Mumm 30 Class Sealed in Favor of an Australian Visitor

KEY WEST, Thursday, January 24th-With one race to come in the Farr One-Design Classes at Terra Nova Trading/Yachting Key West Race Week, the outcome of the Farr 40 class is finely balanced on a thread while the Mumm 30 class has been sealed in favour of an Australian visitor to the Conch Republic.

It was another Australian who has made a name for himself in the Mumm 30 class. Richard Perini's Foreign Affair does not need to go out on to the course for the final race. With a fourth and a first in today's races, the Australian, who has Californian Steve Flam as tactician in his otherwise Australian crew, cannot be beaten.

Perini is also the owner, in Sydney, of the Farr 40, Corinthian Doors, but opted for the smaller boats in order to improve his sailing technique. He certainly found the way to shut the doors on his competitors and in the second race finished a full minute and a half in front of the opposition.

Thomas Papenek's Fuzzy Logic came out of the start line with good speed and was the leader at the first mark from Foreign Affair. These positions were held down the run, but on the next round both Bent Dietrich's Rainbow, from Germany, and Canadian Andy Roy in Fred Sherratt's Steadfast slipped past to drop the Australian to fourth.

Perini was made to work for his day off tomorrow, he was behind Bodo van der Wense's Turbo Duck at the end of the first round and needed a win to clinch the series a day early. The wind went light and Foreign Affair changed gears to lead by 95 seconds at the next mark. Perini stretched that further on the next two legs to beat Makoto Uematsu's Esmerald by almost two minutes, a prodigious margin in this class.

Mumm 30s
Race 6
1. Fuzzy Logic Thomas Papenek
2. Rainbow Bent Dietrich
3. Steadfast Fred Sherratt

Race 7
1. Foreign Affair Richard Perini
2. Esmeralda Makoto Uematsu
3. Bug Juice Dan Cheresh

Overall Points after seven races, with one discard
1. Foreign Affair 10-2-1-1-1-4-1 10 points
2. Steadfast 4-1-5-4-3-3-6 20 points
3. Rainbow 3-5-2-14-7-2-9 28 points
4. Esmeralda 7-3-4-9-4-15-2 29 points
5. Bug Juice 5-4-6-5-15-9-3 32 points
6. Warp Factor VI Nick Morrell 1-8-9-2-14-10-5 35 points

The Farr One-Design classes would like to thank their sponsors: Hi-Tech Composites, Doyle Sailmakers, European Ocean Freight.

For Complete Results: www.Premiere-Racing.com