the 2013 Cup may certainly help in promoting live broadcast audiences.
Is San Diego disappointed? Sure, this would have been a choice more consistent with the history and traditions of the event and closer to a larger on-site fan base. But in the end it’s the commercial deals that win, and we’re sure Bermuda will go all out to accommodate their new partners.
A new record contender… The recent entry of Bob Oatley’s Wild Oatsinto this summer’s 2015 Transpac represents a significant and credible threat to break- ing the current course record of 5d 14h 36m 20s set by Neville Crichton’s Alfa Romeo II in 2009. Famously equipped with Hugh Welbourn’s patented Dynamic Stability System (DSS), this slender Reichel-Pugh 100-footer is now planning a longer stabilising board to pack on even more power to challenge the 2,225-mile course, which is typically a short beat after the start in Los Angeles followed by reaching and running conditions to the finish at Diamond Head in Honolulu. Oatsis being chartered for the race by Roy Pat Disney, whose dream of setting the course record is very much a family tradi- tion, having accompanied his father Roy’s numerous attempts at doing the same for two decades starting in the 1980s onboard his various Pyewackets. Roy’s next-to-last Pyewacket, a 73ft turbo sled, finally did break Bill Lee’s legendary Merlin’s 20-year- old course record in 1997 on a mark of 7d 11h 41m 27s, which stood until 2005 when Hasso Plattner’s maxZ86 Morning Glory broke it with a new record run of 6d 16h 4m 11s. With most of the new 100-footers opting to go across the cold North Atlantic this summer, right now the only other large, fast contender heading to Hawaii is Manouch Moshayedi’s modified Bakewell White-designed Rio 100. While Manouch also dreams of being the fastest monohull, his real goal is to win the iconic Barn Door Trophy, awarded to the first-to-finish monohull entry with no powered assistance, so her keel is fixed. Manouch was ready to affix his own DSS apparatus, but the event organisers consid- ered this outside the bounds of the criteria for the trophy, so Rio 100will remain in conventional foil trim.
Key West takes on new classes… and courses The midwinter mecca of Quantum Key West beckons again, attracting teams from all over the US and beyond for a full week of competitive inshore buoy racing. After over a quarter of a century of success in the venue and format, Premiere Racing’s Peter Craig and his team will be offering a few new innovations to provide some interest and variety in 2015.
One is the Key West debut of the GC32 Class catamarans. This is not a first for Key West, since multihulls have come and gone over the years, but these high-speed craft will replicate the kind of action typically seen in an AC World Series stop. This is the start of a new series of events for the class in 2015. An innovation in format for this year is in the PHRF classes, where some variations from the standard windward-leeward course geometry may be used to provide variety among the multiple boat types typically found in that class.
But it’s classes in Division A that typically have the most com- petitive boats and teams. There is no TP52 class this year, but in the Mini Maxis Shockwave, Numbersand Bella Mente will lead off the racing, followed by the HPR Class which has a wide variety of high-speed designs ranging from the TP52 Ice Fire (ex-Bribón) to the Puerto Rican MC38 Lazy Dog, Steve and Heidi Benjamin’s Carkeek 40 Spookie(sporting a new spar) and Leo van den Thillart’s Kernan 47 Truewhich will be making its Key West debut. IRC 3 will have a mix of Swan 42s, Grand Soleils, plus a handful of custom Ker and Mills designs.
And with nearly 20 Melges 24s entered, it is this class that has attracted the most international teams, while the J/70s at 40 entries once again take the prize for largest turnout. ‘We’re looking forward to another great week in Key West,’ says Craig. ‘The venue, the racing, the ambience, the reliable race management – it all continues to attract a great crowd.’ Dobbs Davis
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