23 January 2023
After
four days of windward/leeward course racing in light to moderate
breezes, and a final day of no-wind conditions, two class winners
emerged at the second annual Southernmost Regatta held last week in
Key West, Florida. Victor Wild’s TP52 FOX recovered from a tough
first day of last place finishes to earn eventual victory in the
GL52 Class by only one point over David Team’s TP52 VESPER. This
class was able to complete 10 races in four days due to having their
own course area and with race direction provided by GL52 PRO Dick
Neville.Gwen Fragomen and her team on the custom Botin 44 INTERLODGE repeated their ORC class win earned in last year’s regatta, this time by a 4 point margin over Tom Sutton’s J/122 LEADING EDGE. But the win was not easy: in 6 of 8 races sailed these two teams were trading 1-2 scores in the 7-boat class which featured a wide variety of boat types: Racers, Cruiser/Racers and Sportboats. Despite these differences in boat types, the racing was close: in 5 of 8 races the winning boat’s winning in corrected time was by less than 1 minute after an hour of racing…in one race the margin was only by 3 seconds.
This was due to the scoring method used for the GL52’s and the general ORC class: the ORC 5-band system developed and introduced last year for use in the US. Races used ratings for Low-Medium and Medium wind ranges to match the conditions for all the Windward/leeward races held in the event.
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