TP52s head offshore

Five line up for Pineapple Cup 'Mo Bay'

What are the big boys doing after racing in Key West? Going for "Mo Bay," of course. Though it sounds like a cocktail, "Mo Bay" is the fond nickname given the Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race, dubbed "the best ocean race in the world" by its devotees, including three-time winner and media mogul Ted Turner.

The biennial competition, jointly hosted by the Storm Trysail, Lauderdale and Montego Bay Yacht Clubs, starts this Friday, February 4, and runs 811 nautical miles to Montego Bay, Jamaica from the Port Everglades inlet off Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Among the 19 boats competing are five TP52s sailing in their own one-design class, including Makoto Uematsu’s Japanese entrant Esmeralda, with multiple world champion Ken Read aboard; several maxi boats competing under the IRC rule, including Tom Hill’s Puerto Rican entry Titan 12, with America’s Cup veteran Mike Toppa aboard; and a balance of 40-70 footers racing PHRF, including Stuart Hebb’s Thin Ice, an Aerodyne 38 with 2004 Olympic Gold Medallist Kevin Burnham aboard.

Esmeralda at the San Francisco Big Boat Series last autumn


"It’s kind of an offshore race but not really," explained Stu Argo, the captain of Bill Alcott’s Andrews 68 Equation who competed in the 2003 event. "There is a lot of jib reaching in the Bahama Islands and different weather patterns that make it interesting. Then from Cuba to Jamaica, it’s usually a nice run in a southeasterly."

Optimum conditions have been forecasted for the coming week, and with longstanding records recently smashed at another race co-hosted by the Storm Trysail and Lauderdale Yacht Clubs--the Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race—race organizers are hopeful that the 2003 "Mo Bay" record set by Zephyrus V will be broken. The time to beat: 2 days, 23 hours, 5 minutes and 57 seconds.

The Montego Bay Yacht Club will host the awards party on Friday, February 11. Among trophies to be awarded are the Pineapple Cup, for best overall performance, and the Windward Passage Challenge Cup, awarded for breaking the course record.

Entries:

	YACHT NAME	TYPE/LOA	CLASS	OWNER/SKIPPER	Country
1	Kodiak (withdrawn)	Frers 66'	IRC	Randall Greene	USA
2	Serengeti	Tripp 60'	IRC	Chad Weiss	USA
3	Goombay Smash	Swan 45'	IRC	William Douglas	USA
4	Titan	Reichel/Pugh 75'	IRC	Tom Hill	USA
5	Decision	Andrews 70'	PHRF	Stephen Murray	USA
6	Denali	Nelson-Marek 68'	PHRF	William McKinley	USA
7	Thin Ice	Aerodyne 38'	PHRF	Stuart Hebb	USA
8	Genesis	Next 57'	PHRF	Russell Steiner	USA
9	Velox	J-120 41'	PHRF	Steve Mills	USA
10	Ptarmigan	Nelson Marek 52'	PHRF	Larry Dickie	USA
11	Renegade	Santa Cruz 52'	PHRF	Tom Slade	USA
12	Perigrine	J-120 40'	PHRF	Dan Coughlin / Scott Ward	USA
13	Donnybrook	Custom 73'	TBA	James Muldoon	USA
14	Equation	Andrew 68'	TBA	Bill Alcott	USA
15	Lightwave	Transpac 52'	TP52	David Ford	USA
16	Esmeralda	Transpac 52'	TP-52	Makoto Uematsu	USA
17	Sjambok	Transpac 52'	TP-52	Michael Brennan	USA
18	Trader	Transpac 52'	TP-52	Fred Detweiler	USA
19	Rosebud	Transpac 52'	TP-52	Roger Sturgeon	USA