17 January 2010

Key West Race Week 2010

After two days of practice, Team Argo is ready for some competitive racing in this 22 boat fleet. The last few events have shown that the key to winning is to consistently not do poorly. With the variability in conditions and, to a certain extent, the influence of luck, the winning boat almost never dominates the fleet with a series of bullets, i.e., first place finishes. This maxim is sure to hold at this event, and we look forward to the psychological fortitude and physical finesse that will be required to win this event.

Yesterday began with a morning practice with a short-handed boat since most of the team hadn't arrived yet in Key West. After a quick lunch break, Argo returned to the waters outside Key West to dial in the boat in some fairly sloppy conditions. A south westerly wind whipped up a two to four foot chop that made slogging through the waves upwind positively miserable. After a day of boat work practice, the crew retired to what, for everyone, was the first full meal in weeks. As with every regatta on the Melges circuit, the crew has to make weight (1387 lbs/boat or an average of 154 lbs per person with 9 people on the boat). It's always a pain to drop weight to meet this weight limit, but everyone enjoyed breaking the week's long fast with a fantastic team dinner prepared by the crew's chef Sally MacDougal.

Today's practice was not much better in terms of crew comfort. Although the waves had died down because the breeze moderated over Saturday night, the morning greeted us with squalls. Our new SLAM sailing gear (provided by Sound Boatworks) made short work of the downpour, but the humidity and temperature quickly rose as the sun came out, providing for some sticky sailing. Our coach for this regatta, Willem Van Waay of the current world champions Bliksem, held a starting practice for Argo and the rest of the fleet, and we returned early to tidy the boat for the next few days of racing.

Like every regatta, this event is a reunion of sorts, and the team has enjoyed running into friends new and old from around the world. Teams in our fleet hail from all over the United States and from Italy, Great Britain, France, and Japan. In lieu of Brian Fox and Ben Bardwell, Argo is happy to have Karl Funk and Pauly Atkins sailing with us for this event.

Racing begins in eleven hours.