Here is a story from Jill Nickerson about the Tornado Nationals, and a photo:

Variety is the word of the day for weather conditions at the US National
Championships. The second day of racing, starting with race 2 after
only 1 race on Thursday, began with LOTS of wind.


The weather pattern was again, very strange with a North wind. The wind
was so strong that it was pushing the water away from the Dunedin
Causeway causing a VERY shallow channel to get out onto the Gulf. After
a brief postponement to allow the race committee boat, the "What's Your
Pleasure", to get out to the Gulf, the sailors were off.


The wind was averaging at about 18 plus with some gusts up to about 22
knots. Added into the mix was BIG waves. Although it was exciting to
see all the boats FLYING around, it proved to be too much for some of the
teams who prudently retired to the beach. The remaining boats had their
hands full for 3 races in close to maximum conditions.


During the race, the stories were exciting and sometimes a little
disastrous. The first thing we were witness to was the French team
rounding the first windward mark and setting their spinnaker. The second
the spinnaker filled the spinnaker exploded and disintegrated into
pieces. Needless to say, they were forced to retire from the race, but
returned for the next race.


We saw several boats flip over with a different story to each. Robbie
and Eric had an interesting story of setting the spinnaker when their
spinnaker sheet dropped in the water in front of the front beam JUST as
they were sailing over a crab trap...Naturally, they hooked onto the trap
and the boat lunged forward, then continued to sail on. Eric struggled
to pull the bull up to the front beam to release the spinnaker sheets
when suddenly Robbie looked back to see the crab trap that was on the
bottom now surfing behind the boat. After a bit of a struggle the trap
was released and they were at full speed WITHOUT an anchor.


Another interesting story was when USA 80 cam flying around the gate at
the bottom end of the course doing a pretty good job when suddenly we all
realized that there was only one person on board. After his crew had
fallen off the boat, he had struggle to get the spinnaker down, then get
the boat some what under control and just happened to be at the mark by
then and turned around it. As the safety boats hurried to the man in
the water, the skipper calmly talked the boat a couple of time and
stopped back to get his crew, then continued the race. Although this
would make a good light wind strategy, it creates havoc in 20 knots!


All in all, a good day of racing was had by all and no complaints were
heard about lack of wind. We have included a shot of Greg and Casey
Scace who did come out for the first race. The picture says it all for
the conditions of the day.


Once again, we thank our wonderful sponsors for this event, presented by
Home Depot and by Jesses Dockside restaurant. The sponsors have
included, Sail Honeymoon, Kira Bannerworks, Ronstan, Fun in the Sun,
JTF-Air, Albertsons, Harken, Murrays Marine, West Marine, What Your
Pleasure Boat Charters and Marker 1 Marina.

We would also like to continually thank are tireless staff of race
committee, judges and volunteers that have put in many hours to bring
this event to life. If you are interested in visiting the beach, we
welcome you.
Best regards,
Jill Nickerson