Mike's stb. hull suffered a nasty crunch/split extending about 1 foot back. It's fixable, as Jake repaired a boat with a similar type split back to the first bulkhead on another boat.

Ironically enough, Mike said his port hull was repaired earlier, and it suffered little (if any) damage.

Viewing the Wave, it would appear that Mike hit the main beam with his stb. hull. The Wave (# 66 I believe) has a main beam that sticks out about 2 inches from the rest of the hull, and that seems to be what really did the damage. I cannot begin to think what was going through the skipper's mind as the N20 came flying at him.

I'm sure Mike will give a firsthand report on here soon, but from what I understand, he was headed downwind (presumably on port) and was ducking another wave when the one he hit "came out of nowhere" from under the spinnaker. Mike and his crew were actively looking for other boats, but it was just one of those wierd sets of circumstances. The closing speed was very high, further complicating things.

Yes, having an inside course for non-spin boats helps, but the spin boats on the bigger course still picked their way through the other fleets on at least one of the legs in each race. The "B" mark may have helped keep the spin and non-spin boats apart on the first lap, but it was up to each skipper/crew after that to pick their course... (notice this last part)

To address Mary's points, if there were that many people around willing to set up to entirely different racing areas, it would be great. But the real world circumstances dictate doing what provides the most opportunity for the most people. I commend them for all their hard work at making a regatta like this possible.

Now, if we can convince all the other people to buy N20 or F18, we wouldn't have this problem, right?