In the last race of Key West Race Week, the Italian team on BRAVA closed the gap with VIM III, skippered by Peter Holmberg to win IMS class II. The finish was so close that even with the sophisticated equipment on these racing craft, the crew had to wait until the results were announced by the race committee. BRAVA finished the regatta with a total score of 20 points, with VIM and HEATWAVE tied for second one point behind. To add a little extra heartbreak, the tie score was broken in favor of HEATWAVE sailed by Ken Read. After five days of close racing, and a final race of "fighting off BRAVA with everything we have," the disappointment of missing by so little is evident in Peter Holmberg's final update.
On the Melges 24 race course the bad news continues with the V.I. team scoring a "did not finish" in the final race. This dropped the Tortola and St. Thomas Team into a final position of 12th. This is still very respectable in a fleet of 50 boats, but just finishing the last race in the middle of the pack would have put Robbie Hirst and Chris Rosenberg into the top ten.
