Key West Race Week - standings continue to fluctuate

With two days left in the series and low scores valuable, the top boats were aggressive in the first start of the day. A group of about 12 boats at the pin end was among the 17 boats called on the course side.

Brack Duker's Revolution tied for second with George Andreadis' Atalanti, had a clean start and fought its way clear to a seventh. Atalanti was among the early starters and finished 23rd after clearing the line properly.

The fourth-placed boat, Philippe Kahn's Pegasus, finished 14th after restarting, only to find out later they were scored OCS. Kahn successfully protested the race committee's scoring, which might prove to save their regatta.

The leaders at midday were Revolution, with 48 points, Pegasus with 59 points, and Atalanti with 64 points. They ended the day in the top three, albeit in a different order.

More aggressiveness at the start of Race 7 saw seven boats called over early, but they all responded and started properly.

Pegasus, with Olympic gold medallist Mark Reynolds calling tactics, rebounded to the penthouse. Starting at the pin end, they got a large area of water to work with when about five boats around them were called over early.

They cleared the line on starboard and continued for a couple of minutes, tacked to port and sailed up the middle-right. They rounded with a comfortable lead ahead of Atalanti. The two held 1-2 around the course. Revolution had a tough race and finished 18th.

Heading into the last day, Pegasus leads overall with 60 points, while Atalanti and Revolution fall back into a tie for second with 66 points.

Mark Heeley's GBR 25R moved up to fourth with 75 points. They placed eighth in the first race and 14th in the second.

John Thomson's Solution had a mixed day, scoring 30 points on finishes of 3-27. I said we had a mixed day!

The first race went as scripted. We started to leeward of the mid-line boat with speed and in a clear lane. We worked our way up the middle-right side of the beat and rounded the top mark in third, which we held to the finish after tussling with 2272.

Ernesto Bertarelli and Swiss America's Cup crew members led at the mark, and held on for their first win of the series.

In the second race our start wasn't as clear as the first. We were halfway down from the weather end committee boat, but in a tight lane on the hip of Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory.

We worked up the right middle again but had poor boat speed. We never really got going in the light and lumpy conditions. Then we got on the starboard layline too far out from the mark, and life became unbearable as one boat after another rolled over us. We made clearing tack after clearing tack, going farther above lay line each time only to wind up below it and having to clear. That made the hot Florida Keys sun a bit hotter.

That defined our race. We recovered some on the second beat, but never fully rebounded.

Life on the layline stinks.

First published on QuokkaSailing.com, republished with permission.