UK Melges in Key West

Justin Chisholm reports on a successful trip for the Brit contingent

The UK Melges 24 Squad kicked off the new year in style with a seven boat contingent at Florida’s Key West Race Week. Most of the UK terms were veterans of previous KW regattas and knew what to expect both ashore and afloat. Joe Woods and his team aboard Silver arrived several days before the start of the regatta and were greeted by uncharacteristically grey skies, a strong northerly breeze and chilly temperatures. There was some consternation amongst the UK owners when they realised that one of the people paid to move the UK fleet from regatta to regatta appeared to have done a bunk with cash without moving some of the boats. Fortunately last minute arrangements were successful and all the boats made it to the Truman Annexe base in time.

The 58 boat Melges 24 fleet was the largest at the regatta and arguably contained the most depth of talent too. A quick glance at the crew list revealed more rock stars than Live Aid. The Melges boat park was filled with past and current Olympic medalists, America’s Cup helms, Volvo Ocean racers not to mention a few past World champions.

Monday morning dawned overcast and wild. The wind was a steady 25 knots and the gusts topped out over 30. Racing was postponed until the afternoon when the breeze had abated a little. A number of classes including the Mumm 30’s were kept ashore but the Melges 24 fleet, with a hint of trepidation, headed out to the racecourse. Their reward was a superb five leg race sailed in near perfect sports boat conditions. The downwind sailing was breathtaking and a perfect demonstration of why the Melges 24 is so popular. There were a number of envious sideways glances from the J105 and J80 fleets as the Melges fleet blasted past them downwind.

Quentin Struass’s Gil popped out of the pin end of the line to lead comfortably at the first windward mark. It was clear that double Irish Olympian Mark Mansfield had quickly got the hang of the Melges in his first regatta. Things went wrong at the bottom mark however when a high speed time on distance miscalculation resulted in collision with Pegasus which ended Gil’s race with a broken pole. Mark explained on the pontoon later. “I tried to soak a bit to get behind them but that doesn’t really work in these boats and we ended up hitting them. I think I need to buy them some beer!”

Gil’s exit left Stuart Simpson’s Team Barbarians in 14th as top UK boat. Particularly satisfying for Stuart as he ring fences Key West in the calendar each year as the event at which he takes the helm. With no time to practise before racing Stuart had to rely on his Laser sailing instincts to keep it all together in the boisterous conditions. On his heels in 16th was John Pollard’s Xcellent with double Phantom dinghy national champion Laurence Crispin trimming the kite and adding some strength and tactical smarts to this already experienced crew.

Joe Woods and his solid team aboard aboard Silver clocked up a 21st. Derek Ratteray aboard Richard Thompson’s Black Seal was pleased to finish 34th in his first Melges 24 race at the helm. Martin Wedge’s Eric lost their rig and spent a busy afternoon replacing it. Mike Lyness who had chartered a boat for his first Key West wisely decided that in the interests of his insurance deposit, discretion was the better part of valour. This did give his Team Rocket Racing crew an unfair advantage in the partying stakes - of which they took full advantage.

Tuesday’s conditions appeared to be a rerun of the day before but racing was only delayed for an hour. Team Gil proved their quality with an excellent 3,9 scoreline. Martin Wedge and Neil Fulcher made best use of their shiny new rig and scored a consistent 17, 12. Xcellent and Silver finished with only a point between them for the day with Joe ahead scoring 20,17 to John’s pair of 18’s. Black Seal managed a 40,37. A sail problem aboard Team Barbarians resulted in a DNC, 20.

Wednesday was much more like the Key West brochure - warm sunshine, wind and blue skies. The race committee took full advantage and ran three excellent races. The boys aboard Gil established a strong grip on a top ten overall position with a superb 12, 9, 7 scoreline. Daily points for rest of the UK squad were remarkably similar. Xcellent scored 43 points (16,14,13), Team Barbarians 44 points (13,10,21) Silver 45 (14,21,10), Eric 49 points (10,17,22). Team Barbarians were lucky not to win a Dick de Jour award for an impromptu VHF open mic session between races which resulted in the fleet having “Barbarian FM” coming in their ears for several minutes.

Thursday started off as another day in paradise weather wise. A 12-15 knot breeze accompanied by clear skies and temperatures in the 70’s. In race one of the day Gil set their sights on an overall top five result with a 7th to add to their impressive scorecard. The rest of the British boats failed to impress with results in the twenties and thirties. Black Seal suffered a setback to their regatta when a repeat of a rudder pintle problem from earlier in the week meant them missing both races.

The breeze began to drop before the second start and continued to do so throughout the five leg race. Many times it seemed that the breeze could shut off completely. Happily for Gil and Xcellent this wasn’t the case as they were able to hold on to their respective 1st and 2nd places. Gil’s Nigel Young described the final nervy beat to the finish: “It was all about holding your nerve. The breeze was right down. There was a strip of wind leading to the finish and all the top six or so boats just kept tacking to try to stay in it.”

Friday was forecast for less that 6 knots of breeze but what materialised was a pleasant shorts and t-shirts 8 to 10 knots. All of the UK fleet were hoping for a good result to secure their overall position. John Pollard revelled in the lighter conditions to secure a 7th place ahead of Simon Strauss’s Gil in 12th. Behind them Team Barbarians recovered from a poor first beat to scrape into 16th, Black Seal recorded their regatta best with a 19th, whilst Silver lost concentration on the final beat to slip to 24th.

Overall a good solid performance from the UK squad with four boats in the top twenty of a highly competitive fleet. Most teams are hoping to use this regatta and the upcoming Miami SORC as a springboard into a very busy 2005 UK and European circuit which includes SNIM in Marseilles, UK Nationals in Jersey, Europeans in Torquay, before the fleet heads back to the Florida for the 2005 Worlds in Key Largo in December.

UK Squad results overall:

9th Gill, Simon Straus: 59, 3, 9, 12, 9, 7, 7, 1, 12
13th Xcellent, John Pollard: 16, 18, 18, 16, 14, 13, 31, 2, 7
16th Silver, Joe Woods: 21, 20, 17, 14, 21, 10, 28, 11, 24
18th Tm, Barbarians, Stuart Simpson: 14, 59, 20, 13, 10, 21, 22, 26, 16
24th Eric, Martin Wedge: 59, 17, 12, 10,17, 22, 34, 23, 42
38th Black Seal, Richard Thompson: 34, 40, 37, 28, 32, 28, 59, 59, 19
56th Moving Party, Tm. Rocket Racing, 1st in Party!