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TERRA NOVA TRADING / YACHTING KEY WEST RACE WEEK January 24, 2002 Thursday's conditions: Wind 10-15 knots, S-SE. National Weather Service forecast for Friday: Wind 10 knots, E-SE, seas 1-2 feet. PROTEST FLAGS FLY IN CRUNCH TIME AT KEY WEST KEY WEST, Fla.-Crunch time, and it started getting ugly at Terra Nova Trading/Yachting Key West Race Week Thursday. The throng outside the jury tent was as grim as an Enron stockholders' convention. In the IMS big-boat class, Idler, George David's Nelson/Marek 49 from
New York, protested Isam Kabbani's C/M 60, Rima, but-alas-David did not
slay Goliath. So now the Newport, R.I. entry has a small but seemingly In the Farr 40 fracas, John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti protested George Andreadis'
Atalanti XI and won but, wonder of wonders, the former Athens banker emerged
with an overall lead one point better (4) than he held a day It's all Greek to many observers, but it has something to do with the
new discard system implemented this year that allows a competitor to throw
out his worst race after completing seven. The Wally Tsuha/Bob Hughes In the Melges 24 world championship, Italian sailor Flavio Favini, sailing
a boat owned by Franco Rossini of Switzerland, ran his win streak to five
races before finishing seventh. With two races remaining, Favini has a Much more Melges 24 information is in the report following this release. Two crews earned the luxury of becoming tourists on the final day: Chris and Kara Busch's 1D35, Wild Thing, from San Diego and Richard Perini's Mumm 30, Foreign Affair, from Sydney, Australia. Each clinched its one-design class with a race to spare Thursday and can afford to send Friday's final race to the discard bin and kick back. Wild Thing never gave its competition an opening. The talent-laden boat
won six of seven races-the last five in a row. Gary Weisman, the North
Sails president who was Wild Thing's tactician, said, "We had one
of those good weeks"-the understatement of the regatta. "There
are a lot of brains on the boat. Chris knows these boats really Wild Thing placed third at Key West last year and then second to Doug Devos' Windquest by two points in the 1D35 Nationals at Miami, but Kara Busch was conservative."I expected to be in the top five here," she said.Her problem now is replacing her husband Chris and helmsman Ben Mitchell, who will be joining Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes America's Cup team in training at San Pedro next month. Perini's Mumm 30, built in Malaysia, has never seen Australia. It was shipped directly to Sardinia for last year's class Worlds, then to Miami for the Lewmar Cup and finally to Key West. But it has an all-Aussie crew, except for tactician Steve Flam of Long Beach, Calif. and pitperson Capucine Pin of Annapolis, Md. How did Flam hook up? "He just showed up wearing the right shirt," Perini said.Flam also showed up this week wearing a hood and a thick facial coating of zinc oxide. He recently received major treatment for skin cancer-it's called a "face peel"-and said, "My dermatologist told me to stay out of the sun." He did the best he could. Foreign Affair spent minimal time on the water this week, although the crew was leaning toward sailing a meaningless race today. "It's a bit rude not to," boat captain Darren Jones said. "We'll just take a carton of beer and a stereo and have a good time." Several boats, including Foreign Affair, Doug Harkrider's F-28R trimaran and David Balfour's J/80, overcame temporary lapses in speed when they collected kelp on their rudders or keels.Randy Smyth was 1-2 and has the title in hand. Harkrider, the F-31 national champion, said he thought the multihulls had made a good enough impression to be invited back."We've had a lot of people stare at us as we go flying by," he said. Bob Johnstone, who moved to the top of the J/105 class with a 5-1 day, said, "We had good starts and good speed, but it's very competitive. The top 10 boats are all in there." Defending champion Kerry Klingler has a comfortable lead in the J/80s, though not as overwhelming as last year. "It's hard for any person to dominate these races," Balfour said after his 1-6 led the way Thursday. Idler's protest against Rima arose from a pre-start incident when Idler
tried to keep its larger rival out of the starting box. "We kind
of took 'em up," said Idler tactician Ken Read, who drives the Stars
& Stripes boat. "We wanted to push 'em up beyond the pin. "Big
boats here seem to have a pretty distinct advantage. With these wind Andreadis' error occurred at the windward mark of Thursday's first race when he finished sixth. He tried to squeeze Atalanti XI around the mark in front of Samba Pa Ti. "It was either that or they would have had to duck a lot of boats coming up [on the starboard layline]," said Jeff Madrigali, a member of Samba Pa Ti's afterguard. Heartbreak tactician Terry Hutchinson noted, "It's so tempting to go in there instead of taking 15 transoms." Atalanti XI tactician Robbie Haines took the setback well. "We just figure it's our throwout, anyway," Haines said. Hutchinson said today's strategy won't necessarily be to attack Atalanti
XI in a match race. "I think the wind's going to go light Friday,
so our plan is just to sail. Certainly, we'll be in touch with them, but
it's too easy BOATS OF THE DAY Monday/ Lewmar Marine Day: Nerone (Farr 40), Masimo Mezzaroma,
Savona, Italy
Publicity INTERNATIONAL MELGES 24 CLASS ASSOCIATION FLAVIO FAVINI & HARRY MELGES HEAD THE LEADER BOARD
AT MELGES 24 WORLD The penultimate day of the 2001 Melges 24 World Championship brought
an interesting mix of weather and sea conditions and some very exciting
racing. Although the race committee had hope to complete 3 more races
the Overnight leader Flavio Favini (helming for Franco Rossini) consolidated his lead in race 7 with another impressive win but race 8 saw him cross the line 7th with a protest hanging over him following an incident with Brian Porter on the final run. Harry Melges meanwhile put in another solid day to take a 2nd and 4th keeping him safely in second place overall. "We were happy with this morning and then we came out OK in the
second one. There are still two races to go so the situation is definitely
still open. Full Throttle is protesting us for an incident in race eight
so we'll have Race 7 started in 15 knots with a nasty chop on top of the long swell
and for the first time all week the fleet seemed to favor the left hand
end of the line. Unfortunately a number of teams were a little too eager
and At the start of race 8 the wind was down to around 12 knots and it continued
to drop off throughout the race. Although the worst of the chop had flattened
off there was still a noticeable swell running and it was the Melges was delighted with his 2nd and 4th and with the promise of his preferred light airs for the final two races tomorrow is looking forward to the last day. "We had a good day today. The wind was fading all day which was to our favor because Flavio and his team have been going so fast when the breeze is up. We finally got ahead of him in the last race so we've gained a couple of points back. We've got a couple of races tomorrow with some lighter air so we'll see what happens." commented Melges. As we go to press the result of the protest between Porter and Favini,
which will have a significant effect on the standings is still awaited.
What is clear is that regardless of the result of that protest the championship
is still very much open and we can expect some great sailing again tomorrow
and Favini and Melges fight it out for the Melges 24 World Title. Full results and further information on the Melges 24s can be found at www.melges24.com. |
