Melges 24s at Key West 2005 - Day 3
by Joy Dunigan / USMCA 20 Jan 2005 11:09 GMT
17-21 January 2005
JOE FLY LEADING AFTER THREE DAYS OF RACING IN KEY WEST
Day three was filled with three races and plenty of on-the-edge-of-your-seat racing that shuffled the leader board leaving Gabrio Zandona at the helm for Giovanni Maspero “ITA-550 Joe Fly” in first place.
It was an exciting day as always with ideal racing conditions. Teams left the docks on time today. Winds were still predominately out of the north at 15-20 early on then shifting lighter to 12-15 knots at the end of the day.
The first race was started at ten o’clock with the left side of the course being favored. Getting into the groove early on was Zandona and Brian Porter “USA-600 Full Throttle” coming in hard and strong with Alex Ascencios “USA-602 Accumulator” moving in fast. Joe Fly clearly rounded the windward mark first, and then followed by a battle between Porter and Ascencios, Porter edging it out at the very last minute. They continued to battle it out downwind with Full Throttle definitely showing us what it means to throttle-up. As they moved closer to Zandona, they rounded the leeward mark going left and Full Throttle going right. Bill Hardesty helming for Philippe Kahn on “USA-575 Pegasus 575” was trying to put the moves on the fleet but it just wasn’t enough. Porter dominated the rest of the race to win with Hardesty on his heels and Zandona falling back further to finish sixth. Hardesty finished second, Morgan Reeser helming for Neil Sullivan gladly took the third spot, Ascencios was fourth with Flavio Favini helming for Franco Rossini “SUI-596” in fifth.
Race two began around noon with again, a clean start for the teams with the exception of a few individual recalls. Right from the start the teams were very competitive with Zandona, Reeser, Dave Ullman “USA-505”, Spithill and Favini coming on strong into the first mark. Zandona edged out the competition rounding first followed closely by Reeser. On the downwind leg, Reeser overtook Zandona, while Spithill came from behind to over take them both, dominating the rest of the race. Reeser and Zandona battled it out of the second and third positions with Zandona taking second over Reeser in third.
The third and final race started around two o’clock with 12-15 knots of breeze. Again it was Favini, Zandona, Ullman, Porter and Spithill making a great show of speed and power upwind to the first mark. Favini rounded first and downwind was unstoppable, trailing right behind was Zandona in second, Spithill in third and Porter right behind. At the second leeward mark and on into the finish it was quite a show. Favini trying to stay ahead went left; Zandona trying to gain ground on Favini went right. The battle for third and fourth place was tight too. Spithill rounded third with Porter hot on his heels, taking him tack for tack upwind for the finish. Zandona reaching for the win was unable to catch Favini leaving him in second place while Flavio Favini went on to win race three.
Full Results can be found at www.premiere-racing.com/05_KW_ResultS/kw_2005_results_and_reports.htm