A-Class International Classic
Key Largo, FL
Nov 20-22nd, 2002
Final Action
Mike Phillips Wins the A-Class International Classic
In a tight battle between Mike Phillips and Tracy Oliver (Phillips was only one point ahead of Oliver going into the last day of racing). The two boats worked hard at covering one another all day in the shifty winds brough in by a slow cold front approaching. In the first race Phillips took the bullet and gained a two point lead. In the next race there was a near three-way tie. However, John Schiefer eked out a win and the RC awarded Phillips and Oliver a tie for 2nd in a photo-finish.
Oliver won the next race and closed to within one point again, but Phillips walked away with the last race and Oliver slipped to 4th place, allowing Phillips to win the Championship. With this feather in his cap, Phillips took off right after the race to head for the Area Alter Cup Trials.
Thursday had brought to Key Largo a very rare occurrence -- little or no wind for an entire day. This has happened probably only 3 or 4 times in the past 20 years, but it did happen on the second day of the regatta and the races were abandoned for the day. The races resumed on Friday and the fleet still got in an 8-race series.
The wind filled in on Friday but was filled with 30-degree shifts -- all to the left, by the way. Mike Phillips seemed to smell the shifts out faster than others -- good reason for his victory. Congrats, Mike!
In
steady winds of 15-20 mph, the first race had the entire fleet spread
way apart with absolutely no close racing. Mike Phillips did horizon jobs
on everyone. John Schiefer was surprising everyone with some great speed
after that but his wife ran into him and he was forced to retire. Let
this be a lesson to all you guys -- if you are beating your wife, you
have a good chance of being stoved in.
Meanwhile, Tracy Oliver (brother of WF Oliver, who just won the F18HT North Americans) capsized in the first race, could not right the boat, and had to have outside assistance to get the back back up. But, after that he got two seconds and a bullet to close within one point of Phillips lead.
The
racing became much closer in the last three races of the day, with all
the boats finishing within minutes of each other -- must be they were
getting back in the groove.
John Schiefer patched up his hull and made it back for the last race of the day and took a bullet. It boggles the mind what he could have done had he been able to race the 2nd and 3rd races.
Tomorrow's there are four moire races scheduled starting at noon