Terra Nova Trading Key West 2004

Thursday - Issue 4 - January 22, 2004

Friday - Issue 5 - January 23, 2004

Saturday - Issue 6 - January 24, 2004

Just past the midway mark of the regatta, the standings are starting to take shape at Terra Nova Trading 2004.

With six of nine scheduled races completed, some class leaders are feeling fairly comfortable while others remain wary.

Nobody is in better position than Mike Rose, skipper of the J/133 Raincloud that has a commanding lead in PHRF 3. Raincloud has displayed exceptional upwind speed in posting five bullets and a second for a low score of seven. Spinal Shock, a Farr 395 skippered by Dr. Gordon Donald, is a distant second with 20 points.

"That J/133 is totally kicking butt. He’s got this regatta pretty much wrapped up," Donald said.

Tiburon, a Melges 30 owned by Michael Gray, has grabbed a significant advantage in PHRF 4. Fellow competitors have high praise for the performance of the New Orleans entry, which has notched four bullets and enters Day 4 with an eight-point lead.

"I tell you what, that Melges 30 has been tough to beat. He is a very good sailor who has the boat going real well. It is obviously a team that came fully prepared," said Farley Fontenot, mainsail trimmer aboard the Farr 36 Tazo, which stands fifth in the class.

Zuni Bear is ahead by eight points in J/105 while Sooner Magic has stretched out the same lead in J/80. Trumpeter (C&C 99) and Hot Ticket (PHRF 8) hold seven-point advantages on the Division 4 circle.

Jim Hightower has steered his Farr 37 Hot Ticket to three bullets and no worse than a fourth in six races, but isn’t about to declare victory just yet. He is concerned about the

Swan 48 So Far (Lawrence Hillman) that stands second and the Moorings 38 E-Ticket that’s in third.

"As soon as you get a little cocky, you make a couple bad decisions on wind shifts and all of a sudden the other boats are right there with you," said Hightower, who hails from Houston. "This is still a horse race. Those big Swans go good when the wind gets up and when it’s light you have to worry about E-Ticket. We need to sail smarter than we did today in order to stay on top."

Leading skippers are understandably cautious because one throwout will be factored in after seven races. With a 10-15 knot northerly predicted for today, that throwout should come into play and alter some standings by noon. Division I, which features the Farr 40s, Swan 45s and Mumm 30s, does not have a drop race.

No class could see a more dramatic reshuffling than Melges 24, which has 58 entries. P&P Sailing, a French team skippered by Philippe Ligot, is currently in seventh place despite suffering a 59^th as a result of an OCS.

Then there’s the classes that remain extremely close and will no doubt go down to the wire. PHRF 9 has provided terrific competition throughout the week with the top six boats within seven points of one another.

Rhumb Punch, a J/29 owned by John Edwards, seized the lead on the strength of third-place finishes in both races yesterday. Rhumb Punch jumped from fourth to first while Invincible, the Nelson-Marek 30 that was overall leader, dropped to fourth.

"You won’t see us gloating at the party. We are not at all comfortable," Edwards said. "Every time one of the crew smiles and brags that we’re in first place I tell them to wipe that smile off their face because it might not last for long."

After winning Mumm 30 class at Key West in 2001, the father-son team of Bodo and Nick von der Wense was none too happy about finishing fifth a year ago.

"It’s never any fun to go backward. We were determined to get back in the hunt this year," said Nick von der Wense, who calls tactics for his father.

Turbo Duck has done more than that, placing first or second in five of six races to take a five-point lead over Team Bold (Nelson Stephenson). The Annapolis-based boat is sailing its second regatta with sails purchased in November and getting near-flawless crew work.

"The new sails have clearly produced a big jump in speed, which has given us a lot of confidence," von der Wense said. "We’ve managed to get good starts and we’ve had speed over everyone."

Von der Wense has been thrilled with the performance of his crew, which includes Chris Humphreys (bow), Britton Warrick (pit), Vicki Campion (sewer), Chris Morgan (main) and Teresa DiRocco (jib).

"We’ve got a really good group together this year and that makes all the difference," said von der Wense, who feels there is still work to be done. "It’s too early to start trying to protect the lead. We need another strong day then we can be conservative on Friday."

There were more changes in the highly-competitive Farr 40 class with the California entry Crocodile Rock vaulting from third to first place in the overall standings. Alexandra Geremia and Scott Harris of Santa Barbara posted a third and an eighth yesterday to put themselves in position to repeat as class champ here.

"It was shifty out there . . . hard to stay in phase [with the wind shifts]. In the first race we were definitely in phase and in the second race we couldn't get into phase. Today was a good example of what it's like in this class," said Steve Howe, helmsman aboard Warpath, which dropped from first to third.

John MacLaurin’s Pendragon V is just one point behind in second while Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad is tied on points with Warpath despite suffering a 16^th in yesterday’s morning start.

"Today was hard because it was really, really shifty. I made a tactical decision that was dead wrong," Barking Mad tactician Terry Hutchinson said. "The good news is that we’re still not out of the regatta. It’s going to be a real battle to the wire, a typical Farr 40 war of attrition."

You would never know that Clay Deutsch took 20 years off from sailing by the way he’s sailing his Swan 68 Chippewa this week. The Pittsburgh native, who swears he hasn’t owned a boat since selling his International 21 in the early 1980s, has steered the racer-cruiser to four bullets and a one-point lead in PHRF 1.

"I was out of sailboat racing for a long, long time. That’s why I’m so psyched about how things are going," Deutsch said.

Deutsch has based the Swan 68 out of the British Virgin Islands since May, 2000, but was reluctant to bring it to Key West.

"I’d always heard this was a small boat, light air event so I wasn’t sure it was appropriate for my boat," he said. "When I found out the organizers were putting this big boat class together, that got my attention."

PHRF 1 features 10 boats that range in size from 52 to 75 feet. AERA, a Ker 55, is hot on the heels of Chippewa thanks to five finishes of third place or better. Rosebud, which earned Mount Gay Rum Boat of the Day honors, moved into third place with a first and a fourth.

"It’s a real apples and oranges class that is completely dependent on the conditions," Deutsch said. "If it’s 10 knots or less, we’re screwed. If it gets up to 15, we’re styling."

Storm, a Reichel-Pugh 44 owned by Les Crouch, maintained a narrow two-point lead in PHRF 2 despite a somewhat disappointing day that brought a fourth and a fifth. Numbers, a Taylor 49 owned by Daniel Meyers, notched a first and a third to close the gap on Storm.

"Today we made our own problems. We were over at the start in the first race and missed some shifts," Storm tactician Gary Weisman said. "All in all, it was not a great day."

Storm was recently launched and sailed just one day in Trinidad before being brought to Key West.

"It’s a little intimidating to sail a boat that is brand new and rates the same as boats that are 6-8 feet longer," said Weisman, president of North Sails and a longtime friend of Crouch’s. "We seemed to find our legs when the breeze is up, but we have a ways to go to get up to full speed in light air."

Tiburon has made a strong return to Key West after taking last year off. Owner Michael Gray, who hails fromGulfport, Miss., sailed the Melges 30 to class honors in 2001 and a runner-up finish in 2002.

"This crew is making me look good, they are carrying me across the finish line," said Gray, who serves as his own tactician. "We’re getting the chute up quicker and holding it longer than most. Our buoy roundings have been excellent. We’re picking up 5-10 boat lengths at marks, which is hard to do on pure boat speed."

It is looking more and more like Zuni Bear will repeat as champion of J/105 class. The San Diego-based team skippered by Richard Bergmann notched a pair of bullets yesterday to solidify its lead.

Bergmann, who should see his lead grow even more when he drops a 19^th today, credited the tactical work of recent college graduates Sean Bennett (USC) and John Horsch (Cal-Berkeley).

"It’s easier with these two California kids that know how to play the shifts," he said.

Samuel "Shark" Kahn, the 14-year-old wunderkind, actually extended his lead in Melges 24 despite suffering a 14^th and a 10^th yesterday as a result of being OCS in both races.

"We were able to pass a lot of boats _ maybe 40 or so _ in each race," said Shark, who didn’t feel he erred by being too aggressive while maintaining a 12-point lead. "We can’t depend on that. We have to keep pushing."

There’s lots of close action on the Division 4 circle as five of eight classes are separated by two points or less.

Rhumb Punch, which was the J/29 one-design winner a year ago, is showing it can compete in a handicap class as well. Skipper John Edwards, from Solomons, Md., put his team in striking distance with a bullet in Race 4 on Tuesday then took the overall lead with a pair of thirds yesterday.

"I’m real excited to be in this position at this point in the regatta," he said. "It took us a few races to get the settings figured out, but we’re starting to get dialed in now."

Remedy, a Donovan 27 sailed by Bert Carp of Annapolis, is just one point behind. Kelly, a Beneteau 1st 10 owned by Andrew Cheney of St. Petersburg, Fla., also had a strong day to move from fifth to third. Invincible, the early pacesetter, has been battling some mechanical problems.

Sam Vasquez had never been aboard a Wavelength 24 before being asked to helm Outtasight, which is owned by fellow Pontchartrain Yacht Club member Lydia King-Rayner. Despite that lack of experience, Vasquez has Outtasight in second place in PHRF 11 _ just two points back of the J/30 Circus.

"It’s really, really tight racing between us and Circus. We only finished two seconds behind them in today’s morning race," Vasquez said. "In heavy air, they have the advantage because they’re half a knot faster and point about five degrees higher."

Skipper Mike Bird sailed Circus to a pair of thirds yesterday to hang onto the class lead, but Vasquez thinks Outtasight still has a shot to come on top.

C&C 99 class is making its debut at Terra Nova Trading Key West 2004 with 11 boats duking it out. Trumpeter has finished first or second in four of six races to take command, but the second through fourth place boats are within six points of each other.

"It’s proving to be a very competitive class. In certain conditions, the deep-keeled boats are better than the shallow ones, but other than that the boats are extremely evenly-matched," said John Edelman, crew member aboard second-place Graffiti.