LAKE EFFECT Leads J/111s @ Key West

(Key West, FL)- While there were lots of little boats blazing around like busy bees on the waters off Key West, the majestic beauty of the "big boats" was quite a sight to behold. This year, the big J's all sailed on the Division 3 course, the easternmost course for Quantum Key West and perhaps one of the best sailing areas due to less current and flatter waters with minimal boat traffic to worry about.

For the to four places, it might as well have been watching the local Key West roosters engaging in a classic "cock fight" on the street.  As a veteran Key West sailor, it was clear a few feathers certainly got ruffled by the J/111 debut of Bob Hesse and gang on LAKE EFFECT.  A native Youngstown/ Rochester sailor, Hesse and his crew are no strangers to the waters of Key West, having sailed competitively in the past in the pro-based Melges 32 class.  It all came down to the last three races for the top five.  In the end, Hesse's crew managed a 1-4-4 to grab second overall, sneaking past Jim Bishop's modded J/44 WHITE GOLD who posted a 3-5-6 to finish third.  Getting the short end of the stick in the shoot-out was Bishop's WHITE GOLD, having to settle for the bronze on the podium after scoring a 3-5-6.  Sailing ever more consistently, faster and smarter, was Doug Curtiss on the famous J/111 WICKED 2.0, sailing to a 2-3-3 to tie WHITE GOLD, but lose the tie-breaker.  Another notable performance towards the end of the regatta was the J/111 FIREBALL sailed by Team Fireball, a very recent class newcomer.  With its blazing sunset orange paint job, it was a spectacular-looking boat and in the end, fired-off a 2-2 on the last day to show they had learned a thing or two from their comrades-in-arms!  Good on ya, mates!  Sailing photo credits- Onne Vanderwal   and Tim Wilkes.   For more Quantum Key West PHRF sailing information

Spectacular Sailing- Quantum Key West- Day 4

TEAMWORK & RUSH Lead PHRF Fleets
(Key West, Florida)-- With four days of racing complete, it is not difficult to identify the stars of Quantum Key West 2013: The sun and the wind!  Even the most veteran sailors have been amazed by the fact every day of the regatta has brought spectacular conditions with warm temperatures and solid breezes. Wednesday brought 18-22 knot winds and Thursday’s breeze held steady between 14-18 knots.

“We’ve had an incredible string of great sailing days. I think that is really the story,” said Jonathan McKee, a tactician from Seattle, Washington. “We keep waiting for a crappy day and it just hasn’t happened. We’ve just been really lucky that each day has been spectacular.”  That good fortune is expected to continue on Friday as George Caras of Commanders’ Weather is forecasting winds in the 12-18 knot range and more sunny skies. George Collins was once a regular competitor at Key West, but hasn’t attended for many years. The 72-year-old skipper was equally amazed by the caliber of sailing throughout the week.  “What another beautiful day of racing,” Collins said upon returning to the dock in front of the Half Shell Raw Bar. “I can’t remember a week that had such consistently good breeze. There are usually one or two light days, but not this week. The Key West Chamber of Commerce gets five stars.”

Event chairman Peter Craig and his Premiere Racing team take pride in giving sailors a full week of action. Over the past 20 years, the annual regatta off the Florida Keys has lost just six days of racing. For any regatta organizer, that's an astonishing statistic! Barring some unforeseen situation, this will be another year that Premiere Racing has completed the target number of 10 races. More remarkable is that Division 2, under the direction of principal race officer Dave Brennan, is likely to get in 12 races for the J/70 fleet.

In PHRF A, J/Teams are leading a complete sweep of the class by some incredibly competitive teams.  Robin Team's J/122 TEAMWORK from Lexington, NC continues to lead a very competitive division.  In second is Jim Bishop's J/44 WHITE GOLD from Jamestown, RI and in third is Bob Hesse's J/111 LAKE EFFECT from Youngstown, New York.

Sailing photo credits- Onne Vanderwal and Tim Wilkes.com


More aweome J sailing photos, please see these galleries:
Tuesday photos- Onne Vanderwal
Wednesday photos- Onne Vanderwal
Thursday photos- Onne Vanderwal

For more results and sailing information on Key West Race Week- please see all information here.

Moving @ Quantum Key West- Day Three

Lead Changes on Heavy Air Day
(Key West, Florida)- Wednesday has always been critical at this annual race week off the Florida Keys. By the time Wednesday is complete, the racing is usually more than half over. Event veterans have even given it the moniker of "moving day."  This year, Wednesday brought what is predicted to be the strongest winds of the five-day regatta, challenging crews to really ramp up their performance. There were some sail and gear failures in the heavy air, which held steady between 18 and 22 knots.

Sailing photo credits- Onne Vanderwal

More J sailing photos here in these galleries:
Tuesday photos- Onne Vanderwal
Wednesday photos- Onne Vanderwal

For more results and sailing information on Key West Race Week- please see all information here.

Awesome Sailing Key West- Day Two

TEAMWORK and RUSH Atop PHRF
(Key West, Florida)- This year's Quantum Key West Race Week may be one for the history books, with epic wind conditions forecast for the rest of the week- winds ranging from 15-25 kts with partly cloudy days- the sailors will be challenged with getting in a full compliment of 10-12 races, depending on their fleets, for the entire week of sailing.  Tuesday's racing saw shifty, streaky NNE winds in the 12-18 knot range.  For most courses, it was yet another classic tactical day on the azure blue Caribbean-like waters off Key West.  With the wind direction moving over a range of 25 degrees with a mean of 15 degrees, the teams had to figure out the cycling of the wind direction and try to stay in phase.  For the most part, those who favored the left side of the course and made it work more often than not led their fleets.  On rare occasions could boats go to the right and make it work. 

After the long day of racing of three races, there were a lot of weary bones, aching muscles and exhausted bodies over at The Galleon Dock and Truman Annex on Tuesday afternoon. The J/70 sailors especially so since they had sailed three races and didn't get into the docks at the end of the day until 1630 hrs!  Advil, beer and massages were the order of the day to keep bodies race-tuned and on the knife-edge of preparedness for an even windier day on Wednesday-- forecast to be the windiest day of the week with 18-25 kts winds out of the northeast.

On the Division 3 course, both PHRF A and PHRF B fleets were having excellent racing.  The J/122 TEAMWORK posted two bullets and two seconds in building a four-point lead in PHRF 1. Skipper Robin Team only does three regattas per year, but always has his J/122 well prepared and sailed by a well-oiled team. “We’re fast and the crew work has been impeccable. We’re going really well both upwind and downwind,” said Teamwork tactician Jonathan Bartlett, a North Sails pro. “Robin is quite amazing for someone who doesn’t get a lot of practice with starts and mark roundings. He’s just incredibly skilled considering the small amount of time he races.”  Behind them is Jim Bishop's J/44 WHITE GOLD in second with a 3-1-5-1 for 10 pts and third is Bob Hesse's J/111 LAKE EFFECT with a 2-3-2-4 for 11 pts. 

For more results and sailing information on Key West Race Week- please see all information here.

Classic First Day Sailing @ Key West

(Key West, Florida)- The first day of sailing could not have turned out nicer for the start of Key West Race Week.  For many, its why the sailors come back for more every year to this corner of the far western Caribbean.  With gorgeous aquamarine waters punctuated by white, torn cotton cumulus scudding across sunlit skies, it's not hard to imagine the sailing is second to none.  Today's weather forecasts of lightish N/NE winds of 4-8 kts for Monday and building late in the afternoon to 8-13 kts from the NW meant the fleet was going to be in for some unusual strategies going around the race course.  Would the sailors follow the classic tactics of going into the island, or go left and pray the weather forecasters were wrong?!  The "chutes & ladders" results in the J/70 class were certainly an indicator that ideas ranged across the board.

The PHRF Racers had some incredibly tight racing on the Division Three course.  In PHRF 1, a familiar name as at the top of the heap, with Robin Team's J/122 TEAMWORK sailing to a 1-2 and holds a narrow edge over Jim Bishops J/44 WHITE GOLD with a 3-1 and Bob Hesse's J/111 LAKE EFFECT in third with a 2-3.

For more results and sailing information on Key West Race Week- please see all information here.



Robin Team Interview- as a perennial J/122 campaigner, Robin's team on TEAMWORK have been veterans  of Key West Race Week for years and are a top team.
http://youtu.be/AgUmolo_lyQ

J Teams Sailing Rolex Fastnet Race

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)-  The infamous Fastnet Rock off Ireland has its fanatical, passionate followers.  It's a bit like British mountaineer George Mallory's famous quote about why he climbed the ginormous, challenging Mount Everest in Tibet (29,029 ft or about 5.5 miles above sea-level)-- he said, "because it's there"!  J/Teams love, even thrive, on the "call of the running tide" and the challenge of weather that often confronts the fleet in this 608nm classic.  Its reputation as the most grueling and tactically challenging of the classic offshore races is due to its course along England's southwestern coastline and criss-crossing the southern Irish Sea twice-- the boats go from the start line off Cowes, Isles of Wight, sail towards the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland (rounding it to port), then sail back around the outside of the Scilly Isles off southwest England (leaving them to port) and on to the finish line in Plymouth, facing massive current gates and gigantic whirlpools (literally) along the way.

For this year's 2013 edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race, all 300 yachts "registered" in an astonishing 24 hours! The good news, is that a bunch of hot J sailors are in the mix, including the J/111 XCENTRIC RIPPER from The Netherlands.  Looks like "the boys" are going to chase the Double-handed crown, again.  John van der Starre and Robin Verhoef are not to be denied.  Who can blame them??  For most of the Fastnet Race in 2011, they were winning the Double-handed Division by days (OK, maybe hours), and were one of the top boats overall in ALL IRC Divisions.  However, the RIPPER couldn't make it through the final wind/current gate literally a "stone's throw" from the finish-- having to wait nearly seven hours for the winds/current to re-build for their finish.  Imagine that!! Hard to believe they didn't go simply, stark, raving, mad!  Kudos to them for hanging tough knowing they'd be back for another go of it all.  Watch out, the RIPPER is much, much faster this time around having learned a lot about the best wind/ sail/ angle combinations.

Along with them will be a fair number of fellow J/Colleagues racing everything from J/133s and J/122s down to J/109s, J/105s and J/97s.  And at both ends of the spectrum these teams are known to be tough competitors, having fun while collecting silverware on the podium!  For more RORC Fastnet Race sailing information