| 29.Jan.08 | This will be my final post for 2008. Looking back at my pre-week commentary, I picked 11 boats to watch for the week as "top ten" candidates. You will recall that we had nine of the top ten coming back from 2007. Well three of them failed to repeat in the top ten, but they did not miss by much, finishing 11, 13, and 16. One of the returnees that I picked for top ten finished 12th. So seven of my 11 made it to the top ten. The three that snuck in without my notice were SEA SHADOW (at 5), SOLARIS (at 8), and TENACIOUS 501 (at 9). Congrats to those boats as well as to J'MAKIN' WAVES and ANOTHER HAZARD who filled the 14th and 15th slots. As I said earlier, it was a hotly contested regatta. Now for the sail information. As always, I add the caveat that sails play a very small part in the standings and IMHO, if you distributed sails to different boats, you'd get pretty much the same results. All the sailmakers make pretty good sails these days and they are not that much different from one to the other. The differences are more legend than anything. Having said that, I have computed the number of customers for each sailmaker and the number that they put in the top, middle, and bottom third of the standings. Some owners (not many) split their inventories, so I took the sailmaker with the most sails in the inventory. Ullman: 16 (4 in top third, 9 in middle third, 3 in bottom third) North: 10 (5, 1, 4) UK: 4 (1, 1, 2) Quantum: 3 (0, 0, 3) Doyle: 1 (1, 0, 0) For comparison purposes, the 2007 results broke down as follows: Ullman: 20 (6, 8, 6) North: 10 (4, 2, 4) Doyle: 1 (1, 0, 0) UK: 1 (0, 1, 0) Quantum: 1 (0, 0, 1) What can be said about this? Ullman lost some customers to UK and Quantum, North held it's own and Quantum did not distinguish itself. Despite having fewer customers overall, North had more in the top ten. But nothing earthshattering here (although you should watch the ads to see how the sailmakers interpret this). Overall, this was a great KWRW despite the two off days. We got in 8 great races and there were fair racing conditions. MASQUERADE showed again that she's in a class by herself. Hope to see more of you down here next year. Cheers, Nelson |
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| 26.Jan.08 | Sorry for the delay in posting this, but like others I was busy packing up the boat for travel. Then we went to the tent for awards and to bed early for an ungodly early rise to catch a morning flight out of Ft. Lauderdale. Most of the boats come out of the water at Truman Annex, but we launched from Robbies in Stock Island. One of our crew called it the most "skanky" yard she had ever seen. The yokels on the crane managed to break our headfoil. But we managed to get everything packed before dark. The mast was wrapped while on the ground and will be put on the boat this morning. Friday we started an hour early and got in three fabulous races. The wind was at about 40 degreees (NE) plus or minus 10 and the windspeed was 20 knots plus or minus about 4 knots. We completed three four leggers and completed just after noon. Crews had all they could handle and there were several dropouts at some point during the day. We saw some kites shrimping, but some good overall crew work. VMAX unfortunately did not continue on its upward trend. In our first race we took the left as planned and went to port layline. We arrived at the weather mark in good shape, but tacked below KINCSEM instead of ducking her. That would have worked had it not been for the fact that the weather offset was upwind of the weather mark. So, for the second time in the regatta, we were hung up on a mark and saw about a dozen boats pass us while we did our 360. In the third race we were drawn over the line by PERSERVERANCE and when they called our sail number instead of our bow number, we were quite late to return for a restart. We fought back and eventually passed a few boats and finished side-by-side with a few others. Despite this rather poor performance, we kept our 22nd place for the regatta due to the dropouts. Let me say a word about the dominance of MASQUERADE in this regatta. At the first mark on Friday, she was about 1/4 mile ahead of the second place boat. She loves the heavy air. She as now won this regatta four times running, perhaps never in such spectacular fashion. SAVASANA, who started the day within striking range, had decided (I have this second hand) that she would match race with MASQUERADE. If this was her strategy, it failed miserably because the single digit finishes of the first five races turned into all double digits in Friday's three races, dropping her to fourth place overall. MASQUERADE is fast and MASQUERADE goes the right way more often than not. Tom Coates, Chris Perkins and crew are nearly flawless in their execution. She gets okay, but not great starts. She is not always at the favored end of the line. If you watch Kattack, you will find that she tacks less and goes in the right direction. She is the J/105 to beat in any big regatta these days. So, in summary, we felt on VMAX felt we should have done better. That's probably true of at least three quarters of the competitors. It seems like you always leave something on the table. But even though we did not race on two of the five days, there was some great racing on the other three days. Yes, it was worth it and yes, we still want to come back for more. Hope to see you down here next year. I'll have one more entry in the commentary discussing my early week prognosticating and the sail makers results. |
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| 24.Jan.08 | Sorry to be so late in posting this, but we got in late and then we handed out the fun awards and had a party. The day started unauspiciously enough when they postponed ashore until noon because of no wind. The weather reports were saying that the wind would arrive any time between early afternoon and early evening. Finally they sent us out at noon, hoping against hope that they would not have a third washout of the week. In 21 years this is only the second time that there has been no racing on two of the five days. After again postponing at 1:30, the wind finally did come up at about 2 p.m. and they kept us out for a second race starting at 3:30 p.m. The first was a standard four legger to the NNE with 7-12 knots and the second was actually a five legger to the NE with 12-15 knots. By the time we got in, it was nearly dark (6 p.m.) and all the tent activities were postponed for an hour as well. Tomorrow they promise at least two races and possibly three. Some of you at home have found these blogs a little stale this year without any juicy tidbits about our boat (VMAX). So I will correct that tonight. VMAX has been steadily improving with a better result than the last in four straight races 28-24-20-15-14. Malcolm Gefter and I are alternating on helm and pit. The first race that I had was without any practice since we were blown out on Sunday. So Malcolm was conservative on his first start and we were third row and I was aggressive on my first start and I was OCS and the last to be called back. We passed a bunch of boats on the first upwind leg, but came into a wall of starboard tackers at the first weather mark. Following a downspeed tack and an attempt to shoot the mark unsuccessfully, we got hung up on the weather mark and rounded dead last. Over the next three legs we managed to pass ten boats and finished 24th. Today was much better. We had two good starts and even made it to the weather mark in the top 5-6 in the second race. We mostly had good speed and managed to blunder too badly in our tactics. But we did lose a few boats on the final weather leg due to poor concentration. Then on the way back we did not see water out the back, so we knew something was wrong with our cooling system and we sailed the boat back to the dock. Some three hours later we found a good samaritan who had a spare impeller (thanks Carl & Scott Gitchell), cleaned out the strainer and got the boat back together again. Tomorrow they are starting everything an hour early. Let's hope we can continue the upward trend. We are expecting a front and more wind tomorrow. |
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| 23.Jan.08 | No racing today. They sent us out at the appointed hour. It started out cloudy, but as the day wore on the sun came out and it was a nice day. But the wind never turned on. At most the wind topped out at about 5 knots. The forecasts were all over the place and had "low confidence". At noon, the RC had had enough waiting and saw no prospects for wind, so they sent us back in. So we've had three races in three days with two washouts. The Premiere-Racing results and the fun award results can be reached using the links posted on Saturday. |
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| 22.Jan.08 | It was still overcast, but other than that it was a perfect race day and they got in three races. The wind started from the ENE and moved steadily to the ESE with four leggers of 1.9, 1.5, and 1.5. The bearings were 80, 95, and 125. The pressure varied between about 15 and 20 knots. At the first mark of the first race, the three leaders were MASQUERADE, PERSEVERENCE, and KINCSEM. But then I lost track after that. The first race was won by MASQUERADE with PERSEVERANCE second and SOLARIS third. In the second race it was SAVASANA, ECLIPSE, and MASQUERADE. In the third race it was MASQUERADE, SAVASANA, and J'MAKIN' WAVES. Only the top three for the day avoided the dreaded double digits for the day. MASQUERADE, SAVASANA, and PERSEVERANCE won silver for the day. Tomorrow they are predicting more sunshine and less wind. The temps were reasonable today in the mid 70s. Back for more tomorrow. |
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| 21.Jan.08 | As predicted, the wind blew. As predicted, the RC put up the AP (postponing the harbor start) until 11:30 a.m. At 11:30 a.m. they told us there were sailable conditions outside. There seemed to be less wind inside than yesterday, so the boats were anxious to go. But when we rounded the point at Ft. Taylor, we realized why the RC was reluctant to send us. The winds were steadily in the high 20s with gusts to the high 30s. We sailed around for a bit and checked in, but the RC realized that discression was the better part of valor and sent us back in. There was a modicum of grousing that we did not get to race (we could "easily" get around a course), but none of it was very loud. The damage and equipment failure seemed to be kept to a minimum. On VMAX we lost our Windex, but due to the generosity of Ken Colburn (sailing his Swan 42 and still the owner of GHOST) we were able to get his spare when we learned that West Marine was already out. Thanks, Ken! Tomorrow the winds are still projected to be in the 20s, but lighter than today. So, hopefully, we'll get off the dock at the appointed hour for our 10:30 a.m. start. |
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| 20.Jan.08 | The cold front came through last night. Today's temps were in the low sixties. And the wind blew. It was steadily in the 20s and gusts well into the thirties. Only a few brave boats went out to practice. We finished up the inspections and we caught our usual quota of expired flares and flashlights with spent batteries. The major issues were all resolved one way or the other. We heard one story from SHAKEDOWN of an expected 24 hour trip down the east coast that turned into over forty hours. Somewhere in SC their trailer lost three wheels, fixed by "Junior", and then a few more incidents with a left front tire on the tow vehicle that would not hold air. Their boat still did not have a boom attached when we came to her. Another, NOT MINE, seemed to be without a backstay. But all 34 boats are here and (mostly) ready to race. Tomorrow they are predicting high winds as well. One owner heard from Dave Ullman that he thought that there was a 90 percent chance that they would not let us sail. I'll let you know. |
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| 19.Jan.08 | Hot and sunny here today with temps in the 80s (sorry about that, northerners). I got myself a new hat and some suntan lotion (and some cash) and was ready to roll. Helping me with inspections is Rob & Laura Mock (Rob is our new president). During the day we inspected about 24 of the 34 boats. Most of the boats went out to practice in the perfect conditions. The winds were in the low teens, perfect for practicing. There were a few inspections issues, as there always are. But the one that I wanted to report generally is that 80% of the boats that tried to install their emergency tillers could not do so because the Deldrin sleeve that the emergency tiller fits over had deformed (grown by an eighth to three sixteenths of an inch in diameter) so that the tiller could not fit over it. I warned the fleet about this in the past, but if you are concerned about ever using this tiller in a true emergency, you should test it every year at least. If it does not fit, you need to make the Deldrin sleeve smaller so that it does. Be warned! Tonight they are predicting a cold front and tomorrow winds in the 20s. So it remains to be seen how many boats dare to go out in the heavier conditions for practice tomorrow. I'll let you know. |
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| 18.Jan.08 | The day started inauspiciously enough. Yesterday, Meri and I drove to Longmeadow, MA so she could be the the granddaughters for the week while I flew out of Hartford Airport to Ft. Lauderdale to drive from there. Well, I needed to get up at 5:30 a.m. to make my 7:30 a.m. flight. At that time it was snowing and there were a couple of inches on the ground. After I had cleared the windshield and opened the trunk I laid my keys in the bottom of the trunk, making a mental note not to close the trunk without fetching the keys. After a few minutes of futzing around, you guessed it. I locked my keys in the trunk. Fortunately, my bride had the spare set, so I got off with only the shortest of delays. But the plane was 1:15 late in leaving. No problem, since there were no deadlines at the other end and no connections to make. When I got to Ft. Lauderdale, I realized I also forgot my cash. So I deliberately avoided the Florida Turnpike at the cost of adding lots of traffic and traffic lights. But I rolled in to Key West at 5 p.m. Weather is gorgeous today. In the 80s and very sunny. Not a huge amount of wind, however. People seem to like me to do an early week prognostication (some call it an early week jinx). Well this year it is easy because nine of ten that finished in the top ten last year are back again. I doubt they slacked off too much in a year's time, so I'm picking them again to be top ten. There are also two boats coming back, who are regulars in the top ten. So my top ten picks include eleven boats (in hull number order): MASQUERADE, CONVEXITY, ECLIPSE, GUMPTION, MAX POWER, PERSEVERENCE, FLAME, KINCSEM, GRACE O'MALLEY, SAVASANA, and RUM AT SIX. I also note that there are 15 boats from the NAC Gold Fleet and another five from the Silver Fleet. Everything told, it is probably the most competitive fleet that we have put together at Key West. Inspections start tomorrow morning. |
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| 02.Jan.08 | Commentary will be posted starting the weekend before KWRW.
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