2014 Steeplechase

Steeplechase starts today!
Tracking link: www.SailSeries.com/tracking

Did Laura forget her phone/tracker? Or did she not go out?

six boat are broadcasting, but who are they?

Appears they nearing Angelfish and taking long port tacks and short starboards.

What are conditions like ... (heaven help us if we presume based on the weather buoys again)

Double Deuce is Roberts on ARC 22
Gramps is Ingram on F18
Green Room Graphics is Kohl on F18
Not sure who USS Enterprise is
Mojo is ground crew and removed

Craig, I can't get the playback to work anymore has that been removed?

I have been playing with it. If you can turn on your tracking for a few minutes, it will register and I can add it to Day 1 replay.
Day 1: http://kws.kattack.com/GEPlayer/GMPosDisplay.aspx?FeedID=1385

When Eric starts his again tomorrow I can import it. Turtle Mojo forgot to put their unit on the boat and was tracking their ground crew until I deleted it. Try and get some of the other boats to track. How many boats are competing?

No updates? No play by play? Come on guys. This is kinda a big deal.

I had my tracker going today I hope it worked.

Awesome Steeplechase! The islander and uksc are sweet. The course worked out and granted we did get perfect conditions still not a bad way to go. Very special thanks to Steve L. For hosting the Saturday feast!

All four boats that had Kattack enabled and on the boat were working great! Who was racing? How many boats? Who won? Just have four boats tracking.

Replay Day 1: http://kws.kattack.com/GEPlayer/GMPosDisplay.aspx?FeedID=1385
Replay Day 2: http://kws.kattack.com/GEPlayer/GMPosDisplay.aspx?FeedID=1386

We had 12 boats, 2 M20's, 3 N20's, 5 F18's, 1 ACR 22, 1 Gcat 21.

Top finishers from memory

Brett/Kenny - M20
Phillips/? - M20
Jarrod/Colin - N20's
Ricky/? - F18
Laura/Dave -F18
Jake/Frank - F18
Steve/Jay - N20

I can't remember the rest. Eric Roberts broke his Jib halyard outside Pennycamp on day one and couldn't make up the lost time.

Mike Philips broke his main traveler shortly after the start and was able to get back to the front and save his time to get second for the weekend.

How long did the legs take? Looked pretty fast from here.

It was a pretty quick run on both days. The fleet finished between 2 & 3 on Saturday and 12 & 1 on Sunday. We had solid breeze Sunday on the inside but when we turned the corner to go north on the outside the breeze dropped a bit. We probably would have been on the beach before noon if the breeze held.

What happened to Jay and Steve? That's not the norm for them.

Nothing that I know of and even if there was an issue I doubt either of them would mention it, I've never heard either one offer an excuse for an off day.

Great weekend! Amazing new format and amazing conditions.
We were right next to the arc well up the ocean side when the jib halyard broke. Dave tried to drop on the water and fell in so they had to go to land.
The f18s were definitely in their element for first half of day one then the wind started to drop and the bigger boats were faster. I think Jay and Steve were the only ones that couldn't pull ahead enough on day 2 to make up the time. Day two the big boats all seemed a bit faster and pulled away from the 18s early. Day two downwind was much more tactical than the usual route and was very fun.
At the end of day one we were able to sit at the bar at the upper keys sailing club (much better then Anne's beach!) and nearly everyone stuck around to have a relaxing lunch at the islander before hitting the road.
Thanks to Rick for running it, Dennis for allowing us at the Islander, Frank Moore for the Friday night party, the upper keys sailing club and of course Ding for being the drive behind this new format.
Rick I hope you're enjoying skiing, can you post the results?

I concur with the opinions here! It was a great weekend of racing. Frank came out of temporary retirement to make the run with me and we were off with a BANG on saturday morning. The jib reach in breezy conditions proved to be a big advantage to the heavier F18 team and we were ripping up the water early. Muma-Ding were pretty mean in the creeks and kept closing fast. As the wind lightened up a little on the backside, they had legs on us and passed us just before the entrance to Jewfish creek. We got them back in Blackwater Sound as they let us go off to the left all on our own and we laid the next creek entrance perfectly for a single trap spin run from about a mile away. There was a log jam of boats in the creek going into Tarpon basin and we got passed again. Hot on Muma-Ding's heels we got hit by a puff and I zigged when I should have zagged and sent Frank and I swimming. We righted it quickly and got headed back to the finish line just a few minutes behind that 2nd pack.

Day 2 was a crazy race to the first creek and it was a bit of a challenge to determine how soon after the start you could pop your kite and lay the entrance. A few set their kites right at the start line - we waited and reached out about 150 yards before making the turn and got lucky nailing the entrance again. After exiting Buttonwood sound, I thought we would find better breeze and angle near shore (having been beat several times by teams that hugged that shore going the opposite direction with similar wind angle/pressure). We only got better angle - the breeze was a little less there and the teams that ran down the middle rocketed away. Regardless, what a fantastic run south. I think I was in the wire driving with the kite up for most of the day - skirting through 5 foot deep water and at full tilt. It was an incredible sail. After rounding the Channel 5 bridge, we cut it tight to the hard shallows, boards up as high as we could sail with the kite until that ran us out into deeper water where we could get our boards down and start sailing a jib reach out to better water. The breeze lightened and it went from no trap, single trap, double trap, and back and forth for the final 6 miles. Knowing that Muma-Ding were speedy in these conditions, we worked our tails off to keep them behind us and try to make up the deficit from the day before. In the end, I think the difference we lost to them by was two minutes or less.

It was the best Steeplechase I've ever raced by a long shot.

That tracking is awesome. I can't believe more people aren't partaking.

Yeah, finally getting it figured out for these multi day distance races. The software is designed either for buoy racing or one or multiple day continuous tracking.

Kinda good I did not go. I worked half a day on Saturday and spent Saturday night/Sunday morning playing with the software. Hard to tinker with the software when you are on the road following boats. It is finicky and I was afraid of losing the data for replays.

I have list of suggestions for Kattack which will help in ease of use and make the product better. They seem pretty responsive so far.

Who was USS Enterprise?

I'm pretty sure USS Enterprise was Jacob from Lake Lanier, GA. I'll have to get his and his crew's full info.

Also, it appears that my tracker went live again when I stopped in Ormond Beach on the way home...my boat seems to have drifted that way.

The zooms and so forth function a little weird on the replay screen but I've found that if you click on the team you want to watch, you can pan and zoom with the mouse as the course progresses. That's really neat to watch - I see a couple of course related things I would have done differently other than the obvious ones I saw on the water. Turning on the satellite view is really revealing. I know exactly where I pushed a little too hard in some of the shallow waters.

What was approximate average wind strengh and direction for those two days?

Nice write up Jake, thank you for taking the time.

I can't wait to see the results...from replaying the tracking, it looks like we were apart by a minute or so overall.

I also can't believe more of you numb-skulls didn't partake in the tracking. That is great stuff! People can relate better to a race like that by seeing it over a satellite image.

Oh, and still don't have low beams on the truck. Burned out two more bulbs on the way home and drove by fog lights for as much as we could stand.

All thumbs up on the new course format. Big thanks to all who helped make the change and Dave for taking the initiative. Upper Keys Sailing Club is just a perfect addition to this race. Obviously the ground crews (wives) really appreciated the Islander all weekend. The skippers meeting at Jake's room was great because we all hung out instead of scattering for dinner. Next year count on us for a big tray of lasagna.

This year was all about introducing our friend Matt to distance racing and he's agreed to be on the line next year with his Falcon F18. And what an introduction it was... starting on a close reach in flat water was just too much fun. We suffered as the breeze tapered off at the top and was really light entering Angelfish Creek. Nice reach through the creek and a sweet sleigh ride to through the sounds.

Day 2 was some of the best sailing ever and I believe Matt was thoroughly impressed with how a spin run continues through 6 inches of water without slowing down much. We stayed with Jake most of the way and impressed ourselves with keeping up with a veteran. Dave and Laura stayed behind us to make sure we were OK. Probably Laura's idea.

Finishing well is great... but just sailing well is important for me. Matt and I sailed well together, had great laughs, some oh sh!ts and learned alot. For us it was an epic race and great weekend. Next year Linda will be back on the boat, and it looks like the mixed team thing is moving the steeplechase way also. Good stuff, looking forward to next year.

I'm not convinced we saved our time and if we did it's really close!

Dick, Laura would grind you guys down and I'd let you slip away. Laura drove the open water and I drove the flats and I wasn't crossing efficiently. Laura is WAY meaner than me and having you guys in front of us made my job on the front of the boat a lot harder. Ricky be thankful I was driving in the cuts Laura would not have been nearly as nice to you as I was and she did warn you so be ready.

Ditto on Jake's numb-skull comment! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot b!tches?

I guess 15 to maybe 18 until Anglefish then the inside was 15 and fading as we sailed south.

Day 2 ~12 to 15 tops fading as we approached the channel five bridge and 5 - 10 as we approached the Islander.

Really ideal conditions, enough to work you hard and soft enough for the first timers to handle it without issue. We never used the paddle which was a first for me and was REALLY nice. I think the only reason Ricky used his paddle was because Laura and I were in front of him :-).

That was, until Ricky's crew quietly slipped the paddle overboard during the exit of one of the creeks and later responded "whoops, the paddle is gone so I can't paddle anymore."

Our Chairman is a litter bug!? You're making us look bad Ricky.

We were going for the banana peal Mario Kart effect... apparently it worked on Jake

Where are the results?!?

Rick said he will post them when he gets back from Park City.

Aaaaahhh! That's why we flipped in Tarpon Basin. We clearly tripped over your stinking paddle.