| 24.Jan.05 | It was not a pleasant trip home. We left our condo at 6:45 for a 7:45 a.m. flight from Key West. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale on time and took an earlier flight to Philadelphia in hopes of beating the snow storm. But as luck would have it, the snow started before we arrived and several hours later they closed the airport. So we hopped over to Amtrak and took the train to Providence. We arrived in Providence at nearly midnight took a cab to the airport with a crazy cab driver, picked up the car and finally arrived home at 1:20 a.m.. Now let's review the bidding. Earlier, I gave you eight names (I can't count – said seven at the time) as candidates for the top ten. I also predicted that one of them would probably not make it into the top ten, leaving three places for boats that I did not pick. Well seven of my eight made it (my Canadian friends being the exception). The boats that managed to fill positions three, four, and five were USA 332, skippered by Jimmy Johnstone, INVISIBLE, skippered by Class President Tom Carruthers, and TIBURON, skippered by Steve Stroub. Special congratulations go to those three, especially Steve (the other two are non-amateur owners and highly likely suspects). I also said I would provide some information on the sails the boats were using. On each line below, I give the number of boats using those sails predominately (at least two of the three sails), the number finishing in each quartile, and in the case of the first quartile, the positions. North: 13 boats, 2 in first quartile (1,5) / 4 in second quartile / 3 in third / 4 in fourth Ullman: 12 boats, 5 (2,6,8,9,10) / 3 / 2 / 2 Quantum: 5 boats, 0 / 2 / 2 / 1 UK: 5 boats, 1 (3) / 0 / 3 / 1 Doyle: 4 boats, 1 (7) / 1 / 0 / 2 Elliot/Pattison: 1 boat, 1 (4) / 0 / 0 / 0 Don't read too much into these numbers. My observation is that the mix is much more diverse than it has been in the past (more equally distributed among the sail makers). And remember most of all that the sailors make the boats go fast to a much greater extent than the sails. After my last commentary, I learned of a few more situations of contact between boats, but I think I am still correct that there was nothing major and all the boats finished the regatta. I also learned that there was some discontent about owners who have not yet learned some of the more important rules of racing (RRS). In particular, there was barging at the starting marks and people who do not understand their rights (or lack of rights) at the leeward gate marks. We need to work on that in the future. A few owners approached me to say that they were completely blown away by the talent in the Key West fleet. This is not surprising considering that mostly only the best of the local fleets come to Key West. It is much more difficult to score well here than in a North Americans, because there are no easy marks. But universally, I think that the owners will say they learned quite a bit by coming to Key West and will be better sailors when they return home. That's it for now. I'll try to post some photos and links to professional photos at http://j105.org/KWRW2005. Talk to you again during Block Island Race Week. N. |
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| 21.Jan.05 | Day five was a beautiful sailing day. Not only did we have more breeze than predicted, but we had sun and temps in the 70s. Who could ask for a better finale. The wind moved W and the RC set a five leg course to 275 at 1.3 miles. The pressure averaged 10-11 knots. A good number of the fleet were over early and were called back to re-round the ends. The shifts were moderate and it was mostly a boatspeed type of race, although the right seemed to be slightly favored on the first upwind leg. MASQUERADE did not have to come out today, but she did and took her throwout in ninth place. SAVASANA won the day after being the last boat off the dock in the morning. Brian Keane must have been completing some big deal (he told me he manages to get in a half day of work in each day down here). He also told me that he has never set foot in a J/24 (as I told you in the prognostications), but was a big dinghy sailor earlier in his career. Second went to ECLIPSE today, but they had a p20 (20% penalty) which gave them 10 points for the day. PUFFIN had their best race of the series at three and FLAME finished strongly with a four. MASQERADE managed to stay out of double digits and won by 18 points (average 4.4 per race), but four boats clustered between 55 and 58 for positions two through five. In the category of Fun Awards, the Most Improved from Tuesday to Friday was JESTER with +8. They took an award and the $100 gift certificate. The best of the Newbies was GRINGO at 11. KINCSEM won Best of the Rest, MAX POWER won Five Aboard, ADDICTION won the Family prize, and BLUE MAX Mixed Gender. PLANET B (with a total of 305 years) won Greybeards. Unfortunately there was no award for the most years, but PAPERMOON had 320 total years aboard (a 53 year average). I'm writing this before the wrapup and awards, but I think most everybody had a good time during the Regatta. I know of only one collision and it was relatively minor. The gear failures on the first two days were also relatively minor, but a few chutes were lost. Not the end of the world. Hope most of the competitors will be back again next year along with a host of new Newbies from amongst the readers of this commentary. I'll be back on Monday with a wrap up commentary and more on the tale of the sails and a report card on my predictions for the week. (Hint: I'm smiling again.) Cheers, everybody. Thanks for reading! |
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| 20.Jan.05 | Day four was a little lighter yet. We managed two races, the first of which was reasonable and the second of which was, … well more later. They started us on time at 10 a.m. with the Melges 24s going first as usual. We are ten minutes behind them. The committee work is outstanding and they give all the flag work on the radio. Each countdown is given on the radio from ten seconds down to one. Both of the races were to 15 degrees magnetic with weather legs of 1.3 nautical miles (maybe a little short for us). The first race was conducted in an average of eight knots with four legs and the second was from zero to eight with five legs. PAPERMOON had its best race in the first race with a 30 and then in the second race we were over early, starting last, last to the weather mark, last to the leeward mark. Then we decided that we needed to minimize tacks and went right for the third leg. We banged the right corner and moved up to the middle of the fleet by the second weather mark with the greater pressure on the right. We gained a few more boats downwind and decided what was good for the second upwind was good for the third upwind. But the gods were not kind and the wind filled from the left and we were caught on the right, so we lost every boat that we had passed. I guess you could call the second race a bit of a crap shoot. Here is a quote from the Race Week News from this morning: "Carruthers, who runs a J/World school in San Diego, didn't do much sailboat racing the last four years while focusing on work and family. "I'm far higher than I expected to be," he said. "I would have been thrilled to be in the Top 10 here and ecstatic to finish Top 5. I'm not sure how I'll feel if we actually win this thing." Today INVISIBLE only managed an 11-25, while MASQUERADE added a 6-1. That dropped INVISIBLE into second for the regatta and MASQUERADE moved into an 11 point lead. BOLD FORBES got a bullet and a DNF for third after the throwout that accrued with the seventh race. Personal to MW, GW, JP, and JH -- sure do miss you guys. Wish you were here. |
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| 19.Jan.05 | It was the prototypical Key West day today (a Chamber of Commerce type of day). We had moderate breeze and sunny skies. They ran three races with all three with the weather mark at 1.3 miles to 040 degrees (20 degrees to the right of yesterday). The first two races were 4 legs and the final race was 5 legs. Everything went like clockwork with the first start at 10 a.m. and the last finish a little after 3 p.m. The first race had an average of 16 knots, the second had more like 14 knots, and the third race about 12 knots. The carpers among us wished for temps in the seventies, but it only made it into the high sixties today. This fleet is close! If you don't get a good start, you have little chance of working your way through the fleet. All the boats seem to arrive at the weather mark within a minute or so. The roundings are extremely close and sometimes five abreast. The leeward roundings are also very close with many boats trying to get through a gate that is only 5 boatlengths wide. The shifts seem to have no rhyme or reason and they are relatively moderate in direction. The separation between the top and the bottom is not that great. This is someone who is very much closer to the bottom than the top. For those who remember the Yellow Brag Flag from last year, it is taken out to the course by the leader of the regatta after each day. ZUNI BEAR took it the first day (based on their win last year), MASQUERADE the second day, and INVISIBLE (helmed by class president Tom Carruthers) will take it out Wednesday and Thursday. Today's racing brought three new winners, KINCSEM, driven by Chief Measurer Joerg Esdorn, ECLIPSE, driven by icon Damian Emery, and USA 332, driven by Jim Johnstone (Jeff's cousin and Rod's nephew). The west coast boats dropped off the pace a bit today in the lighter air. Tomorrow they are predicting 10-15 knots and Friday 5-10 knots. |
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| 18.Jan.05 | Sorry about that folks. Monday night whilst filing my commentary, the web site was down. Tuesday morning it was still down along with 20 other sites that I host. Uh oh! Here I am in Key West with minimal tools and my world is crashing in around me. After a few phone calls and a reboot of the server we were back on line, but of course by that time I'm on the boat getting ready for day 2 of carnage on the water. At least three masts came down yesterday, but none among the J/105 fleet. Certainly we had some kite damage and some tired crews, but it seemed like all 40 boats were ready for Tuesday. The wind on Tuesday was lighter than forecast, but they still put us in a postponement that lasted an hour and a half. All boats were sent out to race this time. When racing finally did start at 11:30 a.m., the winds were a manageable 20+ knots. The first course was set to 20 degrees (10 right of yesterday) with a weather leg of 1.5 miles and four legs. The second race was the same direction and distance, but with five legs. All racing is being conducted under the "I" flag, meaning that those starting early have to round the ends or the mid-line boat before restarting. In the first race SAVASANA was caught over early and did not restart. (With this much wind it is very hard to hear the radio.) In race two, three boats were over and did not restart. We saw GRINGO with a blown kite after race one, and they certainly were not the only ones. After two heavy days, the fleet is pretty beat up, especially those of us in the back of the pack. The leaders after day two are INVISIBLE, MASQUERADE, and RUM N JAVA. See the Premiere-Racing site for details. But I think all of us appreciated the sun today. Better than being up north in the snow! They are predicting NNE at 10-20 knots an 30 percent chance of showers tomorrow. Thursday and Friday looking good – sunny and moderate winds. We should get three races in tomorrow. |
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| 17.Jan.05 | Today the harbor start was postponed until noon and the first start was postponed until 1:30 due to high winds. When they finally did get racing started, four classes (including the Mumm 30s, the trimarans, and two PHRF classes) were kept home and had no sailing for the day. By the time we went out, the winds were from the North (10 degrees) and moderated to 18-22 knots. The course was five legs, finishing upwind. The fleet was not too aggressive starting out and there were no recalls. As a matter of fact there were sags in both halves of the split line. PAPERMOON had a poor start but took many sterns to get right and managed to get up with ZUNI BEAR, ECLIPSE, and KINCSEM at the first mark. MASQUERADE made mince meat of the rest of the fleet and led from wire to wire. Also doing very well were RUM N JAVA, and TIBURON. Dave Ullman and Farley Fonteneau ran the panel for the 105s after racing. They stressed the importance of de-powering and keeping the boat freed up in this much breeze. Their recommendation in 18+ knots is to keep the boat upright (15 degrees of heel) and depower by easing the jib sheet 1-2 inches, keeping the traveler centered, playing the fine tune on the main, with light vang tension. Both sails need to be well twisted and both Dave and Farley urged not to try to point. Keep the boat moving and make sure you are hitting your boat speed targets and not try to strap in the sails or point too much or flog the main. Guy Ballou (sailing with me on PAPERMOON) asked me to tell you that the "Annapolis Mafia" is doing extremely well in all the classes here in Key West and that he expected RUM N JAVA to take a first tomorrow. That is if there is racing tomorrow. They are predicting 5-10 knots more breeze on Tuesday. |
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| 16.Jan.05 | Nasty! The weather today for practice was overcast and the wind was blowing 20-25 knots from a northerly direction. But at least it was not raining. One of the 31 footers trashed its carbon fiber mast in one particular gust going downwind with their vang on hard. All the J/105s were out there practicing and there were more than a few spinnaker wraps and other things going wrong. But at the end of the day, all the 105s were back at their slips and ready for the start tomorrow. Those of us from New England were not unhappy to see our Patriots beating the Colts in the snow at the close of our day. It was in the 70's here so the bad weather did not seem quite so bad. All forty boats are now present and accounted for. Inspections went smoothly, but West Marine managed quite a few sales of flares, buckets, and flashlights courtesy of the inspection team. One team told about how they had collectively lost 80 pounds to participate in the event. Key West is fine motivation for losing weight! Tomorrow the weather forecast is for sunnier conditions, but still plenty of wind (N-NE near 25 knots). Only slightly less wind forecast for Tuesday. It promises to be a windy regatta week. Many thanks to Fleet #5 (Chicago) who provide two measurers (Bob Smith and Tom Falck) and the party organizer, Jon Weglarz. Hope we get more boats from Chicago next year so they can sail as well as enjoy the sailing milieu. I have already have heard from three boats coming next year who could not participate this year. |
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| 15.Jan.05 | The weather was not kind to those traveling down to Key West on Friday. There were storms up and down the east coast and those hoping to make it all the way by plane ended up in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale and had to rent cars to get all the way down here. In my case I arrived at the airport only 45 minutes before my flight time and then learned that the flight time had been moved up 15 minutes. So in the rush to make my flight I set off the alarm twice (and learned that you only get two chances). So at that point I was subject to a full body search and lost my Leatherman to airport security because I did not have time to check it. Then we were delayed in Philadelphia for an hour and circled around the Bahamas before landing in Orlando. After refueling, we arrived five hours late in Ft. Lauderdale, rented a car, and arrived just before midnight in Key West. Today the weather was overcast with good wind. We double threaded the inspections (two at a time) at the Conch Republic. There were a few minor problems with missing equipment, but everyone managed to comply with the rules. We finished up today's inspections at 5 p.m. with a couple of no-shows. PIPPIN apparently was having problems getting down from St. Pete, but we know of no other boats who are not here. Jon Weglarz organized a very successful party at Monty's Raw Bar, just across from where most of the boats are staying at the Historic Seaport. The weather prospects for the practice day tomorrow and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are very good. Tomorrow the predictions are 20-30 from the NNW and shifting to N on Monday with almost as much pressure. So the heavy air specialists are smiling. If memory serves, MASQUERADE and ZUNI BEAR gave us a clinic in heavy air last year. |
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| 10.Jan.05 | After picking nine of the top ten in the 52 boat NAC fleet, I would be a fool to try to repeat that performance as a prognosticator. So this time around I will give you the odds on favorites (in alphabetical order) to be in the top ten at Key West. I've only mentioned seven, since there are so many new boats this year and lots of "dark horses" who are bound to be up there with these "favorites". So here are my seven choices to be in the top ten (alpha order): BOLD FORBES (#523) -- Ed Cummins and Jack Franco placed second at the NAC and have won nearly everything out in SoCal in 2004. This is their first trip to Key West and the only newcomer that I've placed among the elite. KINCSEM (#317) -- Joerg Esdorn's team was nipping at the heels of BOLD FORBES at the NAC, just five points behind. This is the third time out for Joerg, the second with his own boat. He was second to ECLIPSE in the 2004 Season Championship Series in Fleet #6 and was the Block Island winner in 2003. He likes breeze. ECLIPSE (#50) -- I kidded the ECLIPSE team last year about having a lock on fourth place at Key West, but they dipped to 5th. But 4, 4, 4, 5 ain't bad against Key West competition. Don't be surprised if Damian Emery has them moving in the other direction this year. He has won the Fleet #6 Season Championship in four of the last five years and won Block Island in 2004. FLAME (#281) -- Jim Doane, Jr. is a Florida native and has finishes of 5, 3, 2, 3, and 6 under his belt. I picked him for a top ten at the NAC, but TWO black flags kept him out. If you haven't been to Key West before, don't expect any black flags. In fact, they don't do general recalls either (they will have individual recalls for the entire fleet if they have to). MASQUERADE (#17) -- Tom Coates has never missed a Key West Race Week since they started giving us a one-design start in 1999. His record is 6, 6, 6, 7, 5, 2. He always brings a top-notch team and will be contending for the top spot. He was top dog in the very competitive Newport Rolex fleet in July 2004 (which included the eventual NAC winner, HOSS). PLANTET B (#238) -- Robert Baker will have his hockey stick, his Canadian flag, and J/105 battle flag flying on the way out to the course. In his last three attempts, he's had 18, 12, and 12 (twice winning the most improved fun award), but his 9th at the NAC leads me to believe that he will be poised to move up this year. Ask him about the 2005 NAC in Toronto. SAVASANA (#526) -- Brian Keane makes his third appearance at Key West with a 7 and a 3 in the record books for 2003 and 2004. He also had a 7 at the NAC this past September. As a graduate from the J/24 class, he tends to sail with a bunch of younger pups. ZUNI BEAR (#284) -- Rich Bergmann and Shawn Bennett have combined to win it all for the last two years and would have won in their first attempt in 2002 had they not started the regatta with a DSQ. (They lobbied hard on Friday to start a race so they could get the first race thrown out -- but to no avail.) The only question will be whether they convert a three-peat. I'll even be so bold as to predict one of these seven will fall out of the top ten and there will be four not mentioned here that will fill the remaining slots. Maybe even win it. Maybe you! Good luck to all. See you all at the party on Saturday night for the introductions, pep talk, and safety message from Bob Smith. If all goes according to plan, I should have daily commentary here during the event. |
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