(Palm Beach, FL)- The Sailfish Club of Florida's 63rd Annual Wirth M.
Munroe Ocean Race is set for Friday, December 6th. In 2018, the race
added a 40-mile course called "The Sprint", from Fort Lauderdale to Palm
Beach, which complemented the existing 60.0nm Miami-to-Palm Beach
track, known as "The Classic". Last year, five boats entered The Sprint
race and 23 raced on The Classic course. The Sprint will start off Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, while The Classic will start off Government Cut in Miami Beach. Both courses will finish off the Palm Beach Inlet. All crews will be welcome at the Sailfish Club’s legendary Rum Punch reception, buffet dinner and awards ceremony. The Classic Course will be scored as part of the SORC's "Islands in the Stream" series, which includes the Miami-Nassau Race, the Lauderdale-Key West Race, the Miami-Havana Race and the Pineapple Cup from Miami to Montego Bay. The Sprint Course will not be scored as part of the series.
First sailed in 1957, the race begins the winter ocean racing circuit in South Florida. The course presents challenging conditions as yachts must consider the vagaries of the Gulf Stream and the passing of the season’s first frontal systems. In 1957, members of the Florida Station of the Cruising Club of America, led by Dick Bertram, decided to sponsor a race from Miami to Palm Beach and to hold it in early December as racing yachts from the north had arrived by then in preparation for the Southern Ocean Racing Conference held in January and February. In 2016 the Club partnered with the Storm Trysail Club. After the race, the sailors finish the evening with a world-class awards banquet at the Sailfish Club of Florida.
There are a number of J/Teams that are looking forward to their first winter blast up the spectacular, cobalt-blue, Gulf Stream. In the ORC A Class, Seth Hall & Tom Pollack's J/124 MARISOL from Newport Harbor Yacht Club in Newport Beach, CA will be taking on a very mixed class of the globe-girdling Mills 68 PROSPECTOR down to a Farr 40!
In the ORC B Class, Joe Brito's J/121 INCOGNITO from Newport, RI and Chris Lewis's J/44 KENAI from Seabrook, TX will be taking on another kaleidoscope of sailboats ranging from a GP 26 to an old Aerodyne 38.
The PHRF A Class includes Tom Anderson & Hanson Bratton's J/120 KAIROS from Bayview Yacht Club in Birmingham, MI. Then, in PHRF B Class Bradley Stowers's J/92 HILLBILLY from Indian River Yacht Club in Melbourne, FL will be up against a raft of cruisers like a Little Harbor 54, Baltic 38DP, and Jeanneau 479. In PHRF 7 class is John Kearn's J/88 LOOSE CANNON from Castaways Sailing Club in Jupiter Island, FL.
For more Wirth Munroe Race sailing information and scoring Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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