Performance Midwinters 2008

Mike Teets

I can’t actually remember when I started going to Midwinter’s as a crew sometime in the 80’s. Since then I think I have made about every other year. For those not familiar with Pensacola , it has to be the best beach cat sailing in the U.S. Kirk Newkirk and the Key Sailing crew do an excellent job of mixing serious racing with island speed living. The location has gone a bit more commercial with the neighboring boardwalk but that just gives non-racing attendees more to do/drink. The island is mostly back to normal after the repeated hurricanes remodeled the place. Most hotels and condos are open although there are still countless empty lots where houses and even high rise hotels once stood.

Sailing in their own class start were 11 Nacra 20s. The remainder of the fleets combined into one open fleet containing 4 Nacra F17s, 4 F18s, 1 Hobie 17, 4 Blade F16s and one Nacra 6.0 Express. The four F17s attending were Chad Schwall, Bob Curry, Ken Haga and Mike Teets.

The F17s were rigged and practicing on Friday morning despite the gale warnings. It actually turned too light to sail for a while but then by around 2pm, it started blowing the proverbial dogs off of their chains. After the short warm up sail, we packed up, and diligently staked and tied down the boats to the fences. Winds overnight were reported in the mid-thirties to mid-forties and our condo was shaking all night. I did make a 3 am run to the beach to retie my boat and neighboring boats when I heard the wind shift from west to the north. I have done the drive before only to find a depressing pile of boats stacked and holed on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning found temps in the low 50’s and winds had subsided a bit but still quite fresh. On the bay side of the bridge, there were sizable rollers and whitecaps blowing off. The sound side was pretty flat except by the bridge. Bert Rice was the PRO for the event and ran the races like clockwork… much to the dismay of many who were not prepared for the cold morning start and the sail out to the starting line in the Santa Rosa Sound. Winds were out of the North West so the starting line was about 2 miles to the east of the launch site.

There were three races on Saturday. Ken Haga, relatively new to sailing the F17 tumbled right off the beach and had difficulty righting. This certainly was rough weather to try to learn in. A concerned tourist from a condominium called 911 for someone to rescue the crashed boater. The coast guard RIB rushed to the scene with sirens blazing while fire trucks and police swarmed into Kirk’s store. Of course, there was no need for that show. Rumor was that the Nacra 6.0 Express experienced either a mast or beam failure and was out before the first start as well. The carnage had begun.

The first race started and I remembered why I come down to Florida … to get all of the horrible starts out of the way for the year. For every race, the gun would go off and somehow Chad and I found ourselves far back from the fleet watching them power up and sail away. I guess our boats and bodies were still a bit icy from the north. Bob Curry however was smoking right from the start… he actually started on time as well! The open fleet start only included the 3 F17s, 1 F18 and 1 two-up F16. The race seemed uneventful although I did feel quite rusty from 6 months of no sailing. The second race found winds building and more boats on the starting line. As the breeze filled however, there were more and more capsizes. While dodging a pitched F16, asking if he was ok, snuffing my chute, and rounding the leeward gate, I found myself slowly tipping over. I swung around the mast base and never even got wet… until I righted the boat. I was out of the money places but did right quickly and finish.

By the third race, the wind was blowing stiffly, probably sustained 20 with whitecaps and spray and some higher gusts. Bob Curry and Mike Hill ended up in an unfortunate dance pirouette when Mike jibed downwind into Bob heading up. This put Bob out of the remaining races. ( This was Bob’s brand boat just purchased L ) Mike ended up with a duck-taped hull and sailed the remainder of the regatta. One of the F16s sailing broke the bow just forward of the main beam. Another was out with rudder damage on shore. After missing the first start, Mike Krantz and Dave Lenard ate up the fleet on handicap with all bullets on their Layline F18 (Infusion). In the last lap of the third race, I started to hoist and found the halyard locked solid. Looking up I found both the halyard had wrapped both up and down behind the spreader and then spun into a wrap above the wires. There was no budging it so I sailed wild thing for the remainder of the race. I was only able to unwrap it on shore after the races.

Saturday’s party included barbeque and drinks from the cooler in the Key Sailing shop. There were stories swapped and new friends made. It was getting quite chilly and the party moved to the yacht club around 7:30. We called it a night after all of the travel and sailing had made for tired folks.

Sunday morning’s weather was quite brisk. Temps on the island were in the mid to high forties. Inland weather reports included ice warnings. By race time, the air had warmed to around 50 degrees. The breeze had actually built overnight and clocked all the way around from the East. It was a little harder from some to push off into the stiff wind and cold so about half of the racers stayed ashore. Sunday’s racing was rough but relatively uneventful for me. My new halyard rigging made the spinny launches and dowses easy even in the high wind. I could still use a few more tweaks including shortening my spinnaker sheets to clean up the deck.



Trophies followed on the sunny side of Kirk’s shop where it was actually quite warm. We brought 2 of the 3 open fleet trophies up north with us so it was a good day for the F17s. Chad and I were the only open fleet sailors to start and finish every race. Rough copy of race results in photo below. Also attached is a photo of the boat at home in the 24 inches of snow. While cold and windy in Pensacola , it was better than being in the largest snow fall ever recorded in Columbus . Now, what to do for my wife who stayed home and had actually plowed our 300 foot driveway so I could get the boat in. We did set a new record on return from Pensacola with 12 hours 21 minutes to Dublin Ohio . Unfortunately this meant Chad and Angie left Dublin at 5 am heading for Bay City , Michigan .
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Mark
F17 #695 w/ BB Chute