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Sunday/Monday - Issue 1 - January 16-17, 2005 Tuesday - Issue 2 - January 18, 2005 Wednesday - Issue 3 - January 19, 2005 Thursday - Issue 4 - January 20, 2005 |
Right Here, Right
Now
By Rich Roberts
Stay alert, mates, because sometime over the next week during Key West 2005,
presented by Nautica, there's a pretty good chance you'll bump
into a sailing celebrity. Olympic medalists, America's Cup competitors, Volvo
Ocean Racers and more are headed to the Southernmost Point in the US.
You will meet all this at once, as well as Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of
the year if you encounter John Kostecki or the twosome of Peter and JJ Isler. It
could happen one evening on Duval Street, in the Big Top reception tent in the
Historic Seaport district or, perish the thought, on one of the four race
courses south of the island. It's a Conch Republic convention for celebrity
sailors, who will be mingling with some 3,000 kindred souls of one of the
world's truly international sports.
Approximately 300 boats from at least 34 states and 14 countries are scheduled
to sail nine races in boats ranging from 24 feet (including 61 Melges 24s) to 75
feet (Tom Hill's Titan 12). They're assigned to 13 one-design and eight PHRF
classes, and nearly every third one is a J/Boat, topped by a record number of 40
J/105s from coast to coast.
For world-class competitors, Key West is a regular midwinter affair. At least a
dozen current and past Olympic medal winners are competing in various classes,
including Kevin Burnham and Charlie Ogletree, gold and silver, respectively, at
Athens last summer; Kostecki, JJ Isler, Mark Reynolds, Jonathan McKee, Jeff
Madrigali, Randy Smyth, Robbie Haines and John Bertrand, plus Canada's Ross
Macdonald and New Zealand's John Cutler.
Burnham, Isler, McKee and Smyth have won two medals each, Reynolds three.
The America's Cup talent runs even deeper, duplicating several of the names
above and highlighting such as Kostecki, tactician for Oracle BMW; Australia's
James Spithill, and the Kiwi core of Alinghi's 2003 winning crew: Brad
Butterworth, Warwick Fleury, Dean Phipps and Simon Daubney (sans former skipper
Russell Coutts). They will sail on Dan Meyers' Farr 60, Numbers, from Newport,
R.I.
Spithill, the new Luna Rossa helmsman, will drive a Melges 24 entered by McKee.
Kostecki, an Olympic silver medalist in '88 and skipper of Germany's victorious
illbruck in the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race, will call tactics on Michael Brennan's
TP52, Sjambok, while Reynolds, Haines, Bertrand and Macdonald do the same in the
Farr 40 class, as Cutler will for Craig Speck's Swan 45, VIM.
And for literally thousands more local fleet racers and their friends and
family, Key West is also a pilgrimage and a vacation. T-10s from the Great
Lakes, J/80s from Texas, Evelyns and Olsons from New Jersey are among the
hundreds of one design and handicap entries.
Believe it, there is nowhere else in the Northern Hemisphere they'd rather be
this week. Would you?
How the fleets look (* indicates 2004 winner returning):
DIVISION 1
Swan 45 (6 boats)---Craig Speck's VIM, with John Cutler as tactician, is the
boat to beat. It was runner-up in a dogfight last year with Tom Stark's RUSH
(Reloaded).
*Farr 40 (17)---Peter De Ridder's Mean Machine from Monaco came out of the pack
on the last day to win it all by one point over Jim Richardson's Barking Mad,
now the world champion and back in top form. But look out for George Andreadis'
Atalanti, which won the previous two years.
1D35 (10)---This feisty class returns after a one-year hiatus with a focus on
David Kirk's Détente, the 2003 winner, and Chris and Kara Busch's Wild Thing,
the '02 champion. Chris Busch crewed for Kirk in '03, so they know each other
better than most.
*Mumm 30 (15)---Father Bodo and son Nick von der Wense are two-time winners, but
class prez Nelson Stephenson (Team Bold) and Deneen Demourkas (Groovederci) were
second and third in '04 and are keen from the recent class worlds at Toronto.
DIVISION 2
PHRF 1 (10)---The historic schooner America is the only boat in town bigger than
Titan 12. The Reichel/Pugh 75 is at the top of an intriguing mix of five TP52s
and Daniel Meyers' Farr 60, Numbers, sailed by the core of the Alinghi crew and
not to be confused with Meyers' previous boat, a Taylor 49 of the same name.
*PHRF 2 (10)---Mike Rose's J/133, Raincloud, won PHRF 3 as something of an
unknown quantity last year and this time will be tested by two more J/133s, plus
Ian Maclean's Key West debuting Kerr 11.3 from the UK.
PHRF 3 (11)---What's this? A Melges 32? All eyes will be on M24 veteran Jeff
Ecklund, who is back with Harry Melges as tactician on this South African-built
one-of-a-kind modified by the Zenda whizzes. It gives time to John Dane's Melges
30, Tiburon and to three Henderson 30s, including Michael Carroll's New Wave,
the runner-up to Tiburon in PHRF 4 last year.
*PHRF 4 (9)---Five Beneteau 40.7s will be Making Waves---that's the name of the
Miller/Praley Syndicate entry from Annapolis---along with Othmar M. von
Blumencron's Dame Blanche, a past winner here. David Hudgel's Sydney 36,
Bounder, will be in new mixed company after winning PHRF 6 last year.
*J/120 (7) and J/109 (6)---They'll share a starting line and then sort
themselves out. Luis Gonzalez' K2 from Mallets Bay, Vt. had his way in the
J/120s in '04, but they're dropping the handicap differentials to sail level
this year. Bill Sweetser's Rush from Annapolis was second among the J/109s.
*CORSAIR 28R (10)---Last year the trimarans waged a three-boat battle among Bob
Harkrider's Bad Boys, the Freudenberg/Hudgins Condor and the Randy Smyth/Ken
Winters Rocketeer II (in that order), and they're all back for more fast fun.
:"Why someone would want [a monohull] as opposed to a 28R doesn't make sense to
me," Harkrider says. "We go twice as fast."
DIVISION 3
Melges 24 (61)---France's Philippe Ligot won last year with Sebastian Col
driving, and he’ll be tactician on Hubert Guy's Enigma from Pasadena, Calif. The
next two finishers---then-14-year-old Samuel (Shark) Kahn and Norway's Kristian
Nergaard---also weren't planning to race this year, but fourth-place Flavio
Favini, sailing Franco Rossini's Blu Moon, will try to replicate the world
championship he won here in 2002. Ogletree will crew for Alex Ascencios, a
fellow Texan.
*J/105 (40)---Rich Bergmann's Zuni Bear from San Diego, with Shawn Bennett
driving, is trying for a threepeat, which won't be easy. The first five boats
were within three points in 2003; last year Zuni Bear beat Tom Coates'
Masquerade from San Francisco on a tiebreaker---and there are 11 more boats this
year. This figures to come down to the last leg of the last race.
J/80 (15)---Another tight fight, featuring '04 runner-up Mac Kilpatrick on
Sooner Magic from (where else?) Oklahoma City against John Storck's Rumor from
Huntington, N.Y. and Rick Schaffer's C'est Nasty from Ft. Worth, hoping to keep
Texas' domination going.
DIVISION 4
PHRF 5 (9)---There are no two boats alike in this class, but look out for Jim
Hightower's Dickerson/Farr 37, Hot Ticket, Houston, Tex., and Dan Myers'
Moorings 38, E-Ticket, Lighthouse Point, Fla., which fought it out in PHRF 8
last year. Greg Petrat's Swan 48, Constellation, Sarasota, Fla., is the scratch
boat with a 66-second handicap.
*PHRF 6 (14)---A half-dozen Evelyn 32s, led by Robert Patroni's '04 winner
Phaedra from Pensacola Beach, will race almost level with four Olsons, among
others, in a 30-footer shootout.
PHRF 7 (10)--- Remedy, a Donovan 27 entered by Bert Carp of Annapolis, has its
work cut out for it as the scratch boat. Doug Davie and Eileen Eppig’s J/27
Amethyst – third last year – are no doubt looking for more silver.
PHRF 8 (10)---Outtasight, second in class with Lydia King-Rayner last year, will
be sailed by Sam Vasquez in the Wavelength 24 triumvirate from Long Beach, Miss.
Key West's own Mark Milnes is the hometown favorite in his J/24, Blah Blah Blah.
*C&C 99 (9)---The rallying cry is "stop Bob Wilson and Wally Hogan," whose
Trumpeter from Toronto won four of nine races and tossed a fourth place in the
class’ debut in 2004. With four other boats returning from last year, there
should be lots of competition.
*T-10 (9)---The top five boats are back from '04, led by Chuck Simon and Bill
Buckles' locally based Liquor Box that ran the table with five firsts in eight
races and sat out the ninth. Tim Rathbun's Cygnet from Chicago was runner-up
with three wins.
J/29 (8)---John Edwards' Rhumb Punch from Solomons, Md. was second in PHRF 9
last year and leads the group into its own class this year. Key West veterans
include the Mairs Boyz’ Might Puffin and John and Tony Esposito’s Hustler.
Whether on the race course or under the “Big Top” – let the games (and reunions)
begin!