writing
The warm, humid air that welcomed us to the Keys on Friday has passed, and its
replacement is a gnarly 25-30 knot Northerly that kept nearly all the teams off the
water on Sunday. Usually you'll see a hundred boats practicing the day before
racing kicks off down here, but not today – gusts to 35 and driving rain were enough
to convince most of the sailors to stay in the bar and watch NFL playoffs. A few
hardy souls went out with mixed results: The Melges 24 sailors who went out
seemed to all be grinning, but many others weren't. According to Anarchist
oneguyfromdetroit, the Sydney 36 Bounder “did a stem christie,” planting its carbon
pole in the water and snapping it like a celery stick. At least one Farr 40 watched its
vang explode, while the C&C 115 Primal Scream tore the clew out of their main
before completing one practice tack.
The forecast is for more of the same on Race Track Monday, brought to you by
Kattack, and we're damn glad that we brought foul weather gear down here – we're going to need it as we bump and roll around, chasing boats and getting you all the goods from as many different courses as we can. By now you know what to expect from us, and we'll deliver - no matter how lumpy it is. I've watched Mer shoot pictures in between trips to hurl over the transom, and I've got a stomach like a steel trap. We're going to watch the high-powered guns first – the carnage on a course full of Melges 32s, many of them in big breeze for the first time, should be wicked, and the racing in the Farr 40 and M30 class should be very sweet. Then we'll go and see how all our friends on the 24s and J/80s are, and we might even watch a crowded J/105 leeward mark rounding or two – that's always good for a laugh. We'll spend time on every course during the rest of the week, and if you have specific wishes, just post 'em in the threads.
Please don't forget the most important part of this, though: That's you guys. We depend on your input to help make On-The-Water Anarchy great, so be ready to spend the next five days as an integral part of our Key West Report. You can start by checking out my daily picks right here – post your own picks and the most accurate guess will win free shit!
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