Premiere Racing has a fine preview of each class racing this week, and Anarchists have been talking smack in this thread for weeks, but we still figured we’d do our own little preview here for y’all, SA style:

FARR 40 – Just a couple of years ago, predictions of the death of this class were loud and persistent. Now it seems to be growing again, and the recent class decision to go to masthead kites should bring some new excitement to the racing. Compared to the many hot new IRC racers on the scene, the F40 design is looking a bit long in the tooth, but there’s just no other similar sized boat that has fostered anything close to this level of competition. This being the real debut of the mastheads, look for some surprising performers and some big mistakes if the breeze gets up. Already, Mescalzone Latino and Flash Gordon have blown up spin poles during practice. With Brad Butterworth calling the shots it’s probably Alinghi’s regatta to lose, but Mescalzone and Norwegian Steam are always tough in Florida. Barking Mad and Warpath are solid performers, and Ramrod has some extra Detroit speed aboard. Chicago’s Flash Gordon will try to start off as well as they did at Worlds, when they had two bullets the first day. At a minimum we’ll be getting some post-race updates from Warpath and Ramrod, and hopefully some of you other F40 anarchists will step up.

MELGES 32 – Melges Performance Boats has been busting their ass to build this fleet of razor’s edge sportboats. Despite the $150,000 + cost of admission for a 30 foot boat, they’ve done an astonishing job, with 20 boats on the line. Last year, the boats were so new that they elected to sit out on the windiest day of racing – this year we’re pretty certain that they’ll be out playing no matter what it blows. The amount of sail testing in ’06 has been substantial. The factory team of Star hasn’t lost a lot of races yet, but New Wave is only a hair off their pace, and former MUMM 30 world champion Claudio Recchi showed in Ft. Lauderdale that he’s a damned quick study and a hell of a racer. Glenn Darden is a recent World Champ in the J/80 and is a brilliant sailor, so watch for him too. Here’s a special wish for Tom Neill and Nightmare: Have a great regatta, guys. You deserve it.

MUMM 30 – Unlike the Farr 40, the dire predictions of the death of the MUMMS may be closer to reality, but they do have ten boats on the line, which is plenty for some great racing. It’s hard to believe that Peter de Ridder will have anything but a great result, with the TP52 title in his pocket and the VOR campaign already going, Peter is as hot as anyone racing today. Canadian nutter and sailing prodigy Brad Boston is sailing with the Black Seal boys and should be tough to pass. There are loads of Anarchists in this class, so we expect the KW thread to have plenty of good stories from them.

MELGES 24 – There are at least 10 boats that have a legitimate shot at winning this class, with another 5 or 6 that aren’t far behind. The current forecast is showing a relatively light week, and if that holds it’ll be a chore to beat Jon Pollard on Xcellent. The big Euros in the class are Joe Fly, Simonseschi’s Audi team, UK 5-oh star John Gimson driving bateauneuf, and the always fast and constantly practicing Partner and Partners. If the breeze gets up, expect Dave Ullman to walk away from the fleet like he did last year, with BP’s Full Throttle not far behind. With Chris Larson driving Rosebud, they’re in the hunt too – but personally I’m pulling for Anarchist Napoleon Dynamite and the rest of Simon’s boys on Team Gill. On the sailmaker front, Lidgard sails has joined the Melges fray, supplying Jack Jennings new Pied Piper Racing team with rags, built to a design by Anarchist Jibeset’s Seattle-based Clear Ahead Sailmakers. Coincidentally, Doyle just joined the sailmaker wars in the class at the recent US Nationals, and now we see another – this class is definitely a healthy one. Expect a LOT of news this week from all our Melges friends.

J/109 – This class is full of Anarchists. Mojo and Tastes Like Chicken should be fighting it out at the front, with TLC fortunately learning about equipment issues on their new boat during the hairy run that was the Ft. Lauderdale-KW feeder race. TLC lost their main halyard and tack line miles and miles before the finish, and they hit the line under jib alone, less than half a minute behind J/109 Mad Dogs & Englishmen after a 160 mile race. Wild card: The Irish Mariner’s Antix has been kicking ass in the UK. It’s going to interesting to see how the best of the UK stacks up to the best in the US.

J/80 – Kerry Klingler’s NY program is nearly untouchable, but one of the guys with a chance, Jay Lutz, just lost his rig during practice on Sunday. Hopefully he’ll get a spare fitted.

IRC 1 – This is the Gucci class. We predict that a four million dollar boat will beat a three million dollar boat. Actually, with the big-ticket sailors that will be racing this class there could be some interesting results, but we just can’t get that charged up about it.

IRC 2 - If sexy, superlight carbon boats are your thing (and you KNOW they’re ours) then this is the class to watch. Fortunately we’ve got Wash on this circle, so we should get some good live reports today. The four Transpac 52s in the class are almost pedestrian compared to the remainder of IRC 2. The favorite has to be the Irish Magic Glove, the super hot Ker 50 that ran away with Cork Week and won her class handily at Cowes week. VOR, I-14 and 18 foot skiff champ Rob Greenhalgh has been calling tactics for the Glove, and we heard he’s got his brother Peter aboard as well, himself a top-tier skiff champion. This spring they’re both headed to do a full a VX 40 season with Basilica Racing, so they’ll want to leave their mark on Key West. The sparkling new Sjambok (Reichel-Pugh 45) showed the fleet some serious speed during the feeder race, pulling out a substantial lead over the TP52’s until the wind went a bit aft and one 52 caught them. The boat is lean and vicious looking, with a 6 foot bowsprit instead of the usual pole setup. Despite her reduced size and weight, her rig is a mere 6 inches shorter than the Transpacs. Another blindingly fast Pom boat is Chieftain, a Cookson 50 that will need to work hard to save her time on the Glove and the new Rogers 46, Yeoman. This boat was sailed for the first time just last week. Three of the TP52’s are older-generation boats, and Samba Pa Ti is a brand new design, and given the progress of each new generation of 52, they should have an advantage.

PHRF – We predict that at least one sailor will complain about another’s rating, and one more will say “we just lost because we have a crap rating.”

J/105 – Let’s not even open this can of worms. We predict that most 105ers will have a great time in KW. That’s as far as we need to go…