Sam,
I perhaps overstate the distance racing on the Bay as dead, but there is no more Down the Bay or Chesapeake 100. There is no more Icebreaker or Lighthouse races, the old CRAC begin and end of season mini-distance races. They have been replaced by the Spring and Pumpkin Patch regattas at WRSC, which are proper buoy racing affairs. The main distance event now is the NASS Annapolis to Oxford/Hammond Memorial, which is great, but it's kind of the only thing.
The distance racing in Florida is great, but you're right, the trip makes it hard - more distance racing up north is needed.
I think it would be interesting to see some newer F-18s on the Bay. In the past they haven't been popular, our guess has been the combo of light air and smaller sail area for the reason - but I figure the newer boats make up for that.
We've had a couple of 20s sell out of our area, so our numbers are dwindling a bit here.
The F-16 is great, and does well distance racing here (such as it is). The biggest thing is whether you want to spend a lot time on a boat by yourself. Going 2-up would be ok, but not at the average 20 sailor's mass.
I've seen a good number of days on the Bay where I'm perfectly happy being on shore...
My guess on the F-18 in the bay thing, is that the F-18 class does alot of traveling and Bay cat sailors (in general)don't. Mast up at West river makes it easy to not want to pack your boat up and go somewhere else.Not that I have that luxury.
F-18s seem to have almost as much power as the 20s now, so I think they would be a decent fit in the bay.
And to clarify,there is a big boat down the bay that cats are trying to get in to.That's probably the one Sam is referring to.
The Cat only Down the bay (The race that got me hooked on distance)is gone.That was a damn fine way to spend a Memorial day weekend.
