The 19th Annual Key Largo Steeplechase was held in Key Largo in the Florida Keys over the weekend of Dec. 13-14 with 38 boat registered. The race is a 110-mile jaunt around the islands with the first leg a relative drag race down the ocean side of the islands, while the second leg up the Florida Bay side requires a lot of navigation skills and water reading.

First Day
It was blowing nicely from the east at around 10 mph as the fleet popped chutes en route for the 60-mile first-leg trek and headed for the Card Sound Bridge on the way to Angelfish Creek – the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean. As they entered Angelfish the sailors discovered the wind was dying, but certainly not the current that was rushing in from the ocean side. It was indeed a tough sail getting through the mangrove creek.
There were some pretty interesting happenings at Card Sound Bridge. For the most part there is a 65-foot span in the middle and the spans lower at each side. Most of the fleet has learned they can take a short cut at go through at one of the lower span areas.
Well, two boats took a span that was a bit too low. One hit the bridge pretty hard but made it through, while Kirk Newkirk and Glenn Holmes made it past the leading edge of the bridge, but not the second part – they were stuck in the middle. After some trapping out to lean the boat over, they managed to escape.
The first mishap was Carla Schiefer and Jamie Livingston on the Marstrom 20. Half way up the leg to the bridge they noticed a crack in the carbon-fiber mast and had to be towed back to port.
Many more dropped out as the race continued and the wind kept dying.

After the boats began what usually is a flat-out drag race down Hawk Channel on the ocean side of the island, the wind began to lose strength until it finally died entirely.
Spectators and ground crew at the finish line were hearing reports of boats pulling out, or of just tying up to a bar and relaxing.
Finally, the first lonesome boat appeared – a 20-foot Supercat Tall Rig sailed by Eric and Bill Roberts. It was late in the afternoon when they finished and there was not another boat in sight. Almost an hour later four boats appeared on the horizon as a wisp of wind filled in from behind them. John Casey and Jay Sonnenklar of Team Castrol on an Inter20 finally crossed the finish line, followed by Mike Krantz and David Lennard on an Inter 20, Brian Lambert and Timmy Crew on a Tornado, and Steve Lohmayer and Kenny Pierce of Team Tybee Island on an Inter 20.
The rest of the fleet trickled in until after 9PM that night – over 12 hours on the water for some of these folks. It was a tough day. Only 22 of the 38 boats finished the drifter on the first day.
Some of those had traveled a long distance to sail in this famous race and decided to go ahead and sail the second leg of the course anyway, despite not finishing the first day. That, at least, earned them a bottle of champagne for their efforts – each finisher is awarded a bottle of the bubbly at awards presentations.

Second Day
The wind had piped up nicely with forecasts of around 20 mph out of the south – a great sleigh ride for the spinnaker-clad boats. And indeed this leg of the course made up for the slow times of the first day – the first boat made the 50 miles in just 2.5 hours. It was a struggle for the RC to get from the starting line, fight the rubber-necking and slow traffic, and still make the finish line in time.
Lohmayer/Pierce of Tybee had a seven minute lead as they crossed the finish line. The question was: could they or any other boat make up the huge lead that the Supercat had on the first day? The Roberts family cat finally appeared and crossed the finish line in 11th place, but that was good enough to capture the line honors of the fastest time of the race (9 hours, 39 minutes and 19 seconds) and the overall Portsmouth.
So, both the coveted Olde Lounge Chair for best real time finish (See side bar story below) and the Rick White Perpetual (for best on corrected time) went to Eric and Bill Roberts. Second place went to Team Castrol (Casey/Sonnenklar) and 3rd went to Mike Krantz and David Lennard.
Despite the great second day showing Tybee Island took 4th overall, just under 4 minutes behind the 3rd place boat.

The History and Trophies
It all started 19 years ago when a group of CABB (Catamaran Assn. Of Biscayne Bay, aka Hobie Fleet 36) members decided to try a race around the Florida Keys Island of Key Largo. The total distance was 110 miles.
The wind was blowing nicely and from the right direction as seven standard Hobie 18s and a Tornado with a spinnaker took off. Strangely enough the race was won by Rick White for the fastest time and definitely the best on corrected time. He beat the Tornado by only minutes – it seems the sailor of the Tornado stopped to pick up a floating bale of something in the water.
The group celebrated the trek around the island with champagne – that is why each finisher is awarded a bottle of champagne.
Meanwhile, one of the ladies on ground crew had meandered into the woods for some reason and found an old dilapidated lawn chair. As a joke she presented this old lawn chair to Rick at the finish. After sailing all the distance, Rick didn't take it as a joke, rather proclaimed, "Great! This ‘Olde Lawn Chair' will be the Annual Perpetual Trophy for the race."
The lawn chair has written in free hand the entire history of winners for the race.

[Click Here for Complete Results]

By the way, Jack Hildreth stuck his neck out again this year and got really nice shirts for the sailors to purchase. They are long sleeved, with collars and have a pretty spiffy logo on the back. He pays $13 to have them made up and only charges $15. He still has about 15-20 left. If interested, give him a call at 305-394-0511.

Pictures of the Race

The Fleet has to find their way to the starting line, but first have to navigate Jewfish Creek Bridge. It can get quite crowded there.

After the start of the first leg, the spinnaker boats popped their chutes and headed for Card Sound Bridge

Then there was the Long, Hot Wait for the fleet in dying winds. Many of the ground crew had their dogs with them. So, they all played on the beach like little, furry kids. Perhaps we should rename the race the Key Largo Steeplechase and Dog Show.

above from l. to r.: Hogan, Cody and Sebastian

We continued to wait and stare at the horizon for some signs of life.

Seems like the shore crew popped chutes of their own

Famous Beach Captain of the Worrell 1000 and now Beach Captain of the Tybee 500 was on hand to do the scoring and the starts. Lee Queensbury takes it easy while awaiting the slowed down fleet

The Second Leg of the Race

We finally got some great wind that would make for an awesome spinnaker leg all the way to the finish line. Chris and Nate Titcomb had a great start and were first to the Channel 5 Bridge, but as soon as they headed downwind and popped the spinnaker, it came out an hourglasss. They had a devil of a time getting it straightened out.

Team Tybee Island won the second leg big, but could only manage to get back to 4th overall. Here are some great shots of them approaching the Channel 5 Bridge

And here was the third place finishers, Mike Krantz and David Lennard

Second Place finishers overall were Team Castrol. with Jay Sonnenklar on the trapeze and John Casey at the helm

Eric and Bill Roberts bury their bow approaching the Channel 5 Bridge. They later capsized and were still able to right the boat, finish 11th on the second leg and still win the race both on corrrected and real time.

And still another boat manages to stuff the bow.

Collecting their trophies, from left to right: Bill Roberts, Eric Roberts, Mike Krantz and Dave Lennard. Team Castrol ran off before we could get their pictures.

Eric is holding the Rick White Perpetual while the Olde Lawn Chair is between Bill and Eric Roberts.

[Click Here for Complete Results]