Spirited One-Design Racing in J/70s, J/88s, J/111s
(Key West, FL)- Storm Trysail Club’s first year at hosting the famous
Quantum Key West Race Week was certainly a trial by fire. With an army
of hard-working volunteers, plus the capable leadership of John Fisher
and Bill Canfield, and the support of Quantum Sails Group, the STC team
was able knock out nine-plus races for virtually every fleet in what
proved to be remarkably difficult sailing conditions over the five
days. In fact, the sailing was epic all week, with enough wind to force
a cancellation of all racing on Tuesday due to a gorgeous sunny day
with steady 35 kts registered at Sand Key Light, and closing out the
week with even more fresh-to-frightening sailing conditions on Friday
with winds in the 20-35 kts range.
Amongst the J/Teams, there were some extraordinary performances in the
one-design classes. In the J/111s, Peter Wagner’s crew from San
Francisco, CA sailed SKELETON KEY to an emphatic victory and was crowned
J/111 Midwinter Champion, surprising even themselves since it was their
first time racing Key West. In the J/70s, Carlo Alberini’s CALVI
NETWORK did what many thought was impossible, by winning the massive,
highly competitive class for the second year in a row. Then, also
sailing their first Key West as a team, Mike Bruno’s J/88 WINGS won
their class in a rough & tumble duel for the top three slots to take
the inaugural J/88 Midwinter Championship.
In the handicap world, it was tough sledding for the J/125 DOUBLE
TROUBLE sailed by Peter Krueger’s team from San Francisco, but they
managed a third in IRC 2 class. Over in ORC 1 class, the dueling J/122s
fought it out to the finish, but Robin Team’s TEAMWORK pulled off an
amazing “four-peat”, to win for the fourth time at Key West! Then,
wonder of wonders, the J/80 family one-design racer turned offshore
handicap crusher, saw Henry DeGroot’s WIRED sail to a 10 point victory
over an ORC2 class that included extreme sportboats like the GP 26s and
Farr 280s. Here is how it all went down over the course of the five
days.
DAY ONE
The regatta got off to a rousing start on the “City of Key West Day”
with strong winds welcoming the 133 boats in 12 classes and organizers
getting in three races on all three divisions.
While the tourists enjoyed Martin Luther King Holiday by strolling Duval
Street, sailors from 16 countries took to the waters off the
southernmost point of the United States and found ideal conditions-
northeast winds that exceeded 20 knots for Race 1 and diminished
slightly for the subsequent starts when the sun broke through and
brought out the azure seas so famous in Key West.
It was a bumpy day on the water with three to four foot waves rolling
through the course areas, giving a challenge for all teams.
Peter Wagner, a first-time skipper in Key West made an impressive debut,
winning all three races in J/111 class - earning the “City of Key West
Boat of the Day” honors aboard SKELETON KEY. Wagner (Atherton, CA) is a
San Francisco Bay sailor and is accustomed to the big breeze.
"That's our home turf so these are conditions we are certainly very
familiar with. That said, this venue is very different from San Fran,"
said Wagner, who had another Bay area sailor - Seadon Wisjen - aboard as
tactician.
Wagner took delivery of his boat last May and this is only the fifth
regatta for his team. He called Key West Race Week a "legendary regatta"
and admitted he's been remiss in not previously attending.
"We got off the line clean and stayed in phase. We didn't try to make it
too complicated," Wagner said. "We're not going to get too excited
about one day. It's a long regatta and I'm sure the other boats will
have their moments."
In
the J/70 class, Carlo Alberini (Pesaro, Italy) and the CALVI NETWORK
crew picked up where they left off last year- posting a pair of bullets
and taking third in the other race. CALVI NETWORK captured class honors
at Quantum Key West 2015 and earned Boat of the Week honors as a result.
Tim Healy and his team on HELLY HANSEN got the gun in Race 3 to move
into second place, five points astern of CALVI NETWORK and just one
ahead of FLOJITO Y COOPERANDO (Julian Fernandez Neckelman, Mexico City).
It is no surprise to see those three boats atop the leader board since
they finished 1-2-3 at the J/70 World Championship.
"It was a great day on the water. I'm glad we got three races in... real
happy the race committee decided to do that," said Healy, whose team
overcame a broken spinnaker halyard. "It was breezy and a real bumpy - a
lot more than I remember. We're pleased with how we did on the first
day."
And the Corinthian Boat of the Day winner was Luis Bugallo's J/70
MARNATURA from Vigo, Spain, on the strength of earning a 13-12-13
scorecard in the 54-boat class.
Some
of the closest racing of the day came in the two ORC classes competing
on Division 3. TEAMWORK and ORION, a pair of J/122's, chased each other
around the course all day and wound up separated by just one point.
Skipper Robin Team steered TEAMWORK to results of 1-2-1 while
counterpart Paul Milo (Leesburg, VA) led ORIO to a 2-1-2 score line.
"Just as expected, we really mixed it up with the Orion boys," said
Team, who hails from Lexington, NC. "We had a real nice tacking duel on
the last upwind leg of the third race."
Heavy air favored the J/122s as most of the other designs in the class
(Evelyn 32, B-32, Tartan 101) were lighter. "Both our boat and crew love
big breeze," Team said.
The ORC system also seemed to be working well among the sportboats in
ORC 2, where Henry DeGroot's venerable J/80 WIRED was racing against a
fleet of new sportboats and managed to take second for the day!
Mike Bruno on WINGS got the gun in Race 3 after placing second in Race 2 and led the eight-boat J/88 class by three points.
Tuesday’s forecast for big breeze of 25+ knots held true, with the fleet
enduring a 2 hour postponement and races canceled for the day by 1130
hours. Despite the spectacular, sunny weather, it was truly howling
offshore, with the proverbial dogs getting blown off chains in 35+ kt
winds along the beaches.
DAY THREE
Wednesday started well. During his morning weather briefing, Ed Baird
alerted the assembled sailors about the importance of Wednesday’s
racing.
“More than likely, there’s going to be three races today. That means the
regatta is going to be more than halfway complete by the time you come
off the water,” Baird said. “Like I tell my kids with their junior
regattas, this is moving day. This is when all the action happens. Some
boats are going to fall off the cliff while others are going to climb up
the standings.”
Baird’s words proved prophetic and many teams did indeed make a major
move on Mount Gay Rum Day as multiple races were contested in perfect
15-18 knot northeasterly winds that held steady enough to provide the
closest race action of the week.
WIRED,
a J/80 owned by Henry DeGroot of Newton, MA, was the slowest-rated boat
in an ORC 2 class comprised primarily of sport boats (three Farr 280s,
three GP 26s). However, DeGroot and his team sailed quite well so far,
winning three races and placing second in three others.
“I’ll admit it’s very helpful to have a favorable rating, but we are
trying to sail the boat as well as it can possibly sailed and I think we
are doing that,” said DeGroot, who holds a seven point lead over the GP
26 Rattle N Rum (Mike Beasley, Annapolis, MD. “Our best finishes have
been due to good starts. After the first couple legs, the other boats
get away from us and it basically becomes a race against the clock. This
is my third straight Key West with this team and we work very well
together. We pretty much had an error-free day.”
Skipper Peter Wagner and the SKELETON KEY team further stretched out the
lead in J/111 class. Two bullets on Wednesday gave the San Francisco
Bay area boat a total of five for the regatta and a comfortable 11-point
lead over SPACEMAN SPIFF.
“The
Skeleton Key guys start well and are very consistent. They’re also darn
fast,” said Rob Ruhlman (Cleveland, OH), skipper of SPACEMAN SPIFF. “If
we’re going to do something we need to do it tomorrow.”
In an attempt to get the best bang for the buck value in races, Division
2 P.R.O. Dave Brennan actually completed four races today, which was
enough to trigger a discard in the scorelines for the J/70 classes.
Italian skipper Carlo Alberini’s CALVI NETWORK posted scores of 2-3-1-3
on to maintain the lead in the J/70’s, the largest fleet in the regatta
with 54 boats. Branko Brcin is calling tactics for the defending regatta
champion, which now has a low score of eight points and leads the
reigning J/70 World Champ FLOJITO Y COOPERANDO (Julian Fernandez
Neckelmann, Mexico City) by three points. RELATIVE OBSCURITY (Peter
Duncan, Rye, NY) and HELLY HANSEN (Tim Healy, Newport, RI) are still in
the mix with 14 and 19 points, respectively.
“There are a lot of very good boats and very talented sailors in this
field. We prefer strong wind so we are enjoying the racing here this
year,” Alberini said. “The game is far from finished. Tomorrow is a new
day and we must keep our focus.”
The ORC 1 class is close; where J/122 sister ships ORION (Paul Milo,
Leesburg, VA) and TEAMWORK (Robin Team, Lexington, NC) are battling
every race and are only two points apart.
Skipper Mike Bruno (Armonk, NY) and the crew of WINGS stayed on top of
the J/88 class by closing with consecutive second place finishes on
Wednesday. Rob Fear is tactician on WINGS, which leads Deviation by
three points.
“It has been really close sailing. Wings sails very consistently and
very fast, which keeps us on our toes,” said DEVIATION skipper Iris
Vogel (New Rochelle, NY), who sandwiched a pair of bullets around a
seventh on Wednesday. “We had one bad race today and we cannot afford to
do that. We need to be more consistent.”
DAY FOUR
It was coming down to the wire for several classes. Three more races on
all three courses were sailed on Thursday in solid 10-14 knot winds that
started out of the northeast and slowly clocked around to the east, all
per prediction.
The 10 classes on Divisions 1, 2 and 3 had completed nine races.
Division 1 and Division 3 courses intended to hold one start on Friday
to finish a 10-race series. Division 2 managers had the option of
running two races for the J/70 classes.
HELLY
HANSEN skipper Tim Healy was hoping for two races on Friday since he
stood second in J/70 class, 10 points behind CALVI NETWORK. That was not
insurmountable in a 54-boat fleet, although skipper Carlo Alberini and
his crew had not finished worse than sixth so far.
"Those guys are going really well so they would have to make a mistake,"
Healy said. "In a fleet this size, anything can happen. We were over
early in the last race last year and lost the series, so you never
know." The J/70 fleet attracts serious talent; for example Brian
Keane's SAVASANA has among its crew World Match Racing Champion Taylor
Canfield from St Thomas, US Virgin Islands. With that kind of talent in
the top ten, anything can happen.
Healy and his HELLY HANSEN team found another gear on Thursday, winning
two of three races with a runner-up result in the other. "We changed
some things with our tuning and rig to account for the short chop and it
really helped. The boat felt really good today and we were going well
as far as boat speed," he said."
TEAMWORK and ORION, a pair of J/122's, had been battling all week and
were just three points apart going into the 10th and final race. Skipper
Robin Team (Lexington, NC) steered TEAMWORK to victory in six races,
placing second in the other three. Skipper Paul Milo (Leesburg, VA) and
ORION won the three races TEAMWORK did not and finished second in all
the others.
"It's been a dogfight just like we expected. Every tack, every gybe,
every mark rounding - we are within feet of Orion," said Team, a
multi-time class winner in Key West. "We've gotten to know the guys on
Orion and they're an awesome group to sail against."
Team credited his foredeck crew comprised of son Coleman and Matt
Welborn for the two wins on Thursday. "We're making our gains on the
downwind legs. We just seem to be able to carry the kite deeper into the
leeward mark," he said.
Milo admitted it would be tough to make up three points in one race,
although Teamwork could have some sort of breakdown. "That's an
incredibly well-sailed boat and the fact we're chasing them around the
course, and sometimes the other way around, is very encouraging. We've
had a lot of fun competing against Teamwork this week," he said.
Skipper
Mike Bruno (Armonk, NY) and his crew on WINGS held a four-point lead
over skipper Iris Vogel and the DEVIATION team in J/88 class, so it
would come down to tomorrow's result to determine a winner.
Meanwhile, WIRED increased its lead in ORC 2 class with skipper Henry
DeGroot steering the J/80 to a 3-2-1 score line. WIRED now had 15
points, six better than the GP 26 Rattle N Rum (Mike Beasley, Annapolis,
MD), so it was not not over yet in that class either.
In the J/111 class, skipper Peter Wagner (Atherton, CA) had sailed
SKELETON KEY to an insurmountable 14.5 point lead over SPACEMAN SPIFF
(Rob Ruhlman, Cleveland, OH).
DAY FIVE
Lightning, thunder and torrential rain opened the final day, with
organizers debating if the conditions were safe to proceed with two
races to finish the J/70’s in Division 2 and one for all other classes.
With several titles at stake, but bad weather threatening, this was not
an easy call. Forecaster George Carras from Commander’s Weather
described the moist tropical conditions in the atmosphere as “juicy and
unstable,” with a chance for more thunderstorm cells, but with nothing
on the radar the fleet headed out for one more day of battle.
When they got out the harbor and headed into the southerly, the
forecasted 8-15 knots turned out to be 20+ and building, with monstrous
seas enhanced by the south-flowing ebb tide, especially in the Division 1
pre-start course areas. These seas hampered the Race Committees in
their efforts to set marks and establish their race courses, so the
PRO’s pulled the plug for these classes for the day. But racing
proceeded on the Division 2 and 3 areas where the ebb tide was not as
strong and produced nothing more serious than some OCS calls for some
teams.
“It was wild out there. For the last couple of legs, the wind was over
30 knots and the waves were real big. We hit 16 knots surfing downwind
with the kite,” said Robin Team, skipper of the ORC 1 class champion
TEAMWORK. A win in this final race gave the North Carolina boat a total
of seven bullets for the week with a low score of 13 points, five better
than fellow J/122 ORION (Paul Milo, Leesburg, VA).
“It was a great week with incredible conditions and we’re thrilled with
the result,” said Team, who has now captured class honors at Key West
Race Week four times. “Our entire crew worked really well all week.
Jonathan is a master tactician and consistently put us in the right
position.”
Elsewhere on Division 3, skipper Henry DeGroot and his crew on WIRED
completed an impressive victory in ORC 2 class by winning Race 10.
Simona Pasqua served as tactician on WIRED, which won five races and
finished second in four others in totaling 16 points
“We are surprised and delighted. We have to thank the people who put
together ORC for the great number they gave us. We were very happy with
how our rating worked out,” said DeGroot, a resident of Newton, MA.
“This is our third straight Key West with the same crew. It’s always a
fantastic regatta and we love coming here, but winning certainly puts a
golden tinge on things.”
Four of the ORC 2 entries elected not to compete on Friday and DeGroot
admitted his crew had never raced in such severe conditions. “Today was
about surviving. There were a lot of gear breakages and other issues on
our course and we just had to find a way to get the boat across the
finish line,” he said.
Mike Bruno and the WINGS team led at the end of each day’s racing en
route to topping the J/88 class. Bruno, from Armonk, NY, won Race 3 then
finished second in five of the last six starts. This was Bruno’s first
trip to Key West as skipper of his own boat. It was only his fourth
event since taking delivery of the J/88. “This is one of the world’s
great regattas so I’m pretty excited,” Bruno said. “We had real good
boat speed and I think the key was we were real consistent.”
Behind
Bruno’s WINGS team was Iris Vogel’s DEVIATION, she took the silver on a
tie-breaker on 33 pts over Tod Patton/ Jeff Johnstone’s BLONDIE 2. Rob
Butler’s TOUCH2PLAY RACING from Canada was just one point back in 4th
place with 34 pts, finally having gotten his mojo going winning three of
the last six races. Fifth was Ryan Ruhlman’s SPACEMAN SPIFF from
Cleveland, OH. The BLONDIE 2 dry-sailed at Truman Annex all week
using a simple single-point lift system. “It was easier than launching a
J/24 at Sail Newport,” said co-owner Jeff Johnstone. “We’d wanted to
have the boat plugged in overnight to charge the engine batteries
(BLONDIE2 has the new Oceanvolt electric propulsion system) and
dockspace was already booked in town, so Herb Reese and Coffin Marine
got us set-up for the week.”
Skipper Carlo Alberini and the crew of CALVI NETWORK also led from start
to finish in capturing the J/70 overall class win for the second
straight year in Key West. Branko Brcin called tactics for Alberini,
who got the gun in five races and finished second or third in four
others to finish with an impressive 15 points.
“I
come back every year to Key West because the regatta is so good –
always great wind and excellent race management,” said Alberini, who
previously raced a Farr 40 and Melges 32 here. “I have no words to
describe how happy I am. This is just fantastic.”
Alberini (Pesaro, Italy) praised the performance of his crew, which also
included Sergio Blosi (jib trimmer) and Karlo Hmeljak (main trimmer);
“My crew is amazing. I am so lucky to have three very talented sailors.
Sailing is a team sport and the best helmsman in the world cannot
without a strong crew,” said Alberini, who earned the Quantum Sails Boat
of the Day honor today. Skipper Peter Duncan (Rye, NY) and the
RELATIVE OBSCURITY team were runner-up in J/70 class with 27 points,
four ahead of Tim Healy (Newport, RI) and the HELLY HANSEN crew. The
balance of the top five included Fernandez’s FLOJITO Y COOPERANDO in 4th
place (with World Champion Bill Hardesty as tactician) 36 pts back and
in 5th position was Flip Wehrheim who sailed John Brim’s RIMETTE with
USA Match Race Womens’ Champion Steph Roble as tactician.
Skipper
Luis Bugallo and the Spanish sailors on MARNATURA were the top
Corinthian entry, finishing seventh. His crew included Fernando Campos
Marquez (spinnaker trimmer), Enrique Freire Faria (jib trimmer), Jose
Luis Freire (tactician) and Gerardo Prego Menor (bow) crewed aboard
MARNATURA, which earned the Quantum Corinthian Boat of the Week award.
Second in Corinthians was Rob Britt’s HOT MESS from Tampa, FL and third
was Tim Molony’s JOUST from Annapolis, MD.
Peter
Wagner and the SKELETON KEY crew made a successful debut at Quantum Key
West, winning the J/111 class in dominant fashion. SKELETON KEY, which
does most of its racing on San Francisco Bay, also reveled in the big
breeze while notching seven bullets and a pair of seconds.
“I really enjoyed my first Key West. We had great conditions and it was a
really well-run event. The race committee did a fantastic job,” said
Wagner, who hails from Atherton, CA. “We’re just really fortunate that
we managed to sail consistently and we had a lot of fun doing it. We got
off the line well and Seadon did a great job of managing things
tactically on the course. We had really solid boat speed throughout.”
For
more Quantum Key West Race Week sailing information
(Newport, RI)- “The electric J/88 leads the way to 21st Century Solar
Sailing,” says Max Williamson, a Sailors for the Sea Board member. Max
continues his commentary and perspective on sailing the J/88 ELECTRA,
“The wind is solar-powered. Quite literally, wind is convection
currents created by sun heating the earth. Now 21st century solar
technology allows sailors to harness the sun, as well as the wind, to
move us through the ocean."
Solar and Hydro Charging
(Houston, TX)- The J/70 North Americans have been the premier event with
North America's top amateur and professional sailors competing for the
top prize! It's a great opportunity to compete with the best of the
best on Galveston Bay. The ideal venue for a J/70! The title sponsor,
TORQEEDO, is also sponsoring the “Legacy” family awards for teams that
have two or more family members on board! 
A
prime “practice regatta” is the Shoe Regatta on May 14-15th! Come down
the weekend before and race the Shoe Regatta! Who knows, you might
just win a new pair of shoes to wear the following weekend at the J/70
North Americans. Either way it would be a great opportunity to tune up
for the J/70 NA's! 
