Key West Race Week 

January 19-23, 2015

Going to windward en route to our best finish so far.

(KWRW) is one of the premiere racing events in the US with about 200 boats competing.  We brought our VAr 37 and have been racing with 6 SSC people including Martin and Sean.

Our foredeck team – Alice, Jason and Mark.

The first three days of racing had atypical light winds – not ideal for a medium displacement Cruiser Racer like our VAr 37. We finished in 4th place for the first 3 days consistently beating the only a similar Racer Cruiser – a C&C 121. We initially had an impossible PHRF rating of 90.  By yesterday out rating was 105 and we were up to a more typical12-15 knots. Our finishes tightened up till we finally placed ahead of a J80 in the strongest wind over the last race.

Andrea did an awesome job keeping us fast downwind. 

Over the past 4 days we have set, jibed and taken down the chute some 28 times.  We are getting pretty darn good at it and at the end of each day we are all ready to relax a bit.  Of course – keeping more of the fleet behind us is extremely exciting!

The crew has been awesome.  Our spin sets and jibes have been near perfect and everyone is doing a great job calling out the numerous wind shifts.  Upwind we have been taking turns driving and doing the starts.  Downwind we have Alice on the bow, Jason at the mast, Sean and Martin grinding and Andrea driving.  Great fun!