Rubbing shoulders with Hemingway

thedailysail's Andy Nicholson takes to the water in the Farr 40 class at Key West

Terra Nova Key West Race Week - presented by Nautica, starts tomorrow (Monday). This regatta has become one of the mainstays of winter racing for US sailors, and such is the level of competition in some of the classes, it attracts a host of foreign owners and sailors too. The roll call of sponsors for the event is almost endless. There are title sponsors, platinum, gold, and silver sponsors. The banners around the race village are huge - just so they can fit everyone on - and if anything the quantity of sponsors demonstrates just how successful this week has become.

Key West town has the geographical significance of being the southernmost point of continental United States, with Cuba just 90 miles away. The real flavour of the place comes from the people it has attracted. You can believe the stories of people turning up a generation ago, all their gear packed in the back of the pick up, and driving until there was no road left. Ending up so laid back they couldn’t find a petrol station to fill up the tank and make the return journey. Even the animals have taken Key West to heart, with a family of chickens (and little fluffy chicks) hanging out a few feet from the media centre.

This provides a great escape for everyone. As we arrived from the UK the northeast of the country was under an icy grip of record breaking proportions, meaning that phone calls home were all the more difficult with a balmy 25degC outside the phone booth. Our coach James lives in Vermont where his family is dealing with -40degC temperatures. His main concern is that he may not have chopped enough firewood.

The heavens did open today. A stormy front came in from the south west and dumped a large amount of rain over the town. The final boat work was concluded in a hurry as people wearing T-shirts and shorts dived into the bars surrounding the marina. A few boats were caught out as they dashed back towards the safety of the marina as the accompanying gale force winds sounded the alarm.

The forecast does however look much more satisfying for the remainder of the week, with 15-20 knots forecast for the first day of racing and no real windless days in store. There are plenty personal stories circulating - recounting last year when it was uncharacteristically cold and windy. Maybe West Marine will have a fleece/thermal sale at the end of the week.



So we’ve managed to get all the taboo subjects out of the way now. First up is weight. A great way to idle away a short conversation with newly met sailors in transit - talk of losing those Christmas excesses and just how close you are to your target weight is an easy conversation to have with anyone who has Harken trainers on their feet. Vincenzo Onorato’s squad on Breeze now numbers 11, which they have achieved after a three day dip to make the Farr 40 crew weight. This will be one of the few times that the 40 has been sailed 11 up, one wonders if the cost benefit of a three day diet for all the crew of expresso coffee outweighs the accommodation and crew gear cost of an extra person.

Second taboo subject is battens. When you have a quiver of race sails and practise sails the next logical variable to consider will be what battens to run. Mainsails get the most attention, followed by the racing jibs, then lastly the practise sails. Each crewman cannot escape achieving a high competency of batten loading/deloading as various options, tensions and stiffness are discussed (and re-discussed) by the trimmers.

The final subject which shouldn’t be talked about is how we’re getting home. Should we go straight after racing on Friday and head up to Miami’s South Beach, or should we hang out here, hire a car and cruise up the Keys (if we can find somewhere to fill up with gas). For the record we are still waiting for our travel agent to confirm some flights, so this topic will certainly rear it’s ugly head again as the week progresses.

More than any other regatta this has impressed me most with just how many boats are out practising before the racing starts. For the past three days that we have been here, there have always been at least 70 boats out on the racing areas. From our perspective in the Farr 40, several boats have been here for two or three days before us.



We did some practise races yesterday. 15 of the 23 boats entered were involved. We did two short races, both with two practise starts, so within two hours 70% of the fleet had done five racing starts and two races. That is value for money. Then today the race committee were out practising - five Swan 45s turned up and raced and then 12 Farr 40s, on a properly set up start and short course.

The biggest one design fleet here is the Melges 24 with 50 odd boats entered. Father and son Kahn are here, with Kahn Jnr (the remarkable 14 year old ‘Shark’) looking to defend his form as the current World Champion. Both Pegasus boats have been out practising over the weekend, usually later in the afternoon - presumably when all the school assignments have been completed. Prof O’Connel has put together an Irish team to race in the class with a 1720 owner. Talking to him on the plane down here he was really looking forward to the event, especially as the strength on the Euro against the Dollar had meant that before they even touched down they had already saved a large percentage of their campaign budget.

One thing that is disappointing is the drop in Mumm 30 activity. Only a few boats are competing this week and when you ask the question why, no one really knows the answer. This is strange seeing as the boat is ideal for American-style regatta sailing, with a small crew and the boat being easily trailered around the country. The Swan 45 by contrast is gathering some steam with 10 of these half a million pound vessels set to do battle. They certainly seem to be finding their niche in the racing scene.

The best thing about doing a dip for the weigh in is finally regaining your appetite and stuffing your face. We did this in style and with some awkwardness. One of our crew is Doc (who is obviously a doctor), he lives in Oklahoma and has a head of cattle - as you do. So we sat down for a great feast of barbeque steaks post successful weigh in. Midway through the meal Doc stood up and made a nice speech about us all being back together again and we all raised our glasses to Buttercup. It’s the first time any of us had eaten a meal not only knowing where the food had come from, but also to have a photograph of the beast past round the table for us all to admire.

Let the racing begin.