Any stories on Tradewinds? How was the weather? How did it go?

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2011 Tradewinds Regatta Founders Park, Islamorada
Results are final as of 15:53 on January 16, 2011
Overall Sailed: 13, Discards: 1, To count: 12, Entries: 9

1st F16 1241 Nigel Pitt Tammy Pitt 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 (3.0) 1.0 16.0 13.0
2nd F16 777 Tim Bohan Andi Lutz 3.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 (4.0) 4.0 2.0 31.0 27.0
3rd F16 154 Eric Witte Robin Merricks 2.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 (6.0) 3.0 4.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 3.0 1.0 3.0 46.0 40.0
4th F16 709 Chris Stater Oscar Garcia Coni (8.0) 4.0 6.0 5.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 4.0 3.0 5.0 5.0 4.0 61.0 53.0
5th F16 808 Karl Brogger Ela Sliwerska 4.0 (10.0 DNF) 4.0 10.0 DNF 10.0 DNF 10.0 DNS 3.0 3.0 2.0 4.0 2.0 2.0 5.0 69.0 59.0
6th F16 137 Andre J. Pagliaro Steve Smith 6.0 5.0 5.0 3.0 (10.0 DNF) 5.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 82.0 72.0
7th F16 702 Pete Pollard Joana Lienti 7.0 (10.0 DNF) 10.0 DNS 10.0 DNS 5.0 7.0 7.0 7.0 8.0 10.0 DNC 6.0 6.0 7.0 100.0 90.0
8th F16 185 Mike Canney Mark Herndeen 5.0 (10.0 DNF) 10.0 DNS 10.0 DNS 4.0 6.0 10.0 DNF 10.0 DNS 10.0 DNS 10.0 DNC 7.0 7.0 6.0 105.0 95.0
9th F16 733 Terry Back 9.2 RDGa 9.2 RDGa 9.2 RDGa 9.2 RDGa (10.0 OCS) 8.0 8.0 10.0 DNF 7.0 10.0 DNC 10.0 DNF 10.0 DNC 10.0 DNC 119.8 109.8

Hi Kathleen. The weather was gorgeous! Earlier in the week it was a little cool with winds 15 gusting to 25. By Friday temp. was in the high 60s to low 70s and wind moderated to 10-15 with a few gusts but nothing really radical. There wasn't any carnage and only a few pitchpoles.

A new Viper pulled a shroud out of the hull and of course the mast came down! The terminal bit is threaded and the threads were clean, there was no damage to the hull itself! Just a clean hole the diameter of the threads. Imo, it was an assembly error and should be reasonably easy to fix. The Vipers don't come with an inspection port in that area, and they probably should have one.

Robbie D. held a training camp the week prior and he is really doing a good job getting his people prepared to race. He had some new folks there: Mike Canney, "Drew" Pagliaro and Steve Smith. A big welcome to those guys!

Nine boats was actually a record for F16s at Tradewinds, which Rick White noted at the trophy presentation. So we are enjoying good, steady growth.

My crew, Joanna Lienti, spoke with Nigel Pitt briefly between races and he said he was really enjoying the F16 and something about "an age thing"! He also noted he was able to run down a number of F18s even though we started five minutes behind them.

I was thinking, maybe we should come up with some sort of class trophy for the combined finishes at Tradewinds, Spring Fever and Nationals? Best showing two out of three? Comments?

Joanna! Thanks again you were great!

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the report, any chance you can make it a little more detailed to put it on the F16 website?

I don't know Nigel Pitt, but he seemed to have sailed well! How did Tim B do compared to him?
And how did Nigel get to sail the F16 at tradewinds? Great to hear that he liked it!

Gill

For those of you over seas who don't know, Nigel Pitt is a U.S. National Champion in several cat classes over here, and I believe an Alter Cup champ as well. He used to race with Alex Shafer on the Tommy Bahamma I-20 and then in the F18 class, he is new to the F16, this being only his first regatta on it I think, or maybe his second.

Nigel is always fast no matter what he's sailing, no doubt!

I was crewing for Andi on my Blade, we were close to and in front of Nigel at times but he always seemed to find a way to the front, even after we burried him on the start line once.

It was great fun playing cat and mouse with him. His wife Tammy was crewing for him and she said she likes trimming the smaller spin on the F16 (vs. the F18 or I20) and Nigel said he would be sailing it with his 12 yr. old daughter at Spring Fever.

Hi Gill, as usual I was so far back it's hard for me to add much detail.

Maybe if everyone will put in a little bit we can get enough detail for a good story.

I do know the course was a little shifty so if you didn't pay attention you could carry the downwind too far on starboard and have to douse the spin to make the finish! I'll bet I wasn't the only one to make that mistake though.

From what I saw, Chris Stater had a solid series making few mistakes. Karl Broger had a good series but pitchpoled at least once. I'm not sure if anyone else went over. Karl has a new red main and orange jib so he's easy to spot. Karl was up near the front a lot so I'd say he is definitely coming on.

I just didn't see Eric and Robin much. I thought I had them buried on one start, until Eric went out on the wire and just pointed right over me! Karl nipped them at the line to finish ahead in one race. Mike Canney is a brand new sailor and had never even seen a mark or rounded one before this weekend! Terry Back got him wet on Friday and Mark Herrenden came over from the A cat course Saturday and Sunday and helped him to a couple of good finishes. Mike comes to us from the auto racing world and promises to do quite well. His new Viper will be going up to WRSC and I'm sure they will break him in right!

I just didn't get to talk to Drew and Steve very much but they seemed to have decent boat speed. The course was just shifty enough that it was easy to sail the wrong tack and I think that was their biggest problem.

Nigel and Tammy, Andi and Tim were gone right after the start so I've no idea what they were up to. I feel pretty certain that Nigel was picking the right shifts, when I did see him he seemed pretty much by himself and in front or very close to it.