I just returned to the Chesapeake Bay area after a 16-hour drive, towing a double-stack of F16 Blades from Gulfport, Florida, where my friend Ed Mills and I competed single-handed in the annual Gulfport Yacht Club invitational regatta, along with F18s, Acats and an open fleet. The Gulfport Yacht Club is a very nice catamaran club with many active racers. The people there are very hospitable and run an excellent regatta. Everything on the beach and on the water was done first rate. This year, the regatta was held on the city beach—a perfect venue for participants and spectators. With all the beach-front restaurants and shops, as well as rental homes near-by, this in an ideal place for the F16 Global Challenge which will be held there for a week in November.

Like most competitive sailors, regardless of their skill level, I went to this regatta with certain expectations. I did not meet my race results expectation—due to poor boat maintenance (leaky hull) and a few mistakes and mishaps on the course. But, I did meet my expectation to return to the Chesapeake Bay a better sailor, ready to go at it every Tuesday night with Ed and all my other sailing friends at the West River Catamaran Racing Association (celebrating it's 20th year).

Regardless of my finishes, I had many "moments of ah!", where I executed a start, a tack, a jibe, a spin set or take-down, a sail shape adjustment (down haul, rotator, trim), or a tactical move better than I had ever done before this regatta. I attribute these "moments of ah!" to the knowledge I attained during the prior 3 days. You see, Ed and I went there earlier in the week to participate in a three-day (and night!) training camp with "Robbie D" (Daniels). After racing catamarans for some 30 years with a lot of help from Rick White’s books, I got my first formal schooling, and from one of the best!

And let me tell you, even if I had learned nothing, it was well worth the price of the ticket just to be there for breakfast and dinner. Jill and Robbie treated us like family.

You couldn’t jam any more sailing, learning and having fun into 24 hours. You can’t possibly learn what Robbie knows in 3 years, let alone 3 days. But we covered a lot with sail shape, rigging, and boat-handling and starting to make some significant improvements. And if I ever had a question about something other than what was being covered, Robbie was always willing and eager to provide good information to address the issue. Our typical day was breakfast at 7:30 a.m., boat tuning, discussion, demonstration, on-water drills, course racing with three practice starts for each race, with video taping the entire time; then back for a fantastic dinner followed by reviewing video with lots of critique, discussion, and laughter until we finally passed out around 11–midnight. I only wish I had done this 2 decades ago.

They say “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” but I’m confident that with a lot more practice applying my new-found knowledge, my “moments of ah” will turn into more successful results. If you have an interest in some great training, you can contact Jill or Robbie at [email protected].

To all my friends at the training camp,
Matt and Zack Lynch — local father and son team (son Zack, 11 years old is usual on the helm and also competes in Opti class)
Kelly and Dan Krueger — married couple from the mid west (Dan is smart and secure enough to have Kelly driving by the end of the week)
Chris Prentice and Pat LaRouche — Canadian team, with sub-in Paige Reily, a local Olympic class Laser sailor
My bunk-house roomies, John Scott from Buffalo and Ed (lucky duck) Mills, from the Annapolis, MD area
I wish each of you many “moments” and lots of success!

Congrats to Chris and Pat who have already had success in winning the F18 class this weekend!
Congrats also to fellow Blade sailors Matt and Gina who won the F16 class!

Thanks Robbie, Jill and Mimi for everything!

Good sailing,
Johnny 5
(aka John McLaughlin)
F16 #5

One of John's good moments had to have been leading the fleet around the weather mark on at least one race. Looking back and seeing all the chasers had to be a proud (yet, stressful) moment!!!

How about John's starts? He's quite adventurous on the line isn't he? :-) Ed

My expectations whenever going over to Gulfport are that I am going to have a good time and good racing. This years did not let me down one bit.

Awsome food, good people and a great time.

17 F16 (would have been 19 if 2 of the local club boats did not have conflicts) The level of racing also is getting better and better. John was not the only one pushing it on the line. A bunch of individual overs and a couple of general recalls, meant there was not many people hanging back (at least on purpose - (I did manage to get caught and rubbed out at the committee boat in race 4)

Saturday the wind was from everywhere at every speed. Patience was the name of the game and it seamed every leg huge changes in mix would occur. Sunday foercast was good but as soon as we left the line it started dropping and continued right up the drift back to the beach after 2 races.

Looking out and seeing all the spins was a cool site, and we heard lots of comment from those gathered on the beach watching. Other than the no beer rule sailing off the beach there is great as it is dirrect to the course and an easy launch land.

Hope all the guys at this one had a good enough time to come back in November for the Global Challenge. Hope the guys who were not there can put it on their schedule. It will be well worth the trip - even for new Stealth guys in MT. Nov is nice in FL.

Matt

And thanks to you too Matt, for coming up with the Blade and promoting the F16 class. Don't know what I'd be sailing now if not for the flexibility of the F16 platform.

It was a great testament to the class that one of every configuration, make and model won at least one race, so nobody can say their boat isn't competitive. It does come down to the sailor's skills after all, as it should be.

But boy, light air sure is frustrating!