Thoughts on Key West Race Week

Harry Pattison of Elliott/Pattison Sailmakers shares his thoughts about the most recent Key West Race Week. Enjoy.

KWRW has evolved into one of the major North American racing venues, and is one of the few that is still a true “race week” with 5 full days of racing. I attended this year as a coach rather than a competitor, which gave me an opportunity to observe a lot more of the regatta, and the teams sailing in it.

It is easy to understand the lure of the event. Sailing in a tropical location, warm water, good breeze, great regatta management and race committees, and some of the best competition you’ll find. Not to mention the fact that for a lot of the competitors the temperature is 50 or 60 degrees warmer than it is back home! Before you make that decision to hook your boat up to the family wagon and head on down there are some serious things to consider.

First is cost, this isn’t a cheap regatta. Getting the boat and crew to Key West, at least 7 nights lodging and 7 days food, launching and hauling out, stepping and unstepping the mast, dock fees, entry fees, and social packages add up in hurry. Then there is the preparation; just getting a crew together than can take a week off can be hard, not to mention the time it takes to get a boat back in “racing” shape after traveling for a couple of thousand miles. But if you can put it all together it is an event you shouldn’t miss.

The boats that did well all shared some common traits. First, they were organized. In most cases room and dock reservations were made months if not a full year in advance. They had committed crews for the regatta that had been sailing together for quite a while before the regatta. They had done their homework on weather and conditions and had their boats and sails tuned accordingly. They had good weather reports and forecasts coming in each morning, and had someone they could call for up to the minute changes right up to the warning sound for the first race. The top crews were always down on their boat early, they left the dock early and spent 45 minutes to an hour sailing and tuning on the course before the first start, and spent the time between races sailing and retuning their rigs for the current conditions. They were among the last to leave the dock at the end of the day, and they didn’t spend much time drinking at the tent or partying on Duvall Street.

This year’s regatta had a little bit of everything. Friday it poured rain all afternoon, Saturday and Sunday it blew 25 to 35 knots with a few scattered showers, and that was before the racing even started. Monday morning the first race was postponed because of gusts up to 37 knots on the course. The wind was dying slowly and the committee made the decision to get in one race, sailed in 20 to 28 knots, for most of the classes, canceling only Division 1 – PHRF 3 (the light weight sprit boats) and the smaller boats with outboard engines (J80’s and the smaller PHRF boats). Tuesday stayed breezy with 2 races in the 20 to 25 range, and Wednesday was in the high teens. Thursday started out with 15 to 18 knots and tapered off a little during the race. By the time the second race got started the wind was down to 7 or 8 knots and deteriorated rapidly from there. This race turned most of the fleets upside down as we saw the wind start, stop, and blow from directions 180 degrees apart. The forecast for the final race on Friday was not much better, but a new system moved in more rapidly than expected from the west giving good, but shiftier conditions to finish out the regatta.

During the regatta I spent my time on course three watching the J105 fleet. During the windy races the first two days the differences between the top boats and the rest of the fleet were most obvious. That is where big difference is rig tune and crew work really showed up. While the top few were still really racing, many in the fleet seemed to be more intent on just getting around the course. By far the most common problem in the fleet was over flattening the mainsail. Boats tended to have too much cap shroud tension and a combination of not enough lower shroud tension and incorrect mast butt location. The result was too much pre-bend and not enough headstay tension. The mains were so flat that any time a puff hit and they eased their sheet the whole sail would luff. The leech would be totally washed out from head to clew and they couldn’t point. The good boats were set up so that they could board out the top half of the sail, but still kept some depth in the bottom half. When they eased in the puffs the top would twist more and the upper leech would go out, but the lower leech always stood up. It is also the combination of cap and lower shroud tension that control headstay tension. Not having the mast stiff enough let the headstay sag too much which resulted in the leading edge of the jib sagging to leeward and rotating the sail around the leech. The result was either a leech that hooked back into the main or sailing with the jib sheet eased. Either way the vertical profile of the jib was nowhere near straight enough. In a boat with swept aft shrouds and one size jib, rig tune is king. The top boats were adjusting between every race and had pages of recorded settings for different conditions. The best way to I’ve seen to accurately set up the rig is to use an inexpensive plastic dial caliper to measure the distance between the studs in your turnbuckles. This seems to be much more accurate than using a Loos gauge.

The last thing that stood out was crew work. While the top boats weren’t crewed by “professionals” they certainly all had crews that were very professional in their attitude and ability. Even in the windiest conditions sails went up and down smoothly, they executed good roll tacks and roll gybes, and they hiked, and then they hiked some more.

03-Feb-2005