
With
an early harbor start (8:15am!!), the fleet headed out to their
respective three race courses to find a nice, gentle southwest breeze
awaiting them with not a cloud in the sky and the sun beating down on
everyone for over a week. SPF 99.999?? Don't know if there's anything
near as strong as anyone wanted for sun protection, but anything other
than clay or white paste may not have been enough for some fair-skinned
sailors. In fact, we observed several Canadian sailors/ photographers
who were a bit "red", nearly lobster-like cooked but clearly having a
great time (we're betting that pain-killers worked great for them)! Fog
early did not help, of course.The sailing Friday was not unlike any of the other days the past week. While the wind was persistently shifting right and oscillating, hitting the right or left corners was not going to work--e.g. not a good "play". Large streaks worked their way down the course, middle left or middle right and if you hooked into them you'd experience significant gains on anyone off into a corner. Classic day, classic sailing and even more fun as the breeze started to feed a front that was starting to come in from the NW.
For Division 1 course, IRC 1 Class saw Jim Bishop's WHITE GOLD finish fifth after getting an uncharacteristic score of 5-8 on the last day. Peter Cunningham finished strong with a 2-4 with his Cayman Islands team aboard the J/122 GAMBLER/ POWERPLAY to end up just behind Jim's WHITE GOLD for a sixth overall.
For
the J/105s, it was pretty clear that Brian Keane's team on SAVASANA
were not only dialed up for speed but were dialed into the wind as
well. Sailing to double bullets on Friday simply sealed the deal for
Brian's team to win by 15 points over Damian Emery's ECLIPSE, perhaps
one of the largest margins anyone has ever won a Key West J/105 class
win. Third was WASABI sailed by Adam Rosen and Jeff Marks with 55
points. Fourth was Tom Coates on MASQUERADE just one point back and
fifth was Gerrit Schulze on MAX POWER with 58 points!! Close finish and
great regatta for the top five boats overall.
Who
would ever guess that another baby-boomer (like Brian above) would
seriously kick some big booty in a one-design keelboat class and do so
in the most gracious, yachtsman-like manner possible. No question that
Glenn Darden and his team from Texas were in a class by themselves,
winning 2 of the last three races and taking home the bacon without a
challenge from any of the other teams, winning the J/80 class by 11
points. Second was a real donnybrook and Jeff Brown's team from San
Diego's J/WORLD SAN DIEGO TEAM showed their tail-feathers to the rest of
the J/80 fleet, getting two seconds in the last two races. Sailing one
of their best regattas in awhile was Mike Sudofsky on BOB DYLAN third,
fourth was Chris Bulger on GOOSE from Buzzards Bay and fifth was Nigel
Brownett and Ron Buzil on VAYU 2.
The
PHRF A Class was an extremely competitive regatta, easily the closest
"delta" for the any of the fleets sailing off Key West. At the end of
the last race it was still anyone's guess who would win overall. After a
very even start, the fleet took off and seemingly everyone "shadowed"
each other around the race track. In the first windward leg of the last
race (when it all counts, of course) the great yacht KONTIKI V, the
J/111 sailed by Jim Sminchak's team from Cleveland, OH, somehow managed
to find a "crab pot", catch it, stop, go head to wind, tack, go
backwards, yet still round the first windward mark just in front of
their nemesis, the J/109 RUSH sailed by Bill Sweetser. It was a crazy
day. It was a goofy day, perhaps for many. Nevertheless, the 111
managed to sail cleanly for the balance of the race, stretched out in
front of their competitors and win the regatta with a 2-3 on the last
day. Bill's team on the J/109 RUSH sailed a great regatta to get second,
fourth was Doug Curtiss's beautiful J/124 WICKED sailed by Rodney and
Alan Johnstone on the team.The J/95s in PHRF 2 had a fun series. At the end, Ed Palm and his Detroit (Day'twah, as they say) team on STILL CRAZY won with Terry McKenna on FINN in second and Trudie Ficks on SEVENTH HEAVEN in third.
The J/24s RULE!! 35 years and going strong. What a great time they had. Small fleet? Sure. Nevertheless they had a ball cruising around the race track and had a lot of good races with eachother. BLAH BLAH BLAH sailed by Mark Milnes won to be the top J/24 followed by Evalena Worthington on FREYA and third was Matt Mullan on FLYING WASP.
Photo credits- Tim Wilkes- www.timwilkes.com and Billy Black- www.billyblack.com and Sharon Green- UltimateSailing.com
For more Key West Race Week sailing results:
http://www.premiere-racing.com