The racing was awesome, although only three f16s showed up. Terry Back, Pete Pollard and Myself. I arrived Saturday morning and had the boat rigged in around 30 to 45mins, thanks in part to Pete for giving me a hand to rig.

I was initially going to sail sloop rigged but seeing how the wind was very light, my crew decided not to go out with me. Therefore, I sailed uni. All three F16s were unrigged.

We were placed with the low Portsmouth fleet. Our starts were with three A cats, a few Nacras a hobie 21 with a massive spinnaker.

Our first race we saw probably five knots of wind with occasional gusts to seven. The A cats were all trapped, the rest of the fleet were going in and out with the gust. The F16s were occasionally first (Terry) to the A mark along with the As. I was usually third or fourth out of the fleet; only A cats were in front of me. Then on the down, wind leg Terry and me would leave the A cats behind.

In our second race, The wind picked up maybe a knot or two. We were on our downwind leg and Terry was probably 25 yards in front of me, when I noticed him flip. I should have known better to be prepared and I flipped maybe 10 yards in front of him. I assume it was the same gust that hit us both. Later I heard Pete flipped in the same spot as well. We were all over at the same time. I needed help to bring my boat back up due to the wind blowing directly onto my mainsail and I was unable to bring her back up. I tried every trick in the book without any luck. I was over for maybe 20 minutes. I finally threw the towel in and requested help from the chase boat.

Overall, we had maybe five or six races. All were TONS of fun. I had good starts, which I am very happy about. The fleet was a great mix of A, Nacras, F16s and Hobie 21 (properly named FATCAT). Terry and me were very close on every race, except one massive lift that he got on port tack. He was the first boat to A mark on that one race. I caught up and reeled him in on the downwind. From this race, I learned that Terry is faster upwind and I was gaining my ground back on the downwind legs. I have a lot to learn from him for upwind speed. We also noticed that Pete’s mast was raked to far aft. I mentioned it to Terry and we helped him rake his mast forward. Pete definitely has the weight to power up the rig. Once his mast was raked further forward he mentioned something about some weather helm. I am sure once he gets all these little items settled out he will be another F16 to watch out for.

Lake Eustis race is surely a race NOT to miss. I will be back next year. THUMBS UP FOR THE RC and LAKE EUSTIS SAILING CLUB!!!!!!

hopefully Petey and Terry will chime in with their stories.
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