A-Class Olympic Regatta
Jan 25-26, Key Largo, FL
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A cold front departed the area just in time to allow some mighty fine sailing for the A-Class fleet. The first day was blessed with winds close to 15 mph and a slight chop. The temperatures were close to 70 degrees making it very pleasant sailing.
But Sunday was light air sailing -- again nice and toasty.
The RC managed to get in four good, long races on the first day and three on Sunday.
Ben Hall appeared to be dominating the races, rattling off three bulletes in a row on the first day. But then disaster struck. The wind began to die on the last race and Hall capsized the boat on top of himself. He was dead last around the first weather mark and could only manage to crawl back up to 7th place.
Goran Marstrom had been hounding Hall all day and was only two points behind in the standings by Saturday night. Mike Phillips and Dan Goritzki were tied for third place.
The light air on Sunday almost became the demise of Hall -- in the fifth race he could only muster up a 7th place finish while Marstrom took a bullet -- things were getting interesting. But Hall came through will two more bullets to end the series. Marstrom, on the other hand, took a 4th and a 9th, but still ended up in a tie for the series.
The tie between Hall and Martsrom was broken by the last race finish positions -- Ben Hall won the last race and the series championship.
Meanwhile, Mike Phillips hung in the top of the fleet to just nip out Dan Goritzki for the third place trophy.