Big boats, Bella Mente and Highland Fling, dominated IRC 1 at Key West.

Bella Mente, the Reichel-Pugh 69-footer owned by Hap Fauth of Newport, R.I., completed a wire-to-wire victory, winning 8 of 10 races.

Interlodge, owned by Austin Fragomen of New York, captured the TP52 sub-class. Massachusetts-based Bill Lynn called tactics for Fragomen, who was competing in just his second regatta aboard the Judel-Vrolijk design.

  “We are very pleased to be the top TP52. It was a very tough class and all the boats were sailed extremely well,” Fragomen said. “We learned a lot about our boat this week. It was a nice long regatta with a good mix of conditions.”

Bella Mente    1.538    R/P 69     1  1  1  1  1  3  1  1  6  1  17 
HighlandFling 1.639   Wally 82   2  4  4  3  3  4  3  2  1  2  28 
Interlodge       1.367    TP52       4  2  2  2  4  2  2  5  2  5  30
Decision         1.365    TP52       5  3  6  5  6  1  4  4  4  3  41  
Anema&Core 1.365    JV 52       6  5  3  6  5  5  5  3  3  4  45
Vela Veloce    1.365    S.Cross   3  6  5  4  2  6  6  6  5  6  49

For 2011 the aim is to celebrate the launch of the 2011 TP52 Rule by a seperate start for TP52’s based on a narrow IRC rating band.

Hope is that some of the new builds for 2011 make it to Key West as a first test of the new breed of TP52.