Conditions come good at Quantum Key West Race Week

Three way tie in the GC32s as Belle Mente's request for redress is overturned

Organisers at Quantum Key West Race Week made up for Wednesday's' light winds by holding three races for Divisions 2 and 3. The six classes competing on those two courses were sent out an hour early to take advantage of the ESEerly winds that held steady between 10 and 15 knots through the day.

Competition in IRC 1 class tightened up before the three Mini Maxis left the dock. Hap Fauth's Bella Mente had received redress from the International Jury on Wednesday night after running aground on a shipwreck. The redress hearing was reopened on Thursday morning and new facts were presented that prompted the Jury to reverse its decision to award average points to Bella Mente for Races 5 and 6, reinstituting the DNF and third place results the boat originally posted. This propelled Numbers into a tie for the overall lead.

Having managed two races on Wednesday, classes racing within Division 1 sailed two races today. In IRC1 Bella Mente and Numbers remain tied after both posted a first and second on Thursday. Numbers' charterer for this regatta, Gunther Buerman, is very pleased to be battling for the victory going into the last day of racing.

"It's very exciting to be here and the racing has been quite fun," said Buerman, who has silver fox Brad Butterworth as tactician. "The racing has been very, very close and every second matters. What happens tomorrow will depend largely on the breeze and the length of the courses. There are a lot of factors with these boats and the results can be very weather dependent."

For the GC32s today's conditions proved ideal, providing the opportunity to foil easily on the downwind legs, with boats speeds soaring into the mid-20s.

Remarkably at the close of play, with eight races now sailed, the GC32s go into the final day of racing tomorrow with three boats – ZouLou, ARGO and ARMIN STROM Sailing Team - all tied on 16 points.

A full complement of four GC32s were out on the water, with the bowsprit issues on Alex Jackson’s Leenabarca now resolved. But the day belonged to ARMIN STROM Sailing Team and ZouLou.

In the first ZouLou got off to a poor start and was forced to tack away early as the three others remained on starboard. ARMIN STROM Sailing Team edged into the lead and coming into the top mark crossed ZouLou around five boatlengths ahead and from there maintained her lead around the course.

For second bout, it was ARMIN STROM Sailing Team’s turn to head away from the line on port. However this time the right paid for Marazzi’s team and they once again were first into the top mark, but on this occasion with ZouLou on their transom. On the first downwind Marazzi overstood allowing ZouLou to gybe inside of her to lead around the bottom gate.

The race finished at the end of the third upwind leg, by which time ZouLou just managed to fend off the advancing Swiss to take the bullet. This caused some pleasure for ZouLou’s jib and the genniker trimmer, Thierry Fouchier. “They [ARMIN STROM Sailing Team] know the boat better than us because they did some events last year while this is our first event. So that was pretty nice.”

While the leaderboard remains fantastically close and there were only 30 seconds between the first and fourth finishes, in fact Marazzi’s team is the only one racing at Quantum Key West Race Week with prior experience of competing in the GC32 and among the crews there is a general feeling of being on a steep learning curve in terms of how to get the best from the ultra-high performance foiling cats.

“Everyone is still learning the boats and how to fly and go fast,” says Fouchier. “Especially on the gybes - with the gennikers you can’t do a foiling gybe like we’ve seen in the America’s Cup. So you have to lower the boat on the water and then gybe, so there are passing opportunities there. And it makes it hard to decide your laylines, because when you are flying or not flying it makes a big difference to your speed and your bearing.”

His skipper Erik Maris said his boat achieved 25 knots of speed while foiling downwind. "These are the most fun boats I've ever sailed because of the incredible speed. When you are up on the foils and going 20-plus knots, the feeling is incredible. We go by the mini maxis like they are dead in the water.

"I've had many, many sailboats and this is just the best. It is very different than anything I've ever been on before. It is a totally new dimension because of the speed, which can be a bit scary."

Things have also come down to the wire in Melges 32 class as well with Bermuda skipper Alec Cutler and his crew on Hedgehog maintaining the lead for the fourth straight day. However, Michigan skipper Dalton DeVos and the Delta team are just three points astern and those two boats will duke it out for overall victory for the second straight year at Quantum Key West.

"It is very similar to last year. Alec is a great sailor with a great team and that boat doesn't make many mistakes," said Dalton DeVos, a 23-year-old college student. "We just have to go out and sail our own race, go as fast as we can and try to make sure we are on the right side of the shifts."

Tonnere 4, Piet Vroon's newly acquired Ker 51, held onto first place in IRC 2 with a pair of bullets on Thursday. Tonnere 4 is getting pushed hard by skipper William Coates and his team on the Ker 43 Otra Vez, which was second in both races on Thursday and trails by two points in the overall standings.

"We have a little bit of an advantage because we are the biggest boat in this division so we are able to get clear air and have control of our closest competitors," said Kevin George, tactician aboard Tonnere 4, which leads Otra Vez by four points in the HPR sub-class.

Bradley Faber, skipper of the J/111 Utah, said it was a long day on the water after their three race day but his crew enjoyed every minute of it.

"It was an exceptional day out there. Classic Key West conditions," Faber said. "We came here to go racing so the more, the better."

Utah got the gun in two of three races on Thursday, finishing third in the other only because of a blown out spinnaker. That strong performance earned Utah the Industry Partner Boat of the Day award and also enabled the Michigan entry to put pressure on My Sharona, which has led the J/111 class at the end of each day's racing.

Skipper George Gamble and his team on My Sharona takes a four-point lead into Friday, which is forecast to have similar wind conditions as Thursday. Race organisers plan to hold two races on divisions one and three and they should reach the 10-race series that was scheduled. Division two can have as many as 12 races and they will come close to that with an earlier start and three races planned for Friday.

"We had a really great day. The boat and the crew both performed very well," Faber said. "We still believe we can win this thing. We're ready to do battle with My Sharona and see what happens."

Faber said Wally Cross, a professional with title sponsor Quantum Sail Design Group has made a big impact on his program. "We have a pro onboard who has really helped us a lot on how to sail the 111. Wally is doing a great job of teaching us the dynamics of the boat," Faber said.

Light winds that had predominated during the regatta were frustrating for Teamwork, the J/122 that has struggled to save its time on the smaller, lighter Farr 280s in PHRF 1. Skipper Robin Team was thrilled to see the breeze pipe up to double digits then went out on the water and took full advantage. North Sails professional Jonathan Bartlett is calling tactics on Teamwork, which won all three races on Thursday.

"Heavy air resuscitated us! The conditions we saw today were a definite advantage to the 122," Team said. "It feels extraordinarily good to have a day like this."

Teamwork jumped from fourth to second in the overall standings thanks to the three bullets. Red, a Farr 280 skippered by Britain's Joe Woods, still holds a commanding 11-point after placing first or second in all five races held Monday through Wednesday.

"It's mathematically possible for us to win, but we would need a lot of help from the other boats in the class," said Team, who won PHRF 1 in 2013 and finished second in 2014.

It was surprising to see reigning J/70 World and North American champion Tim Healy sitting in 15th place two days into the regatta. Perseverance skipper Bennet Greenwald predicted that Healy would battle back to be there in the end and he was spot on.

Healy and his crew aboard Helly Hansen have steadily climbed into second place in the 54-boat fleet, making a major move on Thursday thanks to a tremendous score line of 2-2-1. Tactician Geoff Becker, trimmer John Mollicone and bowman Gordon Borges comprise the crew aboard Helly Hansen, which trails class leader Carlo Alberini's Calvi Network by three points.

"Our starts weren't great and some things didn't go our way," Healy said when asked about the slow start. "We've dug our way back by doing a little better job of playing the shifts and passing boats."

Healy, President of North Sails One-Design, captured J/70 class at Quantum Key West in 2013 and 2014. The veteran professional said the fact he had to fight back into contention is further evidence the fleet is getting deeper and stronger.

"People are learning the boats while the crews are getting better with more experience," he said.

It's basically a battle for second place in the Melges 24 class as Irish skipper Conor Clarke and his crew aboard Embarr have built a commanding 18-point lead. However, the runner-up position is very much up for grabs with Canadian skipper Richard Reid and his crew on Zingara holding a two-point lead over Mojo and the Norwegian Team RRH.