Just thought I'd share my experience on on F28R the last few days, for those of you that may be interested. Our local Macho Man Distance race was scheduled for Saturday April 4, 2004. I have completed this race before and was planning on doing it this year "solo" on my P19 MX. There had been conflicting reports on wind velocity for race day. Thursday evening I decided that with the strong possibility of high winds, it would be prudent to not attempt doing the 65+ miles by myself. Not to be left out of my weekend's sailing I went to Dunedin Causeway where my friend from Virginia (Steve McLaughlin)has been keeping his F28R for the last month. Come to find out, Steve and Glenn (another sailor from our area had decided (at the last minute) to sail from Dunedin Causeway (the finish line for the Macho Man) over to Davis Island (the starting line for the Macho Man) and be part of the race.

Well, Steve was scheduled to leave Dunedin Causeway around noon, leaving us enough time to sail the 35+ miles down to the Sky Way bridge (entrance to Tampa Bay) and about 1/2 the distance to Davis Island. We would be sailing in small craft advisor conditions and I advised Steve that we should come through the Skyway bridge before dark. Because of the size of the bridge, the wicked current and crazy wind shifts....daylight under sail is more desirable.

Well.....Glenn, shows up at a little after 3:00 and by the time we get his gear on board (he moves at "Key West time")
we get into the open Gulf around 4:00. Luckily the wind made it possible to sail straight down the coast (on a screaming reach) toward the entrance to Tampa Bay. Well.....as with the rest of this story...I could go into detail, but I won't. Steve has owned and sailed the 28R for a couple of years. This was going to be conditions that he has not been in yet. For those of you that think these Tris are dry boats (WRONG). We were pushing the boat so hard going down the coast that the lee ama was plowing water back to the first support. That results in water coming into the **** like a fire hose. As the afternoon wore away, the wind stayed from the same direction, but started to "stoke up" along with the increasing wave height. Several times helm was lost due to the height of the waves. (I had called my wife for a weather report "I left her a note letting her know about my last minute plans" and was told that the wind was in the upper 20's with gusts around 30). Probably why the 28 ft. tri felt like a beach cat. Finally we see the Skyway bridge with about a 1/2 hour of daylight left. We are making that mad dash for the bridge.

Coming into the pass heading for the bridge, you have to keep in mind the sandbars that protrude off Fort Desoto and Egemont Key prior to the shipping channel. Run aground at this speed and something has to break! When we entered the shipping channel we come off the wind to almost a beam reach and were running the following seas down to the bridge. My-oh-my were we haulin butt!! Time to start looking for the cruise ships and other assorted "big stuff".
We figured that once we got into Tampa Bay things would settle down. (Just a bit). Well, they didn't. Once through the bridge, we came back up on the wind a bit heading for the point at McDill AFB. At this time we were under main only and were "getting it" at 14+ knots! Steve was getting a few things done, and I had the helm. On moon lit waters, the foam was breaking off the following seas that looked like they wanted to come over the stern. "big ships" and barges were out in full force and 3 pairs of eyes were constantly on the lookout for everything that was coming at us at "quite a clip". Yee HAA!! The thrill of having a 28 ft. tri "scootin" with the gusts is actually impossible to describe. Once again, we think that when we round McDill AFB and head to weather toward Tampa we will get relief. WRONG! Heading up to Tampa with the wind on the nose, we are confronted with serious gusts and wind directional changes that are inverting the main and creating loss of helm. Oh, momma, why do the lights of Tampa appear to not be getting any closer. Having left at the last minute, the "boys" didn't get the coordinates to the Club. Nothing but the Tampa skyline and "lots of lights". Having been in these waters I suggested staying a bit to the west of the ships that were heading into Tampa. The Club is "a little" to the west of that. We finally found the entrance to the basin around 10:00 and tied up to a mooring for the night.

Stay tuned for race day, if this has been of any interest to you.
I will continue "the rest of the story" a little later. I am going back to the Causeway to see if Steve plans on racing the "mini" Macho Man today. Something like 30-35 miles. Wind is filling in like it has been doing for several days.

Promise to be back as soon as possible.

Dave