Just about everything is different about this year’s Miami Key Largo sailing race

On May 30, sailors will compete in the 64th and 1/2 annual Miami Key Largo Race.

Wait. Sixty fourth and a half?

Yes, that bit of creative counting comes courtesy of Hans Evers, the Miami Yacht Club’s race-committee chairman.

Evers said there were 59 boats entered in 2018, when the race — for the first time — became a two-day event, starting in Miami, just south of the Rickenbacker Causeway, and then spending the night in Key Largo. The two-day idea was a success, and the 2019 race grew to 71 boats.

“We have a great party in Key Largo, and we were hoping for 100 boats this year,” Evers said. “But, because of the coronavirus, that’s not going to happen this year.

“So, we’re going to have the race in a modified way.”

That “modified way” is a race to the featherbeds and back. In other words, there will be no trip to Key Largo in this year’s Miami Key Largo race.

“Instead of doing a 40-mile run straight south to Key Largo,” Evers said, “we will do a 24-mile loop.”

Evers said the party aspect of the race down in Key Largo will return next year. That’s why he wants to count 2021 as the 65th anniversary and not 2020.

So far, 42 sailboats have been entered to race this year, and Evers said he believes that number will rise to 50 by race day.

The race, which is open to all boats 14 feet or longer, is the oldest such sailing event in Miami.

Typically, boats entered include larger mono-hulls, which can travel about 10 mph, and smaller and sleeker catamarans and beach cats, which can hit speeds of 35 mph.

The race is first to finish for everybody, but there are also class scores depending on the vessel. A “scratch sheet” is used to adjust times, depending on the boat used.

Holding the race at the end of May instead of April — which was the case last year — could also affect the speed. Winds in the month of May tend to be lighter, which could double the race time. In fact, May 30 is the latest the race has been held in any particular year since there were August start dates in the 1980s.

But while the winds at any point in the year can be fickle, John McKnight, a retired airline pilot and the commodore of the Catamaran Association of Biscayne Bay, said his love for sailing has been a life-long constant.

“I’ve been doing this race for 40 years,” McKnight said. “For those of us who love the sport, it’s still a challenge.”