Key West 2010 Regatta Report & Photos, by Daniela Clark of www.PhotoBoat.com

Key West Race Week consistently has more than twice the one-design entries as the IRC and PHRF classes combined. 

For 2010's Race Week, Key West weather delivered a week that will make everybody want to come back next year, with sunshine every day and temperatures in the 70s-80s all week.  Though the breeze hovered around only 10 knots for the first three days, Thursday's 15-20 from the Southeast stirred things up, as did the ocean swells it brought with it. 

A summary of the results follows.

Farr 40

In the Farr 40 fleet- with 13 boats- several different boats took bullets at one point during the week's 10 races.  Joe Fly, owned by Giovanni Maspero of Rome, Italy, showed that a solid, consistent performance wins.  This is the inaugural Key West Race Week win for the Joe Fly crew, who have always been high in the rankings over the last few years.  This year's second and third place trophies in the Farr 40 class went to Jim Richardson's Barking Mad and Massimo Mezzaroma's Nerone, also an Italian entry.

Melges 32

 
The M32 fleet was robust at 22 and full of prior Key West Race Week champions.  It was a very international fleet again, with entries from the UK, Italy, France and Japan joining the American teams.  Competition was tight in the middle of the fleet, but John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti stood apart from the rest, winning with an 18-point lead over the second place boat, Joe Woods' Red.  Samba Pa Ti's performance also earned the team Premiere Racing's Boat of the Week award.  Third place in the Melges 32 fleet went to Lanfranco Cirillo's Fantastika, finishing with 57.

Melges 24

In the Melges 24 class, Lorenzo Santini's UKA UKA Racing and Franco Rossini's Blu Moon battled throughout the week, but even with the throwout, Blu Moon could not edge out UKA UKA Racing, who took first place with 15 points.  Blu Moon finished with 18 points, and Alan Field's WTF took third place, with 25 points.  These top three boats out-performed the rest of the fleet tremendously. The fourth place boat finished the week with 51 points.

J/105 - 14 boats

 
Brian Keane's Savasana had a tremendous victory in the always-competitive J/105 fleet, this year totaling 14 boats from around the United States.  Savasana had 4 bullets and finished with only 20 points.  Kenneth Colburn's Ghost finished next with 42.  Scooter Simmons took third with his Blackhawk team from San Francisco. 

J/80

Key West Race Week doubled as the Midwinter Championship for the J/80 class, and they had an impressive 19 entries and a fleet full of top J/80 teams including Jeff Johnstone's Little Feat, Kerry Klinger's Lifted and John Storck's Rumor. The Key West class - and the Midwinter Champtionship - was won by Glenn Darden and Reese Hilliard's Le Tigre.  The Le Tigre crew had to sail hard all week to stay ahead of Jeff Johnstone's Little Feat.  Johnstone ended up one point short despite winning both of Friday's races and having 4 bullets in the 10-race series.  Will Welles Rascal took third with 41 points.

Race course reports and complete results can be seen on the event's official website, Premiere-Racing.com, and race tracking for the J/80 and Melges 32 fleets can be viewed at Kattack.com.  More photos can be viewed at PhotoBoat.com.
 

by Daniela Clark

photos provided by Allen Clark / PhotoBoat.com

PhotoBoat.com is your best source for one-design regatta coverage, with no on-the-water interference, professional shoreside display, and affordable event CDs.  Contact PhotoBoat for your next regional, national, or world championship regatta. 

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