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RESULTS:   DIVISION 1   |   DIVISION 2   |    DIVISION 3   |    DIVISION 4

Sunday/Monday - Issue 1 - January 18-19, 2004 

Tuesday - Issue 2 - January 20, 2004

Wednesday - Issue 3 - January 21, 2004

Thursday - Issue 4 - January 22, 2004

Friday - Issue 5 - January 23, 2004

Saturday - Issue 6 - January 24, 2004

Classes Engage in Battle Royale

By Bill Wagner

Sailboat racers call it moving day.

It’s the second-to-last day of a week-long regatta _ time to make a move in the standings and get in position to win.

There were a lot of movers and shakers on Day 4 of Terra Nova Trading Key West 2004 as a pair of windy races and the addition of a throwout shuffled the standings in several classes.

Perhaps the biggest change came in Melges 24 class where Philippe Ligot and his P&P Sailing Team vaulted from seventh to first in the 57-boat fleet. P&P posted a seventh and a third yesterday, but more importantly tossed a 59th that resulted from an OCS.

"Our goal today was to stay in the top eight and not lose too many points. We accomplished that goal and pleased to be leading now," Ligot said.

America’s Cup veteran Sebastian Col is serving as helmsman for P&P, which counts three bullets in its low score of 21. Ligot knows his team will have to withstand an attack from 14-year-old Samuel "Shark" Kahn, the reigning world champion.

"We are ready to fight with Samuel. He is a great champion, but we know we can beat him," Ligot said.

Melges 24 is just one of many classes going down to the wire. There is a difference of five points or less in 11 classes, meaning the winner will not be determined until today’s final race.

Many eyes will be on the highly-competitive Farr 40 class, which has five boats separated by a mere two points. Crocodile Rock, campaigned by Californians Alexandra Geremia and Scott Harris, clings to a one-point advantage after finishing 13th in yesterday’s afternoon race.

Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad notched a bullet in Race 8 to move into second, but is tied with Peter De Ridder’s Mean Machine with 60 points.

"It’s going to be a real battle, and you can’t focus on one boat because there are five that are capable of winning this thing," said Terry Hutchinson, tactician aboard Barking Mad. "Basically, whoever wins tomorrow wins the regatta. You just have to go out and sail your own race."

There is a battle royale going on in Swan 45 class as well with Thomas Stark’s Rush leading Craig Speck’s Vim by two points and Massimo Ferragamo’s Bellicosa by three.

"This has been a really fun week, the competition has been fantastic," said Speck, who has Dee Smith calling tactics. "It’s always exciting when a major regatta such as this comes down to the last day. We have to put a boat between us and Rush while at the same time making sure Bellicosa doesn’t slip past us both."

Over on the Division 4 circle, things are tight in PHRF 7 Phaedra, Bloody Hell and Patriot with only three points separating the three Evelyn 32s. So Far, Lawrence Hillman’s Swan 48 grabbed first place in PHRF 8 away from Hot Ticket.

"We have steadily improved as the week’s gone along and are starting to see the results," said Ian Smith, boat captain of Phantom, which takes a three-point lead into today.

The story on Division 2 is that three boats have already clinched victory. Storm, the newly-launched Reichel-Pugh 43 owned by Les Crouch, holds a commanding nine-point advantage in PHRF 2. Raincloud, a J/133 skippered by Mike Rose, has pulled away to a 13-point advantage in PHRF 3. Tiburon, a Melges 30 steered by Michael Gray, is dominating PHRF 4 by 15 points.

DIVISION 1

Crocodile Rock moved one step closer to repeating as champion in Farr 40 class. Geremia and Harris, from Santa Barbara and San Diego, respectively, garnered a seventh in the morning race and stayed in first place by a point despite suffering their first double-digit result of the regatta.

"It’s like an NBA basketball game in this class. The first part is just showtime, the last five minutes is when everything happens," said Crocodile Rock tactician Vince Brun who agreed with Hutchinson’s assessment that the leaders can’t concern themselves with covering challengers.

Barking Mad had to perform a 720 penalty turn and endured a 15th in Race 7 then responded with a bullet in Race 8 to remain in contention.

"The sign of a good team is how they rebound from a bad result," Hutchinson said. "We did the same thing in the afternoon that we did in the morning, we just got a break in that the wind shift stayed our way."

Mean Machine made a move with a fourth and a second while the father-son team of Fred and Steve Howe kept Warpath in the hunt with an eighth and ninth.

"We’ve raced four days and suddenly we’re back to where we started," said Steve Howe, the helmsman. "Today was definitely a maintenance day. We wanted to maintain our position and we achieved that objective."

Vim picked up a total of one point on Rush in Swan 45 thanks largely to a second in Race 7. Evidence of how competitive the inaugural one-design class has been is the fact Vim then finished sixth of eight boats in Race 8.

"We got caught in a convergence zone at the second mark and everyone went by us," bemoaned Speck, who had been sailing in second place. "You cannot make any mistakes in this class because all the boats are well-sailed. It has been very close action throughout the week."

Turbo Duck, an Annapolis entry campaigned by the father-son duo of Bodo and Nick von der Wense, maintained its hold on the Mumm 30 fleet with a solid line of 3-5 on Thursday. Team Bold, skippered by Nelson Stephenson of Southport, Conn., is five points off the pace.

Things are getting interesting between John and Deneen Demourkas, husband and wife who are duking it out in Mumm 30. Deneen the gun in Race 8 to keep Groovederci in third place, but John moved into fourth with a pair of seconds on the day.

It’s been back-and-forth all week between the couple, who sail together aboard a Farr 40.

"Whoever comes out on top this week gets to captain the Farr 40. I’m not saying I’m going to let her win, but it would certainly help our program," John joked. "I’m in Key West going mono-a-mono with my wife. It doesn’t get any better than this."

DIVISION 2

It’s been nothing but sunny skies and smiles for Raincloud, which has put up six bullets and a pair of seconds in eight races. Rose doesn’t need to go out today, but said his crew will probably want to.

"We’re having a great time. We’ve gotten warm weather, perfect wind conditions, tremendous crew work … everything has come together," Rose said.

Raincloud is racing in PHRF 3 with a bunch of Farr 395s and has walked away from them on the beats.

"This boat is wickedly fast upwind in the right conditions," admitted Rose, who has North Sails reps Jody and Jay Lutz steering and calling tactics.

Rival skippers can only take their hats off to Rose, who may have the rare luxury of dropping a second place. Peter Galipault, helmsman aboard the J/109 Scherherazade, called Raincloud "untouchable" and had no answer when asked what the J/133 was doing so well.

"I haven’t been close enough to them to figure it out," he said.

One crew member called K2 the "happy boat." No wonder considering the entire crew hails from Burlington, Vermont, which was snow-covered and frozen by –10 degree temperatures when they all departed for Key West.

"We left our wives with frozen pipes. I don’t think they were too happy about that," skipper Luis Gonzalez said.

Jeff Hill has driven K2 to a pair of firsts and pair of seconds for a low score of 20 _ seven ahead of fellow J/120 Euro Trash Girl. The crew is comprised of longtime friends who grew up racing on Lake Champlain.

"We have been getting stronger and stronger tactically, we’re doing a better job of keeping our heads out of the boat," Gonzalez said.

Crew member Paul Beaudin said the team needs to stay focused for the final race.

"We can’t take off and go to the beach, that’s for sure. This has been a closely-contested class. There’s been a bunch of lead changes and lots of boats stacking up at marks," Beaudin said. "Our attitude is that we’re in the money, but we need another good result in order to win."

DIVISION 3

While Richard Bergmann’s Zuni Bear remains atop the J/105 standings, it was fellow California entry Masquerade that captured the Lewmar Boat of the Day award.

Masquerade put up a first and a fourth yesterday to consolidate its hold on second place in the 29-boat class.

"Today was a bit easier for us because the winds were steadier and stronger with less major changes," owner Thomas Coates said. "It was more like San Francisco conditions today and our boat and crew seems to perform well when it’s like that."

There was an unfortunate incident involving a J/105 following yesterday’s racing. Kincsem, owned by Joerg Esdom of Rye, N.Y., was struck by a rented speedboat while motoring back to port under mainsail. According to witnesses, the 20-foot speedboat launched off a wave and slammed into the mast of Kincsem, breaking it in two places.

A woman on the speedboat suffered a minor injury while no one aboard the J/105 was hurt. Kincsem, which had taken the gun in Race 8, will not be able to compete today.

Overall victory is still up for grabs in J/80, where Warrior claimed the lead away from week-long leader Sooner Magic. Craig and Martha White, class winners here a year ago, put up a pair of bullets yesterday to move into first by five points.

Banjo, sailed by J/Boat founder Rod Johnstone, is coming on strong and moved into second with a line of 1-1-2-2 in the last four races.

"Things are really getting interesting," said White, who has Quantum pro and J/24 standout Terry Flynn onboard as tactician. "Our approach today was to get on the correct tack no matter what and work on boat speed."

White feels his team performs better in a big breeze and is pleased by reports that it will blow 15-20 from the north today. Winds were steady between 15-17 yesterday.

"This team has been together a long time and we handle the heavy air pretty well," he said. "I haven’t done the match to figure out what we need to do tomorrow, but we would be wise to stay between Rod and the next mark. We’ve already taken a 13th in this regatta, so anything can happen."

It figures to be a wild finale in Melges 24, where P&P Sailing and Pegasus 492 are locked in a real duel. Both teams have three bullets to their credit and figure to go at one another hard today.

Col, who served as strategist aboard the French challenger Le Defi in the last Louis Vuitton Cup, welcomes the head-to-head scrap.

"If I was in (Kahn’s) place, I would match race us, especially at the start," Col said. "I’m very confident with my match racing because I’m match racing all the time. Shark is very fast, but we can sail fast, too."

DIVISION 4

Robert Remmers was one of those skippers who couldn’t wait for the throwout to come into play. Remmers, sailing in the Corsair 24 one-design classs, suffered a 10th in Race 1 as a result of rounding the wrong leeward mark.

Breaking Wind has been brilliant otherwise with Remmers steering the entry from Des Moines, Iowa to six bullets and one second the rest of the way. Tossing that 10th reduced BreakingWind’s overall score to eight points _ four ahead of Steve Marsh’s I-Fly.

"We’ve been going back-and-forth with Marsh, trading positions all the time," Remmers said. "We just have to keep our fingers crossed tomorrow and try to have fun sailing."

Hot Ticket had been on fire for most of the regatta, but lost its series-long lead in PHRF 8 with a fifth and a fourth yesterday. Meanwhile, So Far put up a second and a first for the second straight day to move ahead by six points.

"This team has really come together. Everyone has learned their position on the boat and it’s been a steady upward progression," said Ian Smith, the boat captain.

Jorgen Johnsson, a seven-time world champion in Soling class, is steering the Swan 48 from Chicago while 17-year-old Brian Smith is calling tactics.

Wally Hogan’s Trumpeter stretched out to an eight-point lead in C&C 99 class and would have to suffer catastrophe to not come out on top. Ohio-based C&C boats gets an assist for gathering enough boats for a one-design start.

"We wanted to see how many owners we could get to Key West so we came up with the idea of covering their shipping costs as an incentive," said Mike Minor, marketing director for C&C. "We knew the 99 was a great one-design boat and that’s been proven here this week. On Tuesday, we had a race in which eight boats finished within a minute of each other."

Phantom, a B-25 owned by Frank Silver of Kill Devil Hills, N.C., took first in Race 8 to vault to the front of PHRF 10 ahead of week-long leader Rich Harrison (Ego Tripp, Tripp 26).

"We just bought this boat in November so have been learning it this week. Each day, we are getting a little stronger," said Silver, who is getting tactical calls from Kenny Saylor of the North Loft in Hampton, Va. "We are tickled to death to be in this position with one race left."

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