26 A-Class catamarans raced over the weekend in beautiful Bokeelia, Florida off the local beach of Ben and Nan Hall's new Florida second home. The fleet quality was high with Hall, Smyth, Cope, Moon, and Daniels racing. There was also several new A-Class sailors racing their first major class event including Bill Goggins, the CEO of Harken who was there with a brand new EVO HT. The fleet also included former J-22 North American champion Peter Merrifield and current ISAF team racing world champion Peter Levesque. We got to meet Wes Wilcox who came down to Bokeelia to pick up a boat he purchased from one of the competitors. Wes recently switched jobs from Trek Bicycles to Harken. Wes was in charge of the carbon R&D that produced the bikes that Lance Armstrong and his US Postal/Discovery racing teams used in the years they dominated the Tour De France. I told Wes he needs to call Lance in a couple of years to see if we can get him out on an A-Class, seems that would be a fun thing for him to retire in to!

We did not get to race today because the breeze was hovering in the low to mid 20's all morning but we did get two fantastic days of sailing and racing Friday and Saturday. On Friday, the fleet participated in a day long tuning and racing clinic with 4-time North American Champ and 2007 WC runner-up Lars Guck. After a two hour onshore session covering boat setup and boat handling, we spent four hours on the water doing short 2 lap windward-leeward races. I think we did at least 13-14 races. Most of the races were in 8-10 knots but the seabreeze kicked in good for the last 3 races at 15-18 knots. The tight courses in the windier races made it feel like you were doing "wind sprints"!

Four races were sailed on Saturday in 10-20 knots of breeze. The conditions were tough as in each race there were 10-30 degree oscillations with 5-10 knot changes in wind velocity. You had to keep your head out of the boat and shift gears smoothly. I felt pretty good for the day with a 2-3-9-3 but was disappointed to find out I was OCS in the first race. Ben Moon had the best day on the water with a 2-2-1-1. He was followed by Woody Cope and Randy Smyth in 2nd and 3rd with Ben Hall right behind. Unfortunately that's the way the regatta scoring ended with the cancellation of today's racing due to the high winds.

The next event in the southeast is the A-Class/F-16 Invitational at Gulfport Yacht Club next month followed by the North American Championship at Fort Walton Yacht Club May 11-15.

Sail light, sail fast.

Bob Hodges
A-Class USA 230