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A novice's view of Key West Race Week By Pamela A. Keene |
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From the beginning, we were tense and excited. For four of us on the Express 27, it was our first Key West Race Week on the water. I'd been there two years ago as "shore support" but hadn't even been taken for a ride by the crew the last time. This time it was going to be different; I had decided that already.
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When we started pulling a crew together late last summer, I volunteered to share foredeck duties with the only other female crew member, Winny Rush. Neither of us had even sailed with a spinnaker before. Guys, downhauls, twings, topping lifts...all strange words that kept tangling in my mind as I struggled with sets, gybes, and takedowns.
We practiced when work schedules allowed and the wind cooperated. Lake Lanier's dreadfully low water levels didn't stop us. Even the extreme cold of an early winter kept us coming out on weekends. By early December we'd pulled the boat, just in time as the lake level dropped even more. Then we spent a couple of afternoons cleaning, waxing, sanding, and checking out the rigging. Skipper and boat owner Tom Roberts kept us on track with frequent e-mails and to-do lists. We're on our way Greg and Donna Cash—Greg was one of our trimmers and Donna came as shore support—left on Wednesday, January 10, to drive Wind Wizard to the sunny South. Stops to visit family on the way made the trip more bearable for them. Winny and I flew to Miami the next day to visit friends before meeting up with the rest of the crew on Friday. Thursday night, Frank Atkinson and Tom grabbed Greg Baum at the airport; he'd flown in from work in Boston, ecstatic to have escaped deep snow in New England. They drove all night. By Friday midday we were at the marina on Stock Island and we launched the boat into the salty waters of Key West. Restepping the mast and checking out the boat did us in as the excitement continued to build. We opted to get settled in our condos and save practice for the weekend. The seas were fairly flat, the breeze was brisk and the skies were sunny on Saturday as we practiced sets, gybes, and takedowns. I volunteered for the first round on the foredeck but quickly realized that six weeks away from the spinnaker had taken its toll. Winny practiced a few sets, then we headed back to raft up at the marina with 20 or so other boats. As we came back, I suggested that Greg Baum, a wiry, energetic 20-something, who's raced since he was a pre-teen, take the foredeck since it was his specialty. I would handle the mainsheet. Everyone agreed and our positions were set. On the course My heart was in my throat, and my throat was in my stomach Monday as we set sail to join nearly 80 boats that would be on our course in six different starts each race. We got to the boat by 8 a.m. and were on the water by 8:30. We were the fifth start, so we had plenty of time to watch other boats tackle the course and determine our favored tacks and develop our strategy. |
When the gun sounded to signal each start on the first day of racing, there were few boats right on the line. As the week progressed, the skippers became more aggressive, and the race committee was pressed into flying the individual recall flag for several fleets.
Twelfth and 13th-place finishes on Tuesday were an improvement over our last place in two races from Monday, but we were still near the bottom of the fleet. We picked the J/27 Areopagus and one of the Tartan 10s—Temerity—to be our boats to beat. By Wednesday, our experience as lake sailors paid off with shifting breezes and wind that was the lightest of the week. We snagged a seventh and an eighth, putting us one point from 10th place in our fleet, and there were big smiles from all the crew at the party tent Wednesday evening. Thursday brought winds of 10 to 15 and very choppy seas. I said it looked like Lake Lanier on the Fourth of July with all the chop, and on port tack we were buffeted by the constant waves. The boat was slow and so were we. Thursday's race landed us in 13th place, but we were still optimistic about finishing better on Friday. Satisfaction We won't talk about Friday. We had a bad start; the waves were big for us lake sailors, and the boat was slow. We tried trimming, we tried easing, we tried everything we could think of, but nothing worked. Our competition sailed past us. We took a 15th-place finish. Overall, we ended the week with a 13th. And while we were disappointed, I look at the week with a quiet satisfaction. I learned a lot about sailing, racing, trim, and crew dynamics. I'm the skipper aboard Poppi's Pride II, so I'd had little experience being a member of the team instead of the leader. It was good for me. And I'd raced in the Superbowl of sailboat races, against some of the best racers in the United States. Would I do it again? You bet...and I'm already plotting my strategy for next year. Pamela A. Keene, an ASA certified instructor, races her red Morgan 25 Poppi's Pride II on Lake Lanier just northeast of Atlanta. She's been racing for two years. E-mail her at pam@pamelakeene.com. |
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