Hey All,

I just got acess to the forum and knew it would be buzzing. I am relaxing in Key Largo after my Dad and I's finish on Tuesday night.

I talked to Randy for a short while in the campground at the EC start while he was rigging his vessel. It was a sight to behold. I would like to clarify however that while he was planning to implement a scissoring motion of the amas and beams, he was not able to work out the kinks in time and thus the boat did NOT have this feature. The idea being that when on one tack you scissor the windward ama aft and the leeward ahead moving your CG back and your center of bouancy forward....which is good.

The race was (and still is. There are about 7 still out there in florida bay with 20-25knot headwinds forecast) a really tough one this year especially for the paddlers. Winds were generally out of the south and east which is the direction you usually want to go.

Glad to see the EC is getting the word of mouth publicity it deserves. And the Tornado and Randy I think are, in large part, responsible for this. Hopefully next year we will double our entrants! sure would being the cost of the event down.

I also want to say that as someone already pointed out, the EC was traditionally dominated by paddlers and paddle sailors (class 1 and 3) and only in the lasy few years have the class 4 boats really showen what is possible. Much reverence is held however for all those who choose kayak over sailboat. It is a different race for everyone. Personally, I'd rather relax and let the wind do that work.

Alan
sailnaway.blogspot.com