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For the 2003 season the Black Seal team have decided to really push the boat out, so to speak and purchase a brand new Melges 24. With the World Championships in San Francisco in October and our aim to do more US events including Key West it made sense to buy the new boat from Harry Melges at Melges boat works. With this is mind we ordered the boat and asked for it to be delivered the week before the 1st race of Key West Race Week giving us time to sort the boat out and overcome all the little gremlins that are normally associated with buying a new boat. We needn' t have given so much time to this cause as when the boat arrived it went together just like a jigsaw, every thing was in its place, in fact it was just like putting GBR 437 together, only with newer and shinier bits ! What was important to do though was to go sailing, not only for our benefit but to also stretch the rigging in as this always takes several days to bed in.

It was always going to be hard to beat the number of entries from last year where it was also the World Championships, but with 56 boats representing 9 Nations the Melges 24 had by far the largest fleet of all the classes there this year. As always the competition was very tough with some big names coming back from America' s Cup duty, none more so than Flavio Flavini who won this event last year, then stopped sailing the Melges to concentrate on the AC challenge. Flavio was heard to be saying that he was worried about how he would fair having been away from the class for so long. He needn' t have worried !! Having competed in my 1st Key West last year I was looking forward to another sunny and hot weeks sailing. The sun was doing its bit but the breeze was predominantly from the North keeping the temperatures down from their usual highs. In fact the last day of racing was a far cry from any usual Key West race day with a record 90 year low temperature and wind speed of 30 mph which resulted in a postponement until the wind had dropped to a raceable 20-22mph. On the whole though the racing conditions and race management were what we have come to expect from Key West Race Week; awesome. From the 9 races scheduled, we lost 1 race on the Wednesday when it was simply too light to get a race underway.

Frm a personal point of view we had a disappointing regatta. Expectations were high going into the 1st race with the added psychological bonus of our new boat. The reality of it for us was that 3 bad starts put paid to our chances of winning the event but with 5 results in the top 7 including a 3rd in the last and arguably the best and closest race of the week we showed that we can still compete at the top end of the fleet. Flavio carried on where he left off last year by comfortably winning the regatta.Although he won only 1 race, he showed what real consistency is by counting all his results in the top 7. Brian Porter and the crew of "Full Throttle" found their form towards the end of the regatta to secure 2nd overall and Kristian Nergaard with reigning World Champion Harry Melges on board were 3rd. North Sails once again held the market share of the fleet with 8 of the top 10 choosing North Sails.

After the 1st day of racing a presentation was made for the World Ranking Series, which the Black Seal team have won for the 2nd year in succession. After a poor opening to the 2003 season we will have to improve our results if we are to go for the hat trick of World Ranking Champions. Next stop SORC. See you there !!

Overall Results

Place	Name	Entrant	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Race 8	Total
1	Blu Moon	Franco Rossini	2	4	-12	7	4	1	3	2	23
2	Full Throttle	Brian D. Porter	11	5	-17	6	6	2	2	5	37
3	Baghdad	Kristian Nergaard	4	-23	1	15	7	6	8	1	42
4	Joe Fly	Maspero Giovanni	-35	17	11	3	16	3	1	4	55
5	Rock N' Roll	Argyle Campbell	12	12	2	4	3	8	15	-23	56
6	Monsoon	Bruce Ayres	3	8	3	8	- 21	15	16	9	62
7	Kilroy	Jeff Jones	-27	1	9	17	18	5	7	12	69
8	Frequent Flyer	John Sherlock	1	2	22	9	10	4	24	- 58 dnc	72
9	USA 399	Morgan Larson	13	11	13	1	20	9	5	-58 raf	72
10	Gorgeous Worgeous	Quentin Strauss	-20	16	7	5	5	14	13	15	75
11	Black Seal	Richard Thompson	6	30	4	-45	22	7	6	3	78
12	First Crush	Paula M. Zubrzycki	-40	9	10	14	23	12	4	7	79
13	Liberty 3	Paul Lovejoy	9	24	8	18	9	10	-28	11	89
14	Flying Toaster	Mike Dow	15	18	20	-29	8	13	14	8	96
15	Wicked Feet	Art Brereton	5	-26	23	12	24	11	11	14	100

Jamie Lea Black Seal

Revised: Tuesday, January 28, 2003