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"That sounds really good!" Alexandra GEREMIA said. "It has been pretty wild."

Her Crocodile Rock, with co-owner Scott HARRIS of San Diego at the helm and North Sails' Vince BRUN calling tactics, is one of a dozen returning class winners and 301 boats overall scheduled to start five days of racing today at 10 a.m. local time, conditions permitting---and conditions could be exhilarating.

The North Sails weather briefing by meteorologist Chris BEDFORD offered this week-long synopsis: "The cold front marching east across the Gulf of Mexico Sunday night is forecast to move through during the day on Monday. After an unsettled day with multiple shifts and an increase in pressure from the NW on Monday, conditions should settle with high pressure moving north of Florida Tuesday through Wednesday.

"After moderate winds continue through Tuesday, lighter conditions are forecast for Wednesday and most of Thursday before the next front arrives and brings potentially strong NW winds on Friday."

More than 3,000 sailors have come from 18 countries and 32 states to this quaint little island town that is the southernmost point in the continental United States. The schedule calls for nine races in each of the 10 one-design and 11 PHRF handicap classes. Four race courses are spread out over 10 miles along the south side of the island between the beach and a reef five miles offshore that minimizes the influence of the Gulf Stream flowing west to east. The water temperature is 70 degrees.

This year's event, the 17 in the series now organized by Premiere Racing, Inc., will mark the debuts of the Swan 45s and C&C 99s, who have massed enough boats to rate as classes of their own---and, especially for the Swans, that's class with a capital C. As in the Farr 40 and some other one-design classes, owners must drive. The crew lists of the nine Nautor-built luxury racers are sprinkled with talent such as Ed Baird, Brad Read, Murray Jones, Dee Smith, Howie Shiebler, Butch Ulmer, Steve Benjamin, Kevin Burnham and Leonardo Ferragamo, the Nautor Swan chief who is skipper of Courdileone.

That world-class name-dropping rivals the lineup of tacticians in the Farr 40s, which includes, besides Brun, Robbie HAINES, Terry HUTCHINSON, Adrian STEAD, Chris LARSON, Kimo WORTHINGTON, Eric DOYLE, Tom WHIDDEN and John CUTLER.

Hutchinson will be working with his right arm in a sling after suffering an elbow injury in his Star boat last weekend.

Also, two America's Cup principals---Alinghi tactician Brad BUTTERWORTH and Oracle helmsman Peter HOLMBERG, now with Alinghi---are tacticians for Daniel MEYERS' Taylor 49, Numbers 97, in PHRF 2 and Tom HILL'S R/P 75, Titan 12, in PHRF 1, respectively.

With its 2003 victory, Geremia's Crocodile Rock ended Atalanti XII's three-year win streak. Greek businessman George ANDREADIS is back hoping to reclaim honours, but the fleet is traditionally a wide-open scramble. At last year's class Worlds in Sardinia, for example, Geremia was struck on the head when rival Barking Mad's boom swept the deck of her boat.

"It just grazed me," she said. "Didn't bleed much. But we lost our lifelines and had a couple of little holes in the boat. We still had two firsts and a second for the week. We're back here with the same crew, same everything. We think we're better after another year of sailing."

Another headliner returning is Richard Bergmann's well-traveled Zuni Bear from San Diego, winner of the rambunctious J/105 class and the Terra Nova Trading Trophy as Boat of the Week for winning the most competitive class last year.

Full details are available on the event website at the address below.