This final day of Quantum Key West Race Week, sailors were awakened by a fierce line squall filled with lightning and thunder whipping up the sea. I’m sure that most were wondering if this last day of racing would be. At the Race Committee 0830 meeting it appeared that there was a hole in the radar returns that would permit racing. The word from Race Chairman Dick Neville was “One and Done” to get everyone back in before another band might cruise through the race course.
The run out to the course was a bash through 3 to 4 foot swells out of the South in 20 + knots in a heavily overcast sky. Visibility was easily 5 miles and regardless of the lumpy sea, the azure color of the water remains a hallmark of sailing in Key West.
PRO Wayne Bretsch set a 4-leg 5.8 mile course for ORC 1 and a 4.6 mile course shared by the J/88 and ORC 2 classes. The signal boat was rolling around hard enough that the signal flags were moved from the bridge to the aft deck.
And they’re off – all clean starts.
—Jeff Goldring, Quantum Key West Race Week
