Key West Race Week
Quantum Key West Race Week is back for 2016 and as good as ever in its first year under the management of the Storm Trysail Club. With 133 boats in 12 one-design and handicap divisions, and sailors hailing from 16 nations around the globe, the regatta continues to cement its position as the place to be for midwinter racing. Including Mini-Maxis, TP52s, IRC and ORC fleets, J/111s, a 54-boat J/70 fleet, J/88s, a dozen Melges 24s, an 11-boat C&C 30 fleet, and a token two-boat multihull division, KWRW is stacked this year with world-class racing hardware and top-tier talent.
Key West’s reputation as a breezy venue has been reinforced this week, with the fleet kept on the dock for both Sunday’s final day of practice and Tuesday’s second day of racing, as two cold fronts rolled over the Conch Republic bringing driving rain and nuking breeze. In anticipation of this, regatta organizers managed to squeeze in three races on Monday and will attempt the same later in the regatta with a stated goal of completing 10 races.
Bay Area boats and sailors are well represented throughout the impressive fleet. Earning the prestigious City of Key West Boat of the Day honors on Monday was San Francisco Bay sailor Peter Wagner’s San Francisco-based J/111 Skeleton Key. With solid crew work and North Sails’ Seadon Wijsen in the back of the bus calling the shots, Skeleton Key dominated the nine-boat J/111 fleet to claim all three bullets for the day.
In IRC 2, Peter Krueger’s all-conquering J/125 Double Trouble sits in second place after four races, just three points back of the division leader Christopher Dragon, a Sydney 43. Elsewhere in the fleet, Santa Cruz native Morgan Larson is calling tactics on Doug Devos’ IRC 1-leading TP52 Quantum Racing. Many familiar West Coast faces are featured on C&C 30s, including the SoCal-based Loco, which is steadily climbing the rankings and is currently in third place after getting off to a slow start.
Racers and organizers alike will need to make the most of the moderate northeasterly breeze and conditions today and tomorrow, as another cold front is forecast to move over the area later in the week. Stay tuned to ‘Lectronic Latitude for a post-regatta recap next week and coverage of the Conch Republic Cup, which will see much of the fleet race to and from Cuba with three days of racing off Havana.