We had the breeze. At the rate I'm going the A will be for sale to.

So, I guess I am hearing keep it MLK weekend Sat thru Mon. That is what is presently on the schedules and the ads
Any feed back otherwise, let everyone know your thoughts.
Rick

MLK weekend works for me, I'll be back.

If I could land on a boat, I'd be there whether it was Fri-Mon or any combination thereof.

Was there room/opportunity to set-up/sail on Friday this time? Or was that interfering with the A-cat week?

MLK weekend worked well, I have a sneaking suspicion the smaller overall F18 fleet may have had more to do with "still paying the tab for the worlds" then anything else... I know a few teams that normally come that did not due to recovering from the cost of going to Cali.

Perhaps a surveymonkey survey could be sent out to all that registered... Generally Rick: great event, as usual, better venue then before. Just have some more active mark / start line adjustments on the F18 fleet next time ;-)

Thanks for all the work,
-P

We arrived late Friday ~3PM and by that time it looked like all but a few of the A-cats were long gone.

Jay the place is freaking huge!!! I think we'd have to have 150+ boats before you'd even start to feel crowded. With that said we are planning on getting there on Thursday next year.

no setup problems. There is a ton of room at the Islander. Launching was no big deal either.

I'll second the notion of encouraging race committee to tighten things up on making course adjustments sooner and more expediently (for instance, moving a-mark after the last boat rounds the mark and not waiting for everyone to completely finish)...having the first two starts with the wind nearly parallel with the start line got me a little frustrated. But, then again, I didn't exactly have my A game on that weekend...so, ... meh.

I got down there Thursday night and set up and sailed Friday, as did lots of others. There's plenty of room for both the A cats and all the Tradewinds boats at their huge waterfront area.

As for 'better', on shore it's definately a better location, but out on the water?

I prefer the other side due to the lack of chop with an onshore wind. The bay side stays pretty flat no matter how much wind, but it has a lot more crab pots to avoid going downwind fast, so I guess it's a tradeoff.

Which is worse? Chopp and Waves or Crab Pots?

Rick, just wait until a few days prior, and then schedule it for the days with the best wind.

;^)

We should incorporate a small distance race from the Islander around the lighthouse ... once or twice around depending on wind.

if Friday's not a huge issue, then why not a 4 day event? 1/2 day sailing on Friday (pm) and Monday (am)?

Then, you could have some additional flexibility if any of the days have bad weather (heavy or nonexistent wind). And throw in that "average score" thing for those who can't make the early (Friday) or late (Monday) session.

But it does add more logistics costs... So maybe fun races or a distance thing on Friday?

I think a lot of Florida people might have to work Friday, and drive down after work, so...

But Monday is a Holiday, so most are off.

so you'd only need one day off (Friday) if you were within a 12 hour drive of the place, right?

Who gets MLK holiday off? I'm pretty sure it's limited to banks and gov't employees.

Rick thanks again for organizing this, great venue and great regatta overall. I think I'm on at least 6 or 7 years in a row and it's big commitment from up here!
Jake, I get MLK day off and I'm in the marine industry. I think it's just more common in the North... hmm.
As I mentioned, great job by everyone but I'd like to point out a few issues I had heard numerous others mention but didn't say anything on here.
1) Entry fee spike - Last year was what, $65? A $40 increase? I was really surprised by that.
2) RC seemed to lack confidence, I couldn't believe it was the same RC as last year. For instance,
-starting a race with a extremely unsquare line in numerous races and not postponing to restart. There were at least 3 starts you couldn't cross the line on starboard.
-not calling a race where the windwark mark and the leeward mark were basically one tack fetches.
-sailing us in extremely light air to a point it was unfair racing
-Waiting for all boats to finish before starting the sequence, we wasted lots of time watching boats finish in other fleets while our fleet had been finished for a long time. The whole point of a separate finish line is so you can start before all boats have finished isn't it?
-Upwind offset, most of the regatta we had to sail upwind and some even had to tack to make the offset. This is pointless and also requires us to raise our chute while still going upwind and can easily tear the spinnaker.
-Moving the pin after prep flag up. We watched the pin being moved to 3:30 prior to the start on one occasion. Start should have been re-done.
-One complaint I heard but I disagree with is starting on time on Monday with less than half the fleet. I don't have a problem with the RC starting without everyone there on Monday, it was our fault and I actually think it was a good move on their part for starting on time.

Overall, we come a long way for fair races, no one (except maybe whoever is in the lead) will complain by calling off an unfair race even well after the start. It needs to be done!
Again, I apologize for highlighting the negatives but there were certainly a ton of positives. I know it was shifty and light but I'd certainly like to see a more proactive and confident race committee in the future.

hah...yeah, having MLK day off became a huge ordeal for our city workers a few years ago. Jesse Jackson even made some noise in town.

Reply on the entry fee.
Last year was $85, so a $20 increase as a result of a $1k loss of my personal funds to run the regatta. Love the regatta, but don't think I should have to pay for it from my Roth IRA.

Was there a shortage of T-shirts this year?

And the 47%...

So let's call it "47% day" ?