A worthy winner

Mean Machine dominates the final race to take the Farr 40 Key West title writes Andy Nicholson

So it came down to a final race shoot out in the Farr 40s to determine the winner. Five boats were really in the shout for the win, but it was Mean Machine - leading from the first windward mark that took the top prize.

The race today would have made an excellent soap opera. Mean Machine came out of the pin, the only boat really nailing the left hand side. All the other main protagonists were on the starboard end of the line and as the beat went on they looked stronger and stronger.

What has characterised Mean Machine’s performance this week is sticking to their guns. They have frequently hit the left hand side very hard but on top of this they have confidently sailed the side they have chosen.

It was set up as a humdinger as Mean Machine rounded the windward mark first, Barking Mad second and Crocodile Rock in third. Then the rest of the fleet rounded a few seconds later in spectacular style in bright breezy conditions (24 knots) four deep.

For us on Bambakou we achieved an average result, of tenth, which kept us tied to our averages and we ended up ninth overall. This is a little disappointing. But like all good regattas you come a way stronger and I think we are sailing much better downwind and have made gains on several weak areas we have identified.

Samba Pa Ti had a shocker today. I feel quite comfortable to talk about it as they slapped a tack right on our face and forced us to the unfavoured side of the beat which lost us a lot of boats. They came into the final leeward mark, having done an excellent job to fight their way into the top slots. They were late in hoisting the jib into the bottom mark and gybed with it half up. This resulted in a ‘Double Boner’, with the top two battens of the jib sending it round the front and into a drama scenario. What this underlines is that such a straightforward and very rare error is punished by losing eight boats.

Although the fleet is thinner this Key West with 23 boats, but the standard is as high as ever. There is still no equal. Five points separated the top four boats. Next up will be the SORC in Miami in four weeks time, then the boats will disperse for the summer, before the big September showdown in San Francisco for the Worlds.

The Schooner Bar in the Marina has been our chosen post race beer venue. And to take the words of one of their guitar swinging entertainers; “I’d raaather be heeere drinking a beeeer, than freeezing my ass off up north.”

Results

			R 1	R 2	R 3	R 4	R 5	R 6	R 7	R 8	R 9	Total
1	Mean Machine	Peter De Ridder	6	7	18	5	6	12	4	2	1	61
2	Barking Mad	James Richardson	2	8	6	8	16	4	15	1	2	62
3	Riot	Marc Ewing	18	12	3	6	11	3	3	5	4	65
4	Crocodile Rock	A Geremia/S Harris	9	2	8	9	3	8	7	13	7	66
5	Warpath	Steve & Fred Howe	10	6	7	1	1	19	9	8	7.6 rdg	68.6
6	Atalanti	George Andreadis	8	1	10	17	5	16	1	12	3	73
7	Sotto Voce	Arien van Vemde	5	14	9	7	8	13	2	11	5	74
8	Samba Pa Ti	John Kilroy	3	13	11	4	15	11	5	7	13	82
9	Bambakou	John Coumantaros	12	11	4	13	9	1	13	10	10	83
10	Pendragon V	John MacLaurin	9.3 avg1	22	1	3	2	6	18	16	6	83.3
11	Joe Fly	Maspero Giovanni	10 p40	4	19	19	7	20	8	3	8	98
12	Virago	Stuart Townsend	7	17	14	2	19	15	12	6	11	103
13	Twins 2	Erik Maris	15	18	2	10	13	10	14	9	14	105
14	Breeze	Vincenzo Onorato	19	3	5	15	18	21	19	4	9	113
15	Solution	John Thomson, Jr.	14	15	17	12	4	5	21 p20	17	15	120
16	Dynamo	Eric Moog	20	5	22	16	14	9	10	15	17	128
17	Kokomo	Lang Walker	16	16	21	22	10	2	11	18	18	134
18	Sled	Takashi Okura	11	20	13	18	12	7	20	20	19	140
19	Nitemare	Tom Neill	4	21	16	14	20	17	17	14	20	143
20	Le Renard	Steve Phillips	22	19 p40	12	11	21	18	6	19	16	144
21	Flash Gordon 4	Helmut Jahn	21	9	20	20	23	14	21	21	22	171
22	Phish Food	Alexis Michas	23	23	15	21	17	22	23	22	21	187
23	Impetuous	Paul Zabetakis MD	17	19	23	23	22	23	22	23	23	195