The Swan 45 Class made its debut at Key West last January with a fleet of eight boats and this week will see the Swan 45 fleet competing once again under class rules.  Amongst this year's fleet, will be Craig Speck and his highly competitive VIM (Newport, RI), which came a close second in last year's regatta behind Thomas Stark's Rush (Reloaded) (Newport, RI).  Speck, the US Swan 45 fleet captain, commented on the anticipation building ahead of the regatta:

`Swan 45 Owners are very excited about Key West 2005.  It marks the start of a very busy racing calendar for the Swan 45 Class and there is no better place to kick off the competition than at America's premier sailing event.  The Class Championship races for 2005 include Key West, Miami Race Week, the American Yacht Club Series, the New York Yacht Club Regatta in early June, and the all important Rolex Swan American Regatta in Newport at the end of July.  We expect to have between seven and nine Swan 45s racing at each of these events, building towards a much larger fleet at the next Swan 45 Gold Cup to be held at Key West in January 2006.`

Other Swan 45s competing at Key West next week include Vixen, owned by Dick Weisman (Newport, RI), Better than owned by Andrzej Rojek (Newport, RI), as well as Stephen J Devoe's Devocean (Jamestown, RI) and Alice Martin's Painkiller 3 (Chicago, IL).  With a full and varied calendar in 2005 for all Swan 45 owners, the fleet at Key West will be hoping to set the tone for the rest of year.  Hot competition is guaranteed with top class sailors taking up positions amongst the crews and all hoping to start the season at the top of the 'leaderboard'.

Other Swan's competing in the PHRF fleets at Key West Regatta include Greg Petrat's Swan 48 Constellation (Sarasota, FL), Duncan Ragsdale's Swan 44 Quailo (Key West, FL) and Dr I.M Zaslow's Swan 40 Willowind  (Newport, RI).

Source: Annabel Merrison - GEM Group