This past weekend was the Daytona fleet Summer Sizzler. The last of the ocean races available in FL, and as usual it was a blast; great place, people, and food.

This was just the third time my daughter Riley was to take the helm. Being short of a place for our 10 yr old son Peyton to hang out, he was shanghaied into racing with us. Absolutely perfect conditions for this kind of an event; a slight chop with occasional single trap winds. Dad did a little bit of the heavy lifting, but was just mainly ballast and coach. Riley drove and Peyt very apply ran the all the sheets. We were wrapped into the open spin fleet 3 – F16, 2 – I20, 1- N5.5 and an 18SX which I think they ended up scoring with the open non-spin group.
We got in 3 very good races on Sat and when we finished the 3rd, race committee was calling for a 4th. Just off the course was anchored a 60 foot cat being used as a spectator boat. I made the mistake of letting the boat drift a little too close to it and the next thing I heard was 2 splashes and I was alone on my boat with both kids swimming quickly for the safety of the party barge. With such great conditions on the water, I decided to race the last race of the day alone. It was a DNS for the scoring but a great sail.
Sunday arrived with nearly the same conditions – hopefully some sea breeze to build. Luckily for many people’s hangover, they messed up the published 10 AM start time and we got a 2 hour reprieve and a noon start, by which time some breeze had filled in. On the way out to the course we ended up ferrying supplies and in the process Riley ended up on one of the H16’s with some friends. This now became Peyton’s time to drive for the very first time. Sailing a course 2 in his very first race he managed to squeak out a bullet. Also another new skipper ended up joining the fleet on Sunday. Mark Baker on the 5.5 after sailing buy us between races and seeing my young crew handed over the tiller on his boat to his young son. After that first race we got back our full complement of crew and finished out the day with a 1 and a 3 (after quite a bit of arguing on who was going hold the tiller) Squeaking out a tie breaker with 2 bullets in the event, Riley managed to finish out in second place in the spin fleet for the event.

Besides the huge group of youth teams racing in the H16 fleet from Halifax sailing club, we now had 3 more young ones running around the course and walking very tall on the beach. – Great weekend!

Matt, this sort of quiet encouragement and coaching is what we need above all else. You, my friend, are walking the path. Great post - thanks for sharing.

What did Riley and Peyton think of your "slow down and win" move at the bottom of the course?

There were a lot of boats around. Had they been in that kind of situation before?

Right now they are just learning boat handling. They take direction great but the tactical side of things is a bit above them.

We have been in a few very bussy starts and mark rounding now though and it is getting a lot better. Other than wiping Gilligans crew off the boat with our side stay at KPRR she has done a great job of being in the mix at full speed with no boat damage (which I can not always say for myself in the past).

It has been a bit different for me in front and not being in control, but Riley has been awsome at putting up with Dad and sticking with it.. They have been going to these things since they were a month old, so now actualy being a real part of the event I think is a big boost to them and to me also.

M