In this Issue:
Key West Race Week Final Report
Gold Race Report
Strictly Sail Starts January 29 !

Key West Race Week Final Results and Report

    Several Great Lakes based boats ended the week with podium finishes. They ranged from the big boys to the small fry.

    In the One Design 48 class Starlight of Wayzata MN finished up 3rd. She won the
1st race of the series and was only 2 points out of 2nd.

    In IMS class 2 Chicago's Flash Gordon finished 2nd to overall winner Bright Star.
In the other IMS class, Great Lakes boats finished 1st and 2nd. Grand Rapids MI based VIM swept the class with all 1sts, while Chicago's VMAX took 2nd with all second place finishes.

    In Division 2, Class E Chicago's X-Press swept the class with all 1st place marks.
In Class G, 2 Great Lakes based S2 7.9's finished 2nd and 3rd. Holland's Spot was 2nd, followed by Racine's Challenge 9 points back.
   
So, several Great Lakes boats finished up well. For the results of other boats,
please see the official web site: http://www.yachtingnet.com/events/race-week/index.html

Gold Race Update

    Since GLSOL's last update, the order of the boats has remained unchanged. On
Tuesday at 4:00 PM eastern, Aquitaine Innovations was in the lead. In 2nd was PRB 146 miles back. 3rd was GEODIS 250 miles back of the leader.

    For the last several days, the boats have been blasting through the tradewinds at
double digit speeds. The order has been unchanged with Aquitaine Innovations stretching its lead.

    However, speeds should drop as the boats reach the equator and the doldrums.
Race leader Yves Pariler views the Doldrums this way: "The Doldrums may even
everything out. I am going to be slowed down and the others will inevitably catch up to me.

But if everything goes we I will reach the Southern Trades before them and the accordion will close again. Everything will be more clear in four days." Will the rich get richer ? Stay tuned.

    For daily updates on the Gold Race visit the official site for the Around Alone race
scheduled for later this year.

Strictly Sail Starts Tommorow

Beginning tommorow 1998 Strictly Sail show swings into action in Chicago. Of course Torresen Marine will be there, in booth 341. Stop by and see us !
   One of great features of this show is all the seminars that the sailing minded have
to choose from. There are too many to easily list here. If you want to know what seminar
is occurring when, just visit the  Torresen Sailing Site  Then follow the link to Strictly sail info.