Cutler: ‘We put the hammer down’

A superb final-day performance landed Alec Cutler and his Hedgehog crew their first victory at the Quantum Key West mid-winter regatta in Florida.

Cutler was forced to come from behind in the Melges 32 seven-boat fleet despite three previous wins in the series.

But going into the final day they were one point behind overnight leader Dalton DeVos and Delta and knew they needed to up the ante to secure victory.

They managed to do that thanks to a superb performance that saw them lead around every mark as the tactical nous of Canadian Olympian Richard Clarke came through.

Delta battled hard to take second place in the race, which meant the two were tied with 15 points for the series after both won four races. However, Hedgehog won the tiebreaker on countback.

“We knew we had to go out and win the race. That was the only option,” Cutler said. “The committee boat was favoured and we won that end of the line. We then put the hammer down and just sailed as fast as we could.”

Cutler has competed in Key West five times and been runner-up twice in the Melges 24 class. Finally he can now celebrate a  victory in the annual regatta off the Conch Republic.

He said: “Our entire crew worked really well together and our boat-handling was outstanding the whole week.”

For the beaten Delta crew, they were left to rue a slow start that left them behind the eight-ball. 

 “We wanted to get a great start and pushed the line. Unfortunately, we were just a tad early and had to turn around,” DeVos said. “Hey, that’s sailboat racing. They don’t let you get a head start.”

Bermuda’s Chuck Millican placed 37th in the 60-boat j-70 class.