{"id":191,"date":"2015-01-26T22:30:26","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T22:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/?p=191"},"modified":"2015-01-26T22:30:26","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T22:30:26","slug":"bym-sailing-sports-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/?p=191","title":{"rendered":"BYM Sailing & Sports News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Key West Race Week: Fantastic finish at Florida Keys Monday, 26 January 2015 Most of the marquee classes at Quantum Key West Race Week 2015 came down to the last day of the regatta, which delivered the toughest conditions of the week. Howling winds and rough seas challenging the competitors on Friday, \u00a0forcing the top contenders to raise their game in order to claim overall victory. That was certainly the case aboard Bella Mente, the mini maxi skippered by Hap Fauth of Minneapolis. Fauth steered the Judel – Vrolijk 72 – footer to \u00a0first place in both races on Friday to hold off a stiff challenge from skipper Gunther Buerman and his team on Numbers. \u201cOur plan was to be in position to win going into the last day and that is what happened. The wind Gods cooperated today and gave us great racing. We rose to the occasion and were able to win both races,\u201d Fauth said. \u201cI thought the whole crew did an impeccable job. We sailed hard in both races.\u201d Bella Mente wound up winning six of 10 races in posting a low score of 19 points, twobetter than Numbers, which had four-time America\u2019s Cup winner Brad Butterworth aboard as tactician. Fauth captured his fourth victory in Key West despite a grounding incident on Wednesday that caused the team to absorb seven points in two races. Bella Mente was unable to finish Race 5 then limped to third in Race 6 due to a damaged keel bulb. \u201cWe basically tanked two races and that was very hard to overcome, especially against this caliber of competition,\u201d Fauth said. \u201cNumbers is very quick and very well sailed. Gunther, Brad and their guys did a terrific job and really pushed us the whole way.\u201d Veteran professional Terry Hutchinson, who was recently named Rolex Yachtsman of the Year for the second time in his career, praised the performance of Fauth and the rest of the crew. Hutchinson, an executive with Quantum Sail Design Group, is a relative usedcomer to the Bella Mente program. \u201cHap has a lot of experience racing this boat and does an outstanding job on the helm,\u201d Hutchinson said. \u201cThe one constant we had all week was superb starting and tremendous boat-handling. \u00a0Every member of the crew really did a great job.\u201d Race committee personnel reported wind gusts of nearly 30 knots during the second race on Friday and that made for some spectacular racing. Sailors aboard the GC32 catamarans were hanging on for dear life all day as the high-tech speedsters were bouncing off waves and coming completely out of the water. Ken Legler, principal race officer on Division 1, said the foiling catamarans completed a downwind leg in just six minutes. Skipper Flavio Marazzi led the Swiss entry ARMIN STROM Sailing to aone-point victory over ZouLou, the French entry skippered by Erik Maris. Keith Swinton served as tactician while Diego Stefani was headsail trimmeraboard ARMIN STROM, which finished first or second in eight of 10 races. Argo and Leenabarca were unable to compete in the last race aftersustaining rudder damage in the rough conditions. \u201cThe last two days were really fun. These are very cool boats and they were absolutely flying,\u201d \u00a0Marazzi said. \u201cToday was a bit tricky because of the swell. It\u2019s hard to find the fine line between pushing and backing off. It is very exciting, but also very dangerous.\u201d Alec Cutler and his crew on Hedgehog carried a three-point lead into the final day and decided to cover the second place boat in Race 9. Cutler finished fourth, but forced Dalton DeVos and the Delta team to absorb a fifth. That gave Hedgehog the breathing room it needed and Cutler repeated as class champ by a two-point margin over Argo, skippered College Sailor of the Year Graham Lundy of Yale. \u201cAll five boats were very good so the competition was real tough,\u201d Cutler said. \u201cEvery boat won a race and we were the only boat that didn\u2019t finish last. It was real close racing and you could lose two or three boats in a hurry with the slightest mistake.\u201d Richard Clarke, who has represented Canada in the Olympics several times, called tactics for Cutler. Adrian Stead, a veteran professional from Great Britain, was aboard as strategist. Quantum Key West Race Week 2015 was the first regatta for Tonnerre 4 under the ownership of Peter Vroon of The Netherlands. It didn\u2019t take the crew very long to figure out how to make the Ker 51 go fast as the Dutch entry led IRC 1 class for the final four days. \u201cWe are very pleased to win such a strong class. I have an excellent bunch of sailors on the boat and they do all the work. My contributions are ballast and writing the checks,\u201d Vroon joked. \u00a0\u201cObviously, the bigger breeze of the last two days was good for our boat.\u201dKevin George served as tactician for the 84-year-old Vroon, who won Key West for the second time. \u201cIt was just a case of putting the building blocks together and gaining momentum. We focused on getting good starts and just tried to sail a clean regatta,\u201d George said. Tonnere alsowon the High Performance Rule sub-class, which consisted of five of the IRC 1 entries. Tonnere edged the Ker 43 Otra Vez (William Coates) in IRC 1 and the Carkeek 40 Spookie (Steve and Heidi Benjamin) in HPR. Impetuous, skippered by Paul Zabetakis of Stuart, Florida, topped the Swan 42 sub-class. J\/70 was the largest class of the regatta with 54 boats and featured a slew of top professionals. It was a week-long dog fight that saw constant changes at the top end of the standings. Skipper Carlo Alberini and his Italian team on Calvi Network emerged as overall winner thanks to single-digit finishes in nine of 11 races. Branko Brcin served as tactician while Sergio Blosi and Karlo Hmeljak handled the trimming aboard Calvi Network, which closed the regattawith a second after posting a steady string of fourths and fifths. That remarkable consistency in such a competitive class earned Calvi Network the ultimate prize at Quantum Key West Race Week\u2013Boat of the Week. \u201cThe talent level in this class is very high. We came to Key West because we are very excited about the J\/70 fleet and want to race against the best boats,\u201d said Alberini, who won the European Championship last year. \u201cTo win here is the best feeling. This might be the most important win of my career because we beat the world champion on the water.\u201d Calvi Network totaled 49 points, eight better than the Mexican entry Flojito y Cooperando that is skippered by Julian Fernandez Neckelmann. Italian pro Vasco Vascotto called tactics on Flojito, which closed the regatta strong with a first and second on Friday. Tim Healy, the reigning J\/70 World Champion and two-time winner here in Key West, finished third after pushing the line and being ruled on-course side (OCS) in the last race. Gannon Troutman, the 12-year-old skipper of Pied Piper, was the talk of the regatta after finishing fifth in the talent-laden J\/70 class \u2013winning a race while also posting a second and third. San Francisco skipper Jim Cunningham captured the Corinthian Division of J\/70 class, which had 20 boats. Irish skipper Conor Clarke competed in Key West for the first time and came away with an impressive victory in Melges 24 class, winning eight of 11 races and beating the second place boat by 23 points. Stuart McNay and Dave Hughes,who are mounting a 470 Olympic campaign together, were helmsman and tactician aboard Embarr. \u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic feeling to win in Key West,\u201dsaid Clarke, a Dublin resident who\u2019s had the regatta on his bucket list. \u201cToday\u2019s sailing was just amazing. We had perfect conditions… just what the brochure said it would be like.\u201d J\/88 class was decided on Friday with Rob & Sandy Butler sailing Touch2Play Racing to victory in both races. That clutch performance gave the Canadian entry \u00a0the same amount of points as Deviation, skippered by Iris Vogel of used Rochelle, N.Y. Touch2Play won the tiebreaker by virtue of more first place finishes. \u201cWe kind of put the pressure on (Deviation) by winning the last race on Thursday. We still trailed by two points so we kused we had to come out and win both races today,\u201d Rob Butler said. \u201cOur crew was really dialed in and we had very good boat speed. I\u2019m proud of the team for doing what we had to do in order to win the regatta.\u201d J\/111 also had a one-design class and Florida skipper George Gamble steered My Sharona to a wire-to-wire victory. Quantum pro Scott Nixon called tactics on My Sharona, which displayed superb boat speed in all conditions in winning five races and placing second or third in four others. British skipper Joe Woods and his crew on Red set the pace in PHRF 1 from the outset and led at the end of each day\u2019s racing. Dave Lenz served as tactician aboard the Farr 280, which won five races and placed second or third in four others. \u201cJoe has sailed a Melges 24 and a Melges 32 so he\u2019s used to being on sport boats,\u201d Lenz said. \u201cThis entire crew has sailed with Joe on the 32 and that familiarity seemed to give us a slight edge from day one. We just had a little extra click of speed than everybody else.\u201d Red closed the regatta with a pair of bullets and received the Quantum Sail Boat of the Day award. Woods was also the runaway winner of the Farr 280 sub-class, which had four boats. Gerry Taylor secured his third class victory in Key West, steering Tangent to a wire-to-wire victory in PHRF 2. Veteran sailmaker Chuck O\u2019Malley called tactics while headsail trimmer Jay Corcoran anchored a strong crew aboard the Cape Fear 38, which won every race but one. Event Sponsors include Title Sponsor Quantum Sailsand Day Sponsors Lewmar (Official Marine Hardware), and Mount Gay\u00ae Rum (Official Rum). The Supporting Sponsors are B&G (Official Marine Electronics), Marlow Ropes (Official Rope), andGaastra (Official Clothing and Footwear). Key West Race Week is also supported by The Florida Keys & Key West Tourism Council \u00a0 Sapporo USAis the Official Beer and Regatta Ginger Beeris the Official Ginger Beer. Chelsea Clock is providing their classic Shipstrike Clocks for the Boat of the Day trophies.20 Industry Partners bring their support through a program that is now in its 14th year. Quantum Key West Race Week 2015 is a US SAILING sanctioned event. The racing will be conducted under permit in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The sanctuary protects 2,900 square nautical miles of critical marine habitat, including coral reef, hard bottom, seagrass meadow, mangrove comm unities and sand flats<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Key West Race Week: Fantastic finish at Florida Keys Monday, 26 January 2015 Most of the marquee classes at Quantum Key West Race Week 2015 came down to the last day of the regatta, which delivered the toughest conditions of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192,"href":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marlow-ropes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}