NANUQ FINISHES 2ND IN QUICK RIDE TO KEY WEST

NANUQ FINISHES 2ND IN QUICK RIDE TO KEY WEST
1/15/2011

Congratulations to Ullman Sails customer Glenn Doncaster and his crew who took 2nd Overall in the PHRF Division A of the Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race, January 12-14. Glenn’s Sabre 426 “NANUQ,” is based out of Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville, Virginia. Glenn and his crew decided to take NANUQ down to Florida only five weeks before the start of the race.

In order to get the boat down south, the team broke up the delivery into three legs, arriving in Fort Lauderdale three days before the start. As a well-appointed cruiser, NANUQ lived up to her reputation and the delivery crew was treated to reverse cycle heat, hot water, a generator, a dinghy on davits and full canvas finishing. Once in Ft. Lauderdale, the crew spent two days turning NANUQ from a cruiser to racer, including changing over the mainsail, removing the furling drum and loading a full inventory of race headsails. Several new sails were delivered for the race included a new S3 heavy reacher and a GPL IT Carbon #2 genoa, both of which worked beautifully in the heavy reaching conditions.

The race itself proved to be a quick one. Here’s an onboard report from the crew:

"It was fairly light at the start 8-10 and built throughout the race, becoming quite windy during the night. Top wind speeds were about 34 knots. It blew out of the north the whole race. We started with the .6 runner and were slightly slower than the lighter displacement boats. As the wind built we got on pace with the fleet and started to make gains toward nightfall. At dusk we switched to the new S3 heavy reaching chute and as we rounded the bottom of Florida the angle tightened and we progressively made gains. Around midnight the wind had built significantly and the apparent wind angle closed so we changed down to a #2 genoa. We beam-reached with the #2 and full main through the night surfing at 10-13 knots of consistent boat speed. The final leg was a beat up the shipping channel into Key West harbor with gusts in the high 20s”.

NANUQ finished in just under 20 hours, correcting to second in class! On arrival in Key West and after a number of celebratory rum drinks and a good night’s sleep, the crew turned NANUQ back into a cruiser. She will spend the rest of the winter in Florida and then Glenn will bring her back to the Chesapeake for more racing this summer