Recent Race News:

January 18, 2010
More Photos!
Fort Lauderdale - Awards photos are now posted here thanks to William E. Spruance. More start photos are also posted here courtesy of John Payne. Enjoy!

January 18, 2010
Custom Embroidered Shirts
Still Available for Limited Time
Fort Lauderdale - Order your own personalized custom embroidered shirts here.

January 15, 2010
Different Drummer Frank Atkinson Finds His Rhythm
Paige Brooks, SORC PR - After their 160 nm,19 hour sprint down the southern coast of Florida from Fort Lauderdale to Key West, Frank Atkinson, Ted Naughton, his father Ted Naughton Sr, Tom Ericsson, and Jamie Stewart were exhausted.  Racing against 33 other boats in the handicapped division (PHRF), these 5 men crewing on a narrow 40 foot boat “Different Drummer” didn’t realize until they were caught up on food and sleep that they had beat all of them on corrected time.  Frank Atkinson, who’s owned the boat for just 6 months said, “I am exuberant!” In the early 90s he sailed on this Fast 40 with Ted and “Senior” (Ted Naughton Sr.) and won this same race to Key West.  Since Frank bought the boat from Senior and revived her after 5 years in “mothballs,” he has spent every waking moment, when not running his rigging business, optimizing it for distance ocean races. Racing with the same crew who’d won the race together before was “really coming full circle.” “We absolutely wanted to win this race,” Frank said. Frank Atkinson swept the trophies, taking home the win for his division, the fleet, and the best overall performance in this race.  Frank’s navigator, Ted Naughton, also took home the best navigator trophy for the PHRF class. 

In the IRC class, George David’s sexy RP 90 “Rambler” won the first to finish trophy, and “Privateer,” Ron O’Hanley’s Cookson 50 won overall. 

Robin Team on the aptly named J122 “Teamwork,” won Divison B of the IRC class, but also was awarded the race’s Seamanship Trophy for their assistance during the coast guard rescue of another racing boat, Crosswinds.  Once they heard the distress call on the radio and knew of Crosswind’s proximity, Teamwork, without hesitation, went to their aid.

In the Multihull fleet, Tom Reese's Corsair 28R, "Flight Simulator", took top honors in class A, Fleet, and Navigation. Ron White's "Cheekee Monkee" a Farrier F-31 took home the first to finish trophy, and Victor Mendelsohn's "Catnip" won class B..

At Kelly’s in Key West, the winners accepted their trophies in the (finally) balmy weather to a full house enjoying their Mt. Gay rum and cheering for their favorites.  The Seamanship Trophy for Robin Team garnered a standing ovation.  And appropriately so. For complete results click here.

The next distance race for the Southern Ocean Racing Conference is the Fort Lauderdale to Charleston race, which kicks off on March 31, 2010.

January 14, 2010
Start Photos
Fort Lauderdale - Photos of the start are available here. Courtesy of William E. Spruance.

January 14, 21:50
All Boats Are Finished
Paige Brooks, SORC PR - At 9:30pm here in Key West all of the racing boats are finished and accounted for.  The Beneteau 40 "Karma" wrapped up the regatta, crossing the finish line after nightfall in the Key West Harbor entrance.  With an unexpected light air start to the race, the competitors were challenged with skirting the adverse current and finding breeze along the beach in Broward and Miami.  As they progressed south, the boats spread out, slowly rounded Fowey Rocks and found a freshening breeze.  Several of the PHRF and IRC boats broke into pairs and small groups which effectively became their own mini-races.  As the velocity increased into the 20s near Marathon, many of the mid-pack boats peeled from kites to jib tops or code zeros for blast reaching, constantly checking themselves against their nearby competitors.  For now, everyone is in, happy, and starting to tell the tall tales of the last 36 hours.  
For the preliminary race results click here.

January 14, 02:50
Rambler First to Finish
Paige Brooks, SORC PR - Rambler gets the barn door, finishing at 0136EST and is happily docked in Key West, while Cheekee Monkee is still making her way up the sometimes challenging Key West Channel.

It’s 54 degrees out, and on land, the breeze is around 6kts, tho it looks like there’s more on the water.There’s a rooster crowing nearby – KW is famous for them – but certainly no sun to cause this cock a doodling so early. If you’re up right now and thinking...I want to do this sometime…look no further than SORC!  The next race is the Fort Lauderdale to Charleston race at the end of March.

January 13, 23:00
Blast Reaching
Blog from Ross Hunton on Full Deck - Didn’t think we’d be blast reaching tonight but here we are. The wind filled in from the northwest and we’re flying. Just finished an hour on the helm- solid 8’s and 9’s the whole time. We’re rumblin down the course… See more race blogs here.

January 13
All Clear!
Light Winds and Warm Temps Kick Off the Race to Key West
Paige Brooks, SORC PR - In completely contrary conditions to the prior weekend, 55 boats set off on the 160nm sprint to Key West from Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 72 degrees and a light northerly breeze.  As forecast, the wind is creating a 'jibefest' for the boats heading in a south westerly direction, basically dead down wind.  The navigators will work now to keep their boat along a pretty narrow line, between the Gulf Stream to the left and the coral reefs to the right.  "Slow or Stop," are the options to the sides of the course, neither of which is desirable.  Everyone loves to watch the big sexy boats, and the eye candy was certainly there at the start today.  Rambler, Privateer, Bella Mente and several others in the IRC A fleet were gunning for the pin end and causing a lot of bad air to swirl around for the slightly smaller IRC B boats as they started together.  Several of the boats in the fleet are posting to the race blog linked here.  The lower keys are showing a bit more breeze, but it looks like the boats will finish a little later in the morning than we first thought.  At least Pepe's will be open by then! 

______________________________________________________________________________

Multihull Record Holder: Custom 60 - Stars and Stripes Steve and Scott Liebel 8 hours 31 min 4 sec 2007
	Monohull Record Holder R/P 81 - Carrera Joe Dockery 10 hours 24 min 2 sec 2005