(Ft Lauderdale, FL)- This year's Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Race
certainly lived up to the pre-race caveat of "Be Prepared." The light
VMG running of the past couple of years was a distant memory, as a stout
northwesterly that built overnight and brought the fleet down and
around the curve in rapid fashion, but made them work hard for the quick
trip. When they reached the island, a slew of familiar names graced the
top of the leader board.David Bond’s gorgeous maroon-colored J/105 LOKI from Miami, a past class winner, laid claim to the PHRF B class title. LOKI was right on the edge at the start, took control of the class at the beginning and never looked back. LOKI beat the Tripp 33 Main Squeeze for the class win, missing the PHRF Overall fleet win by a just few minutes but taking 2nd Overall silver.
In PHRF A Class, the heralded duel between Robin Team’s J/122 TEAMWORK, a past class and overall champion in the race, and Eddie Frederick’s J/111 FIREBALL lived up to expectations. Their class encountered fast-reaching conditions for the first half of the race and, after turning past the “elbow” of the Keys, the sailing turned into somewhat of a reach/ power-beat waterline adventure for the latter half. Initially, the FIREBALL gang loved the fast reaching in the beginning, however, as the race wore on the experienced TEAMWORK crew ground away to finish just 13 minutes in front but not enough to beat their stablemates on FIREBALL on handicap. Consequently, FIREBALL took corrected honors with this match-up by just 2+ minutes and grabbing the silverware for 3rd overall. TEAMWORK settled for fourth in class. Sailing Photo credits- John Payne. For the SORC Ft Lauderdale Key West Facebook page For more SORC Ft Lauderdale Key West sailing information
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