News
Carinthia Wins 2007 Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race
The 2007 Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race, or "Mo Bay" as it is known, began on Friday, February 16. The biennial competition is an 811 nautical mile race to Montego Bay, Jamaica from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Congratulations to Frank Kern and his crew of Carinthia, a J/120, for winning the PHRF class and the race overall.
Click here for the final results.
The following is an email from the Carinthia crew while racing:
Saturday, February 17, 2007 8:09 AM
Good morning from the crew of Carinthia. We are currently about 10 miles west from the island of Eleuthera with the wind blowing at 332 degrees around 10-12 knots. We had a fast night with the Florida Straights with the wind blowing out of 315 degrees at about 20 knots. We flew our .75 oz spinnaker from our 14:05 start until Ken blew it up just before sunrise. We have been generally happy with our progress. We were leading Blue a 1D48 most of the night along with a J133. Even so they are presently just ahead of us. We have not seen the Santa Cruz 52 in front of us so we do not know how we are doing with them. We cannot see any other boats around us.
On the crew is Karl Kuspa, Jim Best, Bob Declerq, Colleen Flanagan, Ken Flaska, Erik Ryan, Frank Kern. We have been a little busy since the last email. At the tip of Eleuthera Island the wind switched to the NW at only 5 knots. It took nearly 16 hours to pass the island. It then filled in from 280 degrees and the wind speed went up to 25 to 30 knots. Frank got the boat up to 19.6 driving where Karl managed 19.9. It could have been faster but with the water spraying over the cabin top it was difficult to see the instruments. The seas were rough and we found every leak on the boat. Thank goodness for duct tape! Once past the south point of Long Isl., we passed to the west of North Rock, and then got knocked to the northeast of the tip of Cuba. On Monday at 2 am we launched the 1.5oz in 26 knots and destroyed that when the bow sprit extender line snapped. We have been averaging from 10 to 12 knots per hour with heavy air. Post 1.5oz chute we sailed w/ the jib top until we were ~18 miles off shore Cuba, we jibed over and paralleled the shore. We rounded the eastern tip of Cuba at ~11am with a jibe onto starboard. Decided to toss up the code 0 and sailed with that successfully for some time, until the shackle blew on the sheet, resulting in a shredded code 0. Jib top up again. We are sailing along in somewhat civil waves (at least compared to last night) with wind speeds around ~20 knots true at a heading of 265 towards Montego Bay. We have launched the .6 chute and heading directly to Jamaica in 18 knots of wind. 194 miles to Montego.
from the crew.....Karl Kuspa, Jim Best, Bob Declerq, Colleen Flanagan, Ken Flaska, Erik Ryan, Frank Kern
To view the complete web log while racing, the story of the Pineapple Cup and more photos, click here.
Click here for the final results.
The following is an email from the Carinthia crew while racing:
Saturday, February 17, 2007 8:09 AM
Good morning from the crew of Carinthia. We are currently about 10 miles west from the island of Eleuthera with the wind blowing at 332 degrees around 10-12 knots. We had a fast night with the Florida Straights with the wind blowing out of 315 degrees at about 20 knots. We flew our .75 oz spinnaker from our 14:05 start until Ken blew it up just before sunrise. We have been generally happy with our progress. We were leading Blue a 1D48 most of the night along with a J133. Even so they are presently just ahead of us. We have not seen the Santa Cruz 52 in front of us so we do not know how we are doing with them. We cannot see any other boats around us.
On the crew is Karl Kuspa, Jim Best, Bob Declerq, Colleen Flanagan, Ken Flaska, Erik Ryan, Frank Kern. We have been a little busy since the last email. At the tip of Eleuthera Island the wind switched to the NW at only 5 knots. It took nearly 16 hours to pass the island. It then filled in from 280 degrees and the wind speed went up to 25 to 30 knots. Frank got the boat up to 19.6 driving where Karl managed 19.9. It could have been faster but with the water spraying over the cabin top it was difficult to see the instruments. The seas were rough and we found every leak on the boat. Thank goodness for duct tape! Once past the south point of Long Isl., we passed to the west of North Rock, and then got knocked to the northeast of the tip of Cuba. On Monday at 2 am we launched the 1.5oz in 26 knots and destroyed that when the bow sprit extender line snapped. We have been averaging from 10 to 12 knots per hour with heavy air. Post 1.5oz chute we sailed w/ the jib top until we were ~18 miles off shore Cuba, we jibed over and paralleled the shore. We rounded the eastern tip of Cuba at ~11am with a jibe onto starboard. Decided to toss up the code 0 and sailed with that successfully for some time, until the shackle blew on the sheet, resulting in a shredded code 0. Jib top up again. We are sailing along in somewhat civil waves (at least compared to last night) with wind speeds around ~20 knots true at a heading of 265 towards Montego Bay. We have launched the .6 chute and heading directly to Jamaica in 18 knots of wind. 194 miles to Montego.
from the crew.....Karl Kuspa, Jim Best, Bob Declerq, Colleen Flanagan, Ken Flaska, Erik Ryan, Frank Kern
To view the complete web log while racing, the story of the Pineapple Cup and more photos, click here.
