Freezing in the sun

Favini wins Melges, Croc the Farr 40s on final day of Key West race week

Italy's Flavio Favini finished off a repeat Melges 24 triumph with a flourish at Terra Nova Trading Key West 2003 Friday, while some of his successful peers played the hefty breeze like snake handlers hoping just to hold onto leads and claim class titles.

Wind was still whistling through the rigging as boats returned from a single windup race and the winners discussed their good fortune.

"This is our best win," said Alexandra Geremia, who shares ownership with helmsman Scott Harris in the Farr 40 Crocodile Rock.

Like Croc, Australia's Richard Perini also was delighted with a ninth place that earned him his second consecutive Key West championship in the aggressively International Mumm 30 fleet. The first six boats were from five countries.

With the 1D35 title assured, David Kirk's Détente along with all but one of the rest of the class, sat out the day. The exception was Doug and Dick DeVos' Windquest, which sailed to a solitary victory and second place overall.

The 14 Corsair 28R trimarans also stayed in port, allowing Bob and Doug Harkrider sailing Bad Boys, to stand on their three-point lead over Donald Wigston's Whipper Snapper.

Favini, discarding a 12th, had no other finish worse than seventh and ran away on a 4-1-3-2 streak the last 2 1/2 days. Somehow, rivals have marveled, he just seems to make a Melges 24 go faster than anyone else, even after a year's absence with Vincenzo Onorato's America's Cup campaign.

The Key West Trophy for the International Team Championship - as close to a world championship of inshore sailing as the sport has these days - was won by Italy for the fourth time in five years by two points over Germany. The Italians' boats were Onorato's Farr 40, Breeze; Pierpaolo's Cristofori's Mumm 30, Printel Wind, and Maspero Giovanni's Melges 24, Joe Fly.

The Terra Nova Trading Boat of the Week Trophy was won by Zuni Bear, Richard Bergmann's J/105 from San Francisco. Zuni Bear started slowly but won three of the last four races to edge out Jim Sorensen's Wet Leopard by one point, with three others within three points.

Among the heavyweights on the Division 2 course, George David's Nelson/Marek 50, Idler, had IMS wrapped up but returned to the elements to claim a second trophy by overtaking Bandolier, Charles Burnett III's 1D48, and win PHRF 2 by two points.

Ken Read, helmsman for Team Dennis Conner in the America's Cup challenger trials, drove the boat the first two days until David arrived Wednesday, then called tactics.

"Today was the best day by far," Read said of the uncommonly cold northeast winds of 20 knots gusting to 27. "This is what you go sailing for. It was a little chilly, but compared to Auckland this was a balmy summer day. I had fewer layers [of clothing] on here."

Perini, judging the weather by Australian standards, didn't entirely agree. "It's the coldest race I've ever done with the sun out," he said.

The day's high temperature was 57 degrees, a record Key West low for the date in the 137 years of local weather tracking, but it was far warmer than where many of the competitors came from.

Small craft advisories were posted as the fleet left port 1 1/2 hours later than usual, counting on a forecast that the early morning's 25-knot winds would ease to 20 by mid-day. Roger Sturgeon and his Rosebud crew from San Francisco felt right at home in the breeze as they nailed down PHRF 1 with their third win in four races to complete a turnaround, week-long domination of the other two Transpac 52s from California, David Janes' J-Bird III and Mike Campbell's Victoria 5.

"We were hoping to improve," said Sturgeon, 58, a retired software developer. "We had training wheels on for a while."

Bob Harkrider, who drives, is a semi-converted monohull sailor - lightnings, mainly - and he led Bad Boys' comeback from a 7-1-7 start with a 2-1-2 finishing string.

"In our first race we missed a shift and wound up on the wrong side," he said. "Then on Tuesday one of our crew, Doug Fisher of Ullman Sails, got sick and was unable to sail. My wife Sharon filled in and did a really good job. Finally, the luck turned and went our way. If you hang in there long enough it will sometimes happen that way.

"We were fast all week and that's always good. When you get into trouble it's easier to climb out of it."

Harkrider also said, "I was strictly monohulls until my brother took me out on a Corsair. It took one leg of one race to sell me on multihulls. It's a blast to be sitting there and going those kinds of speeds."

With the race committee deciding in advance to sail only one race Friday, Crocodile Rock had all but a lock following Thursday's disqualification of Jim Richardson's Barking Mad in a three-way collision with Croc and Vincenzo Onorato's Breeze from Italy.
Croc's boat manager, Austin Herlihy of San Diego, prefaced post-regatta comments with a tribute to Fred Kirschner, a longtime successful ocean racer of the Coronado Yacht Club who had died two days earlier.

"We'd like to dedicate this win to Fred," Herlihy said. "He was a beautiful man." Because most of the crew members are from San Diego, Harris said, "People think we're light-air sailors, but we love the heavier breeze."

Vince Brun, a 13-time world champion in various classes, was tactician. "Vince was awesome," Harris said. "When he's on board we're a very quiet boat, which I think makes it a faster boat. Everyone just knows his job and does it."

Geremia does her job, too - whatever is required. She bought the boat three years ago. "It's been a long time getting to this point," she said, "but we've worked hard. The guys are wonderful. We make a good team."

Class winners (8 races, except 7 in Div. 2; worst races discarded after 7, except no discards in Farr 40, 1D35 and Mumm 30):

FARR 40 (24 boats)---Crocodile Rock, Scott Harris/Alexandra Geremia, Santa Barbara, 2-2-4-17-5-4-4-9, 47 points.

1D35 (8)—Détente, David Kirk, Chicago, 2-2-1-1-1-1-1, 9.

MUMM 30 (15)—Foreign Affair, Richard Perini, Sydney, Australia, 2-3-4-1-4-1-3, 27.

MELGES 24 (57)---Blu Moon, Flavio Favini, Switzerland, 2-4-(12)-7-4-1-3-2, 23.

J/105 (29)---Zuni Bear, Richard Bergmann, San Francisco, 6-12-11-(13)-1-4-1-1, 36.

J/80 (22)---Warrior, Craig and Martha White, Fort Worth, Tex., 1-2-1(9)-1-3-4-1, 13.

J/29 (10)---Rhumb Punch, John Edwards, Solomon, Md., 2-3-2-1-1-4-(5)-1, 14

TARTAN 10 (8)---Liquor Box, Robert and Bill Lehnert, Cutchogue, N.Y., 1-2-1-1-1-1-1-(9), 8.

CORSAIR 28R (14)---Bad Boys, Bob and Doug Harkrider, Belvedere, S.C., 7-1-7-2-2-1, 20.

IMS (4)---Idler (N/M 50), George David, New York, 1-1-(2)-1-1-1-1, 6.

PHRF 1 (5)---Rosebud (Transpac 52), Roger Sturgeon, San Francisco, 1-1-2-2-1-3-1, 8.

PHRF 2 (6)---Idler, (6)-1-3-1-2-3-2, 12.

PHRF 3 (12)---Tsunami (Farr 395), Ostberg/Aras/Daily, Annapolis, 1-1-2-1-(5)-3-2, 13.

PHRF 4 (10)---New Wave (Henderson 30), Michael Carroll, Clearwater, Fla., 1-1-1-1-5-1-(11), 10.

PHRF 5 (13)---Teamwork (J/120), Robin Team, Beaufort, N.C., 1-(9)-2-7-3-2-2, 17.

PHRF 6 (12)---Defiance (B-32), Scott Taylor, Long Beach, Calif., 1-4-(13)-2-1-1-3-5, 17.

PHRF 7 (10)---Invincible (N/M 30), Brian Lees/Jeff Gastrau, Annapolis, 1-1-1-1-2-1-1-(11), 8.

PHRF 8 (9)---Hot Ticket (Farr 37), Jim Hightower, Houston, Tex., (5)-1-4-1-4-1-1-1, 13.

PHRH 9 (10)---Areopagus, Ed Tillinghast III, New York, (5)-5-1-1-3-1-2-2, 15.

PHRF 10 (12)---Rumblefisch (J/24), Peter Fischel, Savannah, Ga., 1-3-1-4-2-1-1-(13), 9.

BOATS OF THE DAY

Monday, Nautica Day: Fitikoko (Tripp 38, PHRF 5), Andrew Wilson, Annapolis, Md.

Tuesday, City of Key West Day: Rock N' Roll (Melges 24), Argyle Campbell, Newport Beach, Calif.

Wednesday, Mount Gay Rum Day: Zuni Bear (J/105), Richard Bergmann, San Francisco.

Thursday, Lewmar Marine Day: Crocodile Rock (Farr 40), Scott Harris/Alexandra Geremia, Santa Barbara, Calif.

Friday, Terra Nova Trading Day: Mammy! (Mumm 30), Diarmuid Foley, Cork, Ireland.

FARR 40S
Pos	Name	Skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R^	R7	R8	Total	Country
1	Crocodile Rock	A. Geremia/S. Harris	2	2	4	17	5	4	4	9	47	USA
2	Samba Pa Ti	John Kilroy	4	7	3	23	7	12	2	8	66	USA
3	Barking Mad	James B. Richardson	10	5	2	16	3	5	25 dsq	3	69	USA
4	Bambakou	John G. Coumantaros	13	15	21	8	2	3	8	1	71	USA
5	Heartbreaker	Robert L. Hughes	1	14	16	19	8	1	14	5	78	USA
6	Breeze	Vincenzo Onorato	22	13	7	1	21	7	7	2	80	ITA
7	LeRenard	Steve Phillips	21	8	5	5	18	9	8 p20	7	81	USA
8	Virago	Stuart Townsend	20	6	11	7	6 p20	6	13	15	84	USA
9	Atalanti XII	George Andreadis	11	3	1	2	15	13	17	25 dnc	87	GRE
10	Warpath	Fred & Steve Howe	14	17	8	3	20	14	6	11	93	USA
11	ISKRA	Borys B. Jarymowycz	7	12	6	10	4	23	18	14	94	USA
12	Struntje light	Dr.Wolfgang Schaefer	8	1	9	21	19	18	20	6	102	GER
13	SLED	Takashi Okura	6	20	17	4	13	15	10	17	102	JPN
14	BOTTADI CULO	Arrivabene/Mincione	3	4	14	6	12	24	19	21	103	ITA
15	Mean Machine	Peter De Ridder	16	10	12	22	6	25 p40	11	4	106	NED
16	Joss	Owen Kratz	5	18	25 p20	18	10	2	14 p20	16	108	USA
17	Honour	Alek Krstajic	9	16	24	9	9	25 p40	5	13	110	CAN
18	Groovederci	Deneen & John Demourkas	15	9	13	15	14	17	12	18	113	USA
19	Kokomo	Lang Walker	18	22	22	11	22	10	1	10	116	AUS
20	Racing Bull	Jean Pierre Delmotte	12	21	15	13	16	8	23	20	128	FRA
21	Nitemare	Tom Neill	23	11	10	12	25 dsq	19	16	19	135	USA
22	Flash Gordon 4	Helmut Jahn	24	24	19	14	11	11	22	23	148	USA
23	Gone Too Farr	David Carrel	17	23	18	25 dsq	17	21	15	12	148	USA
24	Diana	S.A. Promendo	19	19	23	20	23	20	21	22	167	POR

Fi Brown wraps up the Melges 24 action

Second place in the final race of the series was enough to give Flavio Favini, helming for Franco Rossini, his second consecutive Melges 24 Key West title ahead of Brian Porter.

Record 90 year low temperatures and strong winds made for unexpected conditions on the final day of racing. The start of the last race was postponed for 90 minutes while the wind dropped and the crews bundled up against the cold. "It's more like winter series racing in the Solent than Key West out there," said Olympic Silver Medallist Keith Musto.

Once underway the crews were in for some outstanding racing and one of the closest finishes of the week. With 18-22 knots from the NNE the committee wisely moved the course in under the lee of the island where the chop was a little less severe.

When an individual recall was signalled it was overnight fourth place Argyle Campbell who was forced to turn back. Up the beat left was definitely favoured and at the first mark Kristian Nergaard popped out just ahead of the pack with Jamie Lea, helming for Richard Thompson, and Morgan Larson right on his heels. Stuart Rix, helming for Quentin Struass, also had a good beat and rounded fourth but a problem during their host resulted in a serious broach put them back down in the teens. Among the boats who overtook them were Flavio Favini, Luca Santella, Shark Kahn and Brian Porter.

Nergaard held his lead down the first run with Lea still right behind him at the leeward mark and Santella now in third, Favini fourth, Porter fifth and Shark Kahn sixth. The second beat brought constant place changing. Nergaard determinedly hung onto his lead whilst Favini crept up to second ahead of Larsen and Santella. Shark Kahn made up two places to round fifth whilst Lea dropped back into sixth ahead of Porter.

Down the second run Lea was both smart and incredibly fast overtaking all but Nergaard by the penultimate mark. Larson tenaciously hung onto third with Favini now back in fourth, Porter fifth, Santella sixth and Shark Kahn seventh.

The last beat was an absolute hum dinger and had spectators on the edge of their seats despite the biting cold. Nergaard was forced to defend every inch of the way as places changed with each tack behind him. On the very last tack it was Favini who got the second slot from Lea with Santella fourth, Porter fifth and thirteen year old Shark Kahn sixth. After a disasterous regatta Lea was delighted to go out on a better note, "Despite the cold it was a fantastic finish to the event. We've had a really bad regatta so it was great to go out on a high." said Lea after racing.

Overall Favini took his second successive Key West Melges 24 title by an impressive 14 points. Not a bad result for a man who earlier in the week had commented that he felt his starting could do with a bit of improvement after a year out of the boat due to commitments with the Mescal Latino America's Cup team. Porter was disappointed to be the bridesmaid yet again but was as enthusiastic as ever about both Terra Nova Key West and Melges 24s commenting that "Despite the cold there's still no where better to be in January!" Third place went to Kristian Nergaard whilst fourth slot was taken by Maspero Giovanni's new team from Italy, helmed by Luca Santella. Having been forced to recross the line Campbell was only able to score a 23 in the final race pushing him down to fifth overall ahead of Bruce Ayres in sixth, Jeff Jones seventh, Alec Cutler eigth, Morgan Larson ninth and Stuart Rix tenth.

Overall a fantastic week for the 56 strong Melges 24 fleet with competitors from nine nations including the first ever Russian entrants in a Melges regatta.

Results

Melges 24s
Pos	Name	Skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Total	Country
1	Blu Moon	Franco Rossini	2	4	-12	7	4	1	3	2	23	SUI
2	Full Throttle	Brian D. Porter	11	5	-17	6	6	2	2	5	37	USA
3	Baghdad	Kristian Nergaard	4	-23	1	15	7	6	8	1	42	NOR
4	Joe Fly	Maspero Giovanni	-35	17	11	3	16	3	1	4	55	ITA
5	Rock N' Roll	Argyle Campbell	12	12	2	4	3	8	15	-23	56	USA
6	Monsoon	Bruce Ayres	3	8	3	8	-21	15	16	9	62	USA
7	Kilroy	Jeff Jones	-27	1	9	17	18	5	7	12	69	USA
8	Frequent Flyer	John Sherlock	1	2	22	9	10	4	24	- 58 dnc	72	CAN
9	USA 399	Morgan Larson	13	11	13	1	20	9	5	- 58 raf	72	USA
10	Gorgeous Worgeous	Quentin Strauss	-20	16	7	5	5	14	13	15	75	GBR
11	Black Seal	Richard Thompson	6	30	4	-45	22	7	6	3	78	GBR
12	First Crush	Paula M. Zubrzycki	-40	9	10	14	23	12	4	7	79	USA
13	Liberty 3	Paul Lovejoy	9	24	8	18	9	10	-28	11	89	GBR
14	Flying Toaster	Mike Dow	15	18	20	-29	8	13	14	8	96	USA
15	Wicked Feet	Art Brereton	5	-26	23	12	24	11	11	14	100	USA
16	Madison	David Happ	14	19	5	2	26	17	22	- 58 dnf	105	USA
17	Panty Raid	Sean & Todd Scarborough	19	6	19	13	-35	18	17	21	113	USA
18	Xcellent	John Pollard	10	- 58 ocs	16	11	38	20	9	10	114	GBR
19	Pegasus	Philippe Kahn	7	27	6	-31	27	16	12	20	115	USA
20	No Manners	D Clark/ T Wetherell	8	21	-28	16	12	28	20	13	118	GBR
21	WKD Silver	Joe Woods	17	7	21	-48	13	22	23	18	121	GBR
22	Pegasus	Samuel "Shark" Kahn	22	13	25	28	-32	29	10	6	133	USA
23	Spider Cookie	Steve Suddath	21	14	31	26	28	23	19	- 58 dnf	162	USA
24	Defiant	Peter Wright	33	28	33	24	2	25	21	- 58 dnc	166	USA
25	Mad Hatter	Nick Halmos	26	22	14	10	30	27	37	- 58 ocs	166	USA
26	Cagey	Karen Gottwald	16	25	18	22	33	-41	34	19	167	USA
27	Own-It	Chris Doubek	24	3	36	19	43	33	26	- 58 dnc	184	USA
28	Grinder	Jeff Littfin	29	36	26	20	39	19	18	- 58 dnf	187	USA
29	My Dixie Wrecked	Brian J. Harrison	23	10	35	30	34	21	35	- 58 dnc	188	USA
30	Sofa King Fast	Bret Gripenstraw	18	-37	24	32	36	31	27	22	190	USA
31	Suzanne	Routt Reigart	39	15	32	27	-40	32	31	17	193	USA
32	AF GAAT LIGGEN	Carlo Vroon	28	35	29	37	-47	24	29	25	207	NED
33	Mach Schnell	Kent Haeger	25	31	15	50	14	- 58 dnc	58 dnc	16	209	USA
34	Panic Pending	Lainie Pardey	-46	29	46	23	31	35	32	26	222	USA
35	booby trap	Terry Gibson	44	32	34	35	11	38	36	- 58 dnc	230	CAN
36	Aura	Sheldon Ecklund	30	44	40	21	37	43	25	- 58 dnc	240	USA
37	Bling Bling	Evan Jahn	34	41	27	-51	46	39	30	24	241	USA
38	Star Tack	Nicholas Maxwell	37	43	41	42	1	34	45	- 58 dnc	243	USA
39	Foursquare Spiced Rum	Ron Weed	47	20	44	41	15	30	48	- 58 dnc	245	USA
40	No Tourism	John Raymont	31	38	30	38	19	44	49	- 58 dnc	249	USA
41	Lamorak	Mike Krantz	32	33	38	36	45	40	33	- 58 dnc	257	USA
42	Adrenaline	Wolf Lixfeld	38	34	45	47	44	26	39	- 58 dnc	273	CAN
43	Ajax	Cindy Cromwell	36	52	39	34	25	51	43	- 58 dnc	280	USA
44	Highland Heritage	Ian Cleaver	41	40	43	25	- 58 ocs	37	41	58 dnc	285	SCT
45	Adrenaline	Michael Royer	45	45	42	44	17	45	53	- 58 dnc	291	USA
46	MovingMtnsChalets	Frits Bus	42	49	37	40	42	42	42	- 58 dnf	294	ANT
47	Mellow Yellow	Vladimir Butenko	-50	46	50	39	49	50	46	28	308	RUS
48	Express Lane	Frank A. Davenport	51	39	47	43	48	36	44	- 58 dnc	308	USA
49	USA 525	Tim Fay	43	50	49	33	41	47	47	- 58 dnf	310	USA
50	Nobody's Girl	Scott A. Baker	49	51	48	-53	53	48	38	27	314	USA
51	Flyer 02	Chuck Holzman	52	48	53	46	29	- 58 dns	58 dns	58 dnc	344	USA
52	Forerunner	John L. Mathis	54	53	51	54	52	46	40	- 58 dnc	350	USA
53	Elektra	Dan van Heeckeren	48	42	- 58 dsq	49	58 ocs	49	51	58 dnc	355	USA
54	CPB	Tom & Deanna Hager	53	47	52	- 58 dnc	51	52	50	58 dnc	363	USA
55	Maiden Heaven	E. Middleton/K. Maguire	55	55	54	55	54	54	52	- 58 dnc	379	GBR
56	Mayhem	Colin Cassady	- 58 dnf	54	55	52	50	53	58 raf	58 dnc	380	USA
57	TBA	John Muir	- 58 dnc	58 dnc	58 dnc	58 dnc	58 dnc	58 dnc	58 dnc	58 dnc	406