Crunch!

Dobbs Davis reports for The Daily Sail on Thursday's spectacular at Key West Race Week

Ed: We're hunting down some photos of smashed up boats, so check back later.

Today's action in Key West resembled what everyone comes for: steady 12-17 knots of breeze, steep and choppy azure seas, and plenty of sun.

For the first time all week we were out on the Division 1 course where the action was indeed fast and at times furious among the Farr 40, 1D35, and Mumm 30 classes. While a strong flood current kept all but one boat (Dutchman Peter de Ridder's Farr 40 Mean Machine) off the starting lines, there was the usual multiple boat pile-ups at the weather marks and gates, especially in the Farr 40 class.

An approaching cold front promised building breeze and a significant right shift, yet those that stayed left in the shallower water out of the current prevailed. This winning strategy eluded plenty of smart tacticians, including Paul Cayard on John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti, who rounded the top mark well back in the pack. Since Kilroy has historically shown great speed in the breeze, they managed to dig back into the middle of the fleet.

With an excellent start at the pin end of the line, Owen Kratz's Joss, guided by Terry Hutchinson, was finally taking their turn in the front of the pack, closely followed by Bob Hughes' Heartbreaker, led by Jeff Madragali. Kratz and Hughes are both alumnists of the 1D35 class, where they enjoyed a good rivalry for three years. On the final run, however, Heartbreaker managed to sneak by Joss for the win, their second in an otherwise mediocre week for a former winner of the overall Boat of the Week prize.

We watched with that same morbid fascination one has staring at car wrecks as some especially close weather mark roundings turned into disasters in the day's second race.
Maintaining their first lead of the series by a close margin on the starboard layline, Lang Walker's Australian team on Kokomo, led by Roger Hickman, were hit in the stern by Joss trying a slight duck on port tack.

Even more spectacular was Jim Richardson's Barking Mad on port failing to yield to Scott Harris' early series leader Crocodile Rock, who was also on port trying to yield to Vincenzo Onerato's Breeze on the starboard layline. All three went head-to-wind three abreast just shy of the mark, with some words being exchanged in Italian, American, and Kiwi ( Barking Mad's tactician for the week is Gavin Brady).

The incident went to the room, with Mad being issued the DSQ and dropping from runner-up to fifth in the standings.

Unfortunately, we witnessed collisions in the other two classes on this course as well. And while Farr 40s may be able to withstand the odd bang and crunch, unfortunately Mumm 30s and 1D35s are not quite as robust, as each resulted in retirements. The first was an unusual bow-to-bow port-starboard affair on the first leg of the day's first race between Mumms when Rick Swann's Cygnet on port smashed into X-Press on starboard, with Cygnet opting to retire from the race and the day.

Buddy Cribb's 1D35 Victory did not, however, get away that easily when High O'Brien's Ripple didn't ease the mainsheet fast enough to avoid T-boning Victory just metres shy of the top mark in the second race. Fortunately no one was hurt, though both retired, Victory sporting an impressive hole in their port side.

That class is being overrun by David Kirk's Detente, in a surprising performance against reigning class champion Windquest, owned by Dick and Doug DeVos and led tactically by John Bertrand.

Collisions aside, the day was still spectacular, rewarding the more seasoned teams who had their teamwork sorted and punishing those who were not ready for the building breeze. Without any significant shifts to realize gains, each team needed to rely more on positioning, speed, and teamwork than ever before.

Tomorrow it will be all on for the Farr 40s, where George Andreadis' Atalanti XII, led by Robbie Haines, will try to recover from a mediocre day to regain the lead from Crocodile Rock. However, the predicted breezy conditions will no doubt favour Samba Pa Ti, since Kilroy has historically prevailed when the going get's tough.

And tomorrow it will be tough here in the Conch Republic. Even though we'll receive little sympathy from those that read this report, consider the forecast: record low temperature of 10 degrees, wind 20-25 knots, making for wind chills of below freezing!