2010 Ft. Lauderdale to Key West - Pre-start report

4:18 PM Wed 13 Jan 2010 GMT

With only a few hours to go before the start of the Southern Ocean Racing Conference, the race tracker shows many yachts are already out at sea off the Ft. Lauderdale harbor entrance

Skippers Meeting from Paige Brooks, SORC PR
The Skippers Meeting for the race is once again hosted by the comfortably elegant Lauderdale Yacht Club. After the weekend's record low temperatures, competitors are relieved to see the weather forecast in the mid 60s with 15+ knots. If it comes in as predicted, the northeast breeze will make for an interesting down hill run ducking and jibing between the stream and the reefs along the SE coastline of the Florida Keys. As one of the team from Primal Scream said "you have to walk the line between too slow to the left and full stop to the right." With live online race tracking and blogging those not sailing will be able to keep up easily with the progress of the competitors making their way to Key West.

SORC Weather Report
Winds will become north to northeast at 15 knots or less through tonight with seas 5 feet or less. Easterly flow will return to the area by Thursday as surface high pressure develops eastward into the Atlantic. Winds will increase out of the southeast Friday through Saturday in advance of the next cold front and then southwest Sunday. Showers and thunderstorms will increase later Saturday and become numerous Saturday night and will decrease Sunday.

I will be keeping an eye on a few yachts, at the top of my list is Richard Olan's Vela Veloce, a new Southern Cross 52 racing in IRC A; with the right conditions, Richard and his crew are capable of making line honors. I will also be watching Tom Reese's trimaran Flight Simulator; a Corsair 28R from Youngstown Yacht Club, NY, a regular on the lake Ontario 300 race. Finally, there are two Evelyn 32-2 participating in the event, Bluto and Jammin; they are on their way to Key West Race Week and, following my own experience as an Evelyn 32-2 owner, I expect them to arrive in Key West with nothing dry on board! Good luck guys.

You can follow the race on the Ion Earth tracker at race.ionearth.com/2010/sorc/keywestrace/

The Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Race website is at www.keywestrace.org/

by Guy Perrin

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2010 Ft. Lauderdale to Key West - Pre-start report

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