Set Up Day for the Inaugural Florida 300


Photo Credit: Mike Shappell (TMS 20)

Registration for the Florida 300 Endurance Catamaran Race is complete and 12 boats will take the start of the inaugural event. The start is at the Islander Resort, mile marker 82.1, Overseas Highway, Islamorada, FL. tomorrow at 10:00 am.

Today captain, crew, and support staff worked on rigging and race setup on their high speed sail boats. Much time was spent focusing on dialing in and fine tuning all the many adjustments that a modern racing catamaran can take advantage of. This is where experience, local knowledge, recommendations, and luck all come into play.

The race is a four day event with stops at some of the nicest beaches in Florida.

Race Schedule:
Race Day 1, May 19 – Islamorada to Key Biscayne;
Race Day 2, May 20 – Key Biscayne to Palm Beach Shores;
Race Day 3, May 21 – Palm Beach Shores to Vero Beach;
Race Day 4, May 22 – Vero Beach to Cocoa Beach

Today some of the boats went out for a shakedown run to make sure all systems worked. Winds were ENE around 22mph, seas around 2-5 feet inside the reef. The winds are expected to stay the same for the next few days. The sun is out and temperature will be in the mid 80’s showcasing the great Florida weather.

The first Florida 300 will be an exciting race with expected wind and sea conditions to test the skill and stamina of the sailors and boats at the upper end of their skill level. There will be three classes: open class, I-20 class, and F-18 class. The skill level in the race is varied from teams with no extreme distance races to teams with numerous Tybee 500 and Worrell 1000 finishes.

The entire race will be tracked using Kattack "Live" software. Each boat is equipped with a satellite tracking device that transmits each boats location every ten minutes. There will be monitors at each finishing point so race committee, crew and spectators can watch the race unfold.

For a complete entry list and the latest updates please check out www.Florida300.com and "Like" www.Facebook.com/Florida300.

Wind conditions for leg 1 look pretty brutal. Should be interesting to see whether boats go out in the gulf stream or not. I'm guessing a big benefit for the current, but not sure if the waves would offset that.

I'm seeing 15 - 20 right now out of the north east....noaa has it a little more east (which would be better for them). I wouldn't call that "brutal"...more like a short day! Tracker still shows a bunch of them on the beach...are they delayed for some reason?

heading NE into a ENE @ 20+ knots. Man... thats not looking like a lot of fun.

A lot of sore grinder arms tonight....

Jake,

It looks fun, but remember they're heading to key biscayne, not hollywood. So to me it looks like its going to be a tough beat turning into a short reach.

I haven't studied the weather but Noaa is saying it should go more east...hopefully they may have to tack a time or two early today - but it's probably going to be a little more direct after noon. That wind direction should also keep the Biscayne Bay washing machine on low.

boat speeds are around 6 knots...so it can't be that windy at the moment....edit; 6mph at Molasses Reef out the East (which is a great direction...only if it goes north of NE does it start to really be a slog.)

looking at their vectors, I'm betting a few guys are trying to tight reach with kites.

Marspeed's spot hasn't transmitted in like 45 minutes...

Then the tiger is laughing to the bank.

looks like Key Sailing has launched ahead on the Carbon 20 (as should be expected). I'm guessing from their track that they headed out a bit on what appears to be close hauled on port and then put up their kite to reach back down. They won't be able to hold that kite angle for too long though.

I wish the tracker would extrapolate positions but it doesn't. It just shows the last known location but given that one tracker may not have updated in the last 5 minutes over the other one, the map is a little inaccurate.

Looking at the vectors, all of the F18's are pointed a solid 10degrees higher than the I20's. Pretty telling.

Wish Marspeed's tracker was working....


Both Waveyhaven and Keysailing and royal yellow updated simultaneously, and it looks like they're pretty neck and neck...

don't do it Todd! Don't go for the stream! It never works! The fee you have to pay to get back to the beach is just too much.

WE HAVE A RACE!
All boats are off, the race was delayed about 15 minutes to get all boats through the one ramp. One of the trackers are not posting now but hopefully will catch up.

We are in route to Key Biscayne. We are the RC tracker. Entering Tavenier Key, we saw the boats off to our right.

Bret's tracker is in a small pelican case in a net bag on the deck near the rear beam. I told him where I wanted it on the rotation limiter arm where we have put it in the past and he did not feel comfortable with it there. So we compromised.

OK, whew...he dropped his course back down and is still inside the reef. Looks like the Brothers Ding's (Solar Wind) tracker isn't updating either.

Marspeed did update and it looks like they're neck and neck with Key Sailing on the CF20. That should be an interesting battle.

I think Todd might catch some people on his tack back in - but he has a lot of ground to cover... there seems to be a great line close to shore that Royal White and Yellow were using for a while.

TMS 20 is Race Committee helping with photo/video. He said it was a good thing the race is during the WORK week so yall can all follow it.

Speed is kicking up... Key Sailing is up to 12knots. They're getting better angles now.

Team Solar Wind's tracker is updating again - the boys are near the front!