RV's and trailers rolled into the Ft. Walton Beach Yacht Club yesterday and today to get set up for 4 days of racing on Choctawhatchee Bay. I believe the tally is something like 11 F17's and 11 Nacra 20's so far. Light breeze and delightful 80 degree weather allowed the teams to rig/tune/practice at a leisurely pace this afternoon. Regatta burgers/dogs/keg had the teams catching up and looking over the NOR/Itenerary for the week on the back patio of the YC tonight.

Here's the link again to the event website -

http://www.fwyc.org/Regattas2009/NacraNA/index.html

Stay tuned for results/pics to begin showing tomorrow evening.

This is a nice spot for a regatta...

Today
South winds 10 to 15 knots. Seas 1 to 3 feet. Bays and coastal waterways a light chop. Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms.

Perfection!

4 races today in 6-12 knot s-sw winds. Think Bobcat got all bullets today in the F17 fleet, and Alex-Nigel with 3 out of 4 in the 20's. Guy Selsmeyer had an awsome day and in 2nd in the N20's. Capt Kirk's 20 was knocked out of service at start of 1st race (rudder damage), think they got it fixed by end of the day. Grady served up an awsome shrimp boil, while competitors enjoyed course talk by the keg.

sorry, here is a craptastic picture of the results

Ooo that is craptastic!


Thanks for adding that to my vocabulary!

LOL

Photos from Day 1:

http://myfwyc.org/G2_2009/main.php?g2_itemId=35690

Day 2 scores N20:

Shafer/Pitt 8
Mark Smith 21
Selsmeyer 23
Amador/McDonald 27
Chris Blake 32
Newkirk 36
Hill 37
Pocreva 58
Wiluzs 61
Harp 62
Ferber 69

Racing has been tight at the top. Although Alex and Nigel have pulled away in the points every race has been close.

That's all I have for now.

4 more races today. We waited on the water over 2 hours after the 1st race for wide oscillations to settle on a direction. After that light air races for the rest of the day.

Day Two Pics

Wow, awsome Taco buffet really hit the spot after a long day of lighter shifty winds. Think the top 7 boats finished within 45-60 seconds of each other in the last race in the N20 fleet. One of those days where you were either in the lane or you weren't upwind. Downwind was all about getting to the south shore in good fashion to jump on the rhumb line starboard train to the gate. Great job by the entire RC today to keep our course square, and big laughs were had as Alex the bartender kept the cold drinks coming on the back patio. Local YC hospitality/company furnished by the likes of Randy Smyth and others who joined in on the fun.

Gotta go plug the patience bank into the charger overnight for more tough legs tomorrow!

Who's crewing for Selsmeyer?

The hospitality is spectular at FWBYC. Where else can you sit down with Randy, Alex, Nigel, Capt. Kirk, Bob Curry, Gilespie, etc?

Todd Bouton

Stupid Question but no Nacra F-18 class?

Sort of like... a Flyer A Class NA's... Why? What's the point of splitting the class by builder?

Fleet is back on the beach waiting for the breeze.

They only got off one race so far and it was shortened.

N20:

Shafer/Pitt
Newkirk
Blake
Smith
Hill
Selsmeyer

F17

Curry 1 (probably)

If you're going to be stuck on a beach FWYC aint a bad place to pass the time.

The Nacra F-18 teams have never been a big player in this SMOD event and with the NA's on the west coast and the CA champs in the NE it is no surprise that there was little to no interest from the Nacra F18's for Fort Walton event (I did try, who wouldn't want to spend a week at FW in the fall). Like Mark said as the F18 fleet continues to mature in the US SMOD events will continue to faid for the F18 platform.

Hourly Weather Graph for Fort Walton

Race 2 N20
Selsmeyer
Shafer/Pitt
Smith

Race 3
Smith
Selsmeyer
Shafer/Pitt
Hill

After Day 3. During the first race the wind died and the fleet had to get towed in. After lunch we went back out and did another light air race and then a medium air race. We got in to shore about 45 minutes before a big thunderstorm blew through.