Miami Race Week: Progress

(Jim Madden recently launched his new 66-foot canting keel Reichel/Pugh design named "Stark Raving Mad," and will be submitting reports from their first regatta: 2006 Acura Miami Race Week. This is Part Three of a five part series.)

March 10, 2006: A great day today with lot’s of fun and excitement. Two races with 3rd place finishes in each – big improvement from yesterday. Goal today was to get around the race course without mishap by erring on the side of conservatism.

Although in each race we completed, we finished 10 to 40 minutes in front of the fleet on elapsed time, we need to improve by 2-3 minutes more to win on corrected time. A tall order given we’re still in learning curve mode with only three completed races under our belt.

The 2A spinnaker that was “shrimped” yesterday has now been repaired and will be with us on Saturday. Highlights from Thursday’s races can be seen in a video clip on the Premier Sailing web site. Only surprise today was having the keel bulb bump the bottom while we were hauling along at 15 knots downwind. No worries and no damage, but ten seconds of shock.

Click here for results.
Photo by Sharon Green/Ultimate Sailing (complete gallery here).

Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five