2004
Key West J/120 Pictures
John Sylvia's Ouib5 won the J/120 subclass. "This may be the best boat racing venue in the world. I haven’t been to all the top spots, but I’m confident you would be hard pressed to do better,” said Sylvia, a San Francisco resident. “The sun was out every day, the water was warm and the wind was great. The people at Premiere Racing do an incredible job making sure everything runs like clockwork. What else could you ask for?”
All 7 J/120's sailed out into a cotton patch of whitecaps for the last of nine races---a Key West record---over five days. The emerald seas were churned up by 15-knot winds gusting to 23---the strongest of a solid week of moderate to heavy breeze.
Winner of PHRF class 4 in division 2 was K2, consisting of 12 boats, owned by Luis Gonzalez. One crew member called K2 the "happy boat." No wonder considering the entire crew hails from Burlington, Vermont, which was snow-covered and frozen by –10 degree temperatures when they all departed for Key West. "We left our wives with frozen pipes. I don’t think they were too happy about that," Gonzalez said. Jeff Hill has driven K2 to a pair of firsts and pair of seconds for a low score of 20 _ seven ahead of fellow J/120 Euro Trash Girl. The crew is comprised of longtime friends who grew up racing on Lake Champlain. "We have been getting stronger and stronger tactically, we’re doing a better job of keeping our heads out of the boat," Gonzalez said. Crew member Paul Beaudin said the team needs to stay focused for the final race. "We can’t take off and go to the beach, that’s for sure. This has been a closely-contested class. There’s been a bunch of lead changes and lots of boats stacking up at marks," Beaudin said. "Our attitude is that we’re in the money, but we need another good result in order to win." For more info click here.
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| The
above photos were taken by Jack
Hardway and may be purchased at www.lighthousetechnologies.net |
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| The
above photos were taken by & copyrighted by
Tim Wilkes and may be purchased at http://www.timwilkes.com |
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 Euro Trash Girl Flag |
 Nichole Weaver of Euro Trash Girl receiving a trophy |
 K2 crew receiving a trophy |
| Additional pictures can be found at www.boatpix.com, www.yachtshots.com & www.wavelengthstudios.com | ||
J/ is a registered trademark of J/Boats, Inc.