| KEY WEST, FL. USA-(17-1-2005) The fifty-nine Melges 24 teams were all set to go racing today with a batch of early postponements preventing them from heading out the race course as previously scheduled. Joining the predominately American fleet are six boats from the UK, with single entries from Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.
Crews were awakened with higher gusting winds than on Sunday. The winds were still in the 20 to 30 knot range with higher gusts being reported. As everyone remained glued to the radios for every-30-minute Race Committee announcements, everyone waited to see if it would be possible for racing to take place for the fleet - the largest fleet in attendance in Key West!
As the Race Committee surfaced for the noon announcement, the Melges 24 fleet went racing with north winds blowing 25-28 knots. The start began no later than 1:30 p.m. with all fifty-nine competitors on the start. The majority of the fleet immediately went left blasting up the first leg of the course. Looking to the first windward mark, Mark Manfield at the helm for Simon Strauss `USA-592` showed great boat speed rounding a couple of boat lengths ahead of the fleet. This is Mansfield's first time helming a Melges 24! He was followed by none other than James Spithill, a former America's Cup helm on `USA-493` and Bill Hardesty driving for Philippe Kahn on `USA-575 Pegasus`. The Pegasus team picked up steam giving Spithill and Mansfield everything he had. Mansfield was unable to hang on to the lead, due to a collision with Hardesty at the first leeward mark resulting in Gill dropping from the race. From there is was all Hardesty and Spithall battling until the end of the race. Spithill managed to round the second leeward mark of the race ahead of Hardesty. barely. Right behind was Hubert Guy from Pasadena, California, Brian Porter `USA-600 Full Throttle`, Dave Ullman `USA-505`, and none other that past Key West Race Week Winner and 2001 M24 World Champion Flavio Favini `SUI-596 Blu Moon` at the helm for Franco Rossini getting a grip on trying to catch the leader. Coming into the finish Hardesty and his Pegasus Team took the victory with Spithill right behind.
Turns out, Porter and Spithill were over early resulting in a 59th place standing overall.
As the teams headed off the water, there were many conversations about how much fun the race was today. 2004 North American Champion, Argyle Campbell mentioned how wonderful a job the Race Committee did, `They could not have planned this better. If we would have went out sooner today than we did, it would not have been as good. The wind would have been too much. But this afternoon, it was perfect!`
Later on at the tent, Premiere-Racing had scheduled for a All-Star Discussion Panel that included, Argyle Cambell `USA-524 Rock n' Roll`, Bruce Ayres `USA-580 Monsoon` and Harry Melges, commentated by Andy Burdick of Melges Performance Sailboats. Plenty of great points and advice was shared including specific rigging techniques and race strategy.
Going into Tuesday's races we have Bill Hardesty in first, Dave Ullman in second and Flavio Favini in third.
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