Key West Rendezvous May 17-18: ‘‘Stars & Stripes’’ Comes From Behind By Steve Morrell
I
n recent years, the Key West Rendezvous has steadily grown in size, in a large part because of the efforts of race organizer Fairlie Brinkley of the Clearwater Yacht Club. The race’s main starts have been Clearwater and Naples. In 2004, Boca Grande was added as a third start, and this year, Sarasota was added as a fourth. Fifteen boats started at Sarasota, seven at Boca Grande and 33 at Clearwater. Naples had another strong showing with 18 boats. With 73 boats in all four starts, the Key West Rendezvous again proved to be one of the most popular regattas in west Florida. Advantages to the new Sarasota start are many. Gregg Knighton, who took first in Non-Spin in the Sarasota race, stated that the 168-mile trip from Sarasota is almost all the way on the rhumb line an easier ride than coming from
Frank Hanna and crew receive their trophy for first place. Hanna won not only Suncoast Boat of the Year but first in the Non-Spinnaker A fleet from Clearwater. Photo by Laura Ritter.
Clearwater, where boats have to head west to round a marker before they can get on the rhumb line to the finish. In preceding years, he would have to travel a good distance from his home base in Sarasota to start from Clearwater. Many others agree. Gregg and others started in solid, 15-knot afternoon north winds, which pretty much were sustained for the ride all the way down to the finish. They had their whisker pole up the whole way on one tack until they had to make two jibes in the Northwest channel coming into Key West, 26 hours and 43 minutes later. Gregg said it was pretty much an ideal trip with great winds all the way down—plus they came into Key West just before 7 p.m.—just in time for standard Key West festivities. Although Gregg, on board his boat, Misty, was the only one in his class (and this race was part of the BOTY series), he had already claimed the Sarasota Bay Boat of the Year award with previous wins all season. “Stars and Stripes” Dominates Clearwater Race Normally, racers from Clearwater hope to arrive in Key West no later than early Thursday evening, afternoon being even better. This is to make happy hour. Stars and Stripes set a new standard this year. The 60-foot catamaran that Dennis Connor raced—and won—in the 1988 America’s Cup, barely made the start in Clearwater. Steve Liebel, owner of the boat, and friends stayed up late the night before getting the boat ready—after two years of refurbishing since he bought it in 2004. On Wednesday morning, they left Steve’s home on the Manatee River in Bradenton, where the boat is also kept, thinking they had plenty of time to make the 10 a.m. start. Steve’s 26-foot tender tows the boat, which has motors, to locations it can’t sail to. After heading out to the Gulf—with north winds and a late start—they knew they would never make it, so they called ahead to the race committee, telling it to hold on, don’t leave—they would still start. The tender headed back to port as soon as they were in the Gulf, and Stars and Stripes sailed north to Clearwater, passing some of the race boats heading south. An hour and half after the official start, they pulled a U-turn and began the race. Winds were only about five knots from the north, but this 60-foot America’s Cup catamaran was doing 10 to 12 knots, passing race boats—that were doing three to five knots—within a few hours. Winds increased to 12-15 knots as the afternoon progressed, and they were soon moving along at 22 to 26 knots, leaving the other boats far behind. The wind maintained the same direction and speed all through the evening, and just after midnight on Wednesday,
40
July 2006
SOUTHWINDS
www.southwindsmagazine.com