(Key West, FL)- The prognosticator “extraordinaires” of all things
weather were, for one of those rare moments, remarkably accurate in
their predictions for a light air day with next to no wind or just
enough wind to make it happen. As it turns out, the light southerlies
driven by a “pancake flat” mini-High shadowing the Florida Keys and into
the Straits of Florida that border Cuba to the south were enough to get
two of the three race courses racing on the first day.While Division 1 managed to sail two races on super-shortened courses (with breezes fluctuating wildly from 3.2 to 4.4 kts and swinging from 220 to 270 degrees), the other fleets on Division 2 and 3 had even less to contend with. Neither the gradient breeze nor the sea-breeze along the coast fully developed during the day. The J/70 fleet with 62 boats strong sat around for 5+ hours on the water and the RC PRO wisely canceled racing for the day. Nevertheless, there’s a fun blog being written by UK J/70 sailor Ian Atkins sailing “boats.com” with a number of his mates who’ve raced with him on the Solent off Cowes (read more here)
In
the J/PHRF handicap world, it was the J/111s that were the class
leaders in PHRF A, with Kirsten’s Robinson’s gang on TEAM FIREBALL from
Annapolis/ Edgartown taking top honors followed by Rob & Ryan
Ruhlman’s SPACEMAN SPIFF from Cleveland, OH. Third was Jim Madden’s
J/125 STARK RAVING MAD IV, a past Key West champion multiple times.
Last year’s class winners, Robin Team’s J/122 TEAMWORK took fifth
overall (watch Robin’s pre-regatta interview here about sailing in “the J/Class fleet”).For the rest of the week, most weather models are in agreement that Tuesday will see a building breeze for the rest of the week with plenty of sunshine.
Sailing photo credits- Ken Stanke/ kenstanek.com
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