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The Reichel Pugh 74 WIzard[/caption]
David and Peter Askew brought their RP 74 Wizard over the line first for the 2016 Lauderdale to Key West Race, coming into Key West at 2:49:44 am this morning, January 14. Wizard completed the 160-nautical mile race in 13 hours, 44 minutes, and 44 seconds.
At the start of the race, officials were thinking that perhaps 2016 might be a record-breaking year, with winds out of the northeast pushing 20 knots and a few squalls showing up on the race course. But race officials did not seem too worried as the day turned into night.
Decision reports tricky conditions overnight, with squalls bringing shifts from North to East and velocity builds from 8-20. The choices at Pepe's are decidedly less tricky.
Posted by SORC Sailing on Thursday, January 14, 2016
The Askew brothers unfortunately did not smash the record originally set in 2005 by Carrera, the RP 81 owned by Joe Dockery and helmed by Ken Read, which completed the race in under 11 hours. However, the Askew brothers managed to finish the race with their rudder intact, which is more than Dockery and Read could say in 2005.
Currently, Wizard is in fifth place in IRC. Among the three other Chesapeake Bay boats, Paul Milo's J/122 Orion finished just after 11 a.m., with Kalevala II looking to finish any minute. Mission Impossible II, the J/88 helmed by J/World with some locals onboard, is currently 9.6 nautical miles from the finish, just behind Kalevala II.
