1. Our next CABB event will be the Biscayne Bay Buoy Bash. The date for the races will be Saturday, November 25. This is the Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend. The location for the race will be the Rickenbacker Causeway Beach in Miami. The crew meeting time will be 10:30. Please bring at least one and preferably two timing devices to record your own elapsed times for each race. We will plan on at least 4 races.
2. I was able to attend the Fall Harvest Regatta at the Miami Yacht Club on the weekend of October 21 & 22. It was a very enjoyable regatta. The folks at the MYC did an excellent job of putting on a fun event. We had beautiful weather both Saturday and Sunday. The temperatures were in the mid 80s and the winds were out of the east at about 7 to 10 knots all weekend. They ran four races on Saturday and five on Sunday. Andrea Newberry and her crew did a fine job of setting the courses and running the races both days. For our entry fees, we sailors were given two days of racing, two continental breakfasts both days, two lunches delivered to the race course both days, two Italian dinners on Saturday after the races, and two regatta T-shirts. And, if you placed in the regatta you got beautiful skipper and crew trophies and two more regatta T-shirts in a different color. Such a deal!
3. The Miami Yacht Clubs annual Conch Cup Regatta was held Saturday, October 28, 2006. I couldn't participate, but I stopped by the MYC for the trophy presentation. Those I spoke with had a rousing good time. The weather was a bit rainy over the land but not bad over the water. There was a strong wind out of the southwest. The race started just south of the Rickenbacker Causeway, and went south down the bay to a Dinner Key Channel marker then out through Stiltsville to marker 2, of Biscayne Channel. From there, the race proceeded up the ocean side of Key Biscayne, in through Government Cut and finished at the Miami Yacht Club. There were 23 boats registered including 10 beach cats in two classes. In the Hobie 16 class there were five boats. I do not have the crew names, but the skippers in finishing order were Mike Siau, Bill Stolberg, and Mark Jones. In the Portsmouth class the order of finish was; Steve Lohmayer (Inter 20), Robert Onsgard (Nacra 6.0), and then Chris Runge (Inter 20). Robert told me they had a rough day. They ran aground near Stiltsville and flipped his Nacra 6.0 and then later their mast bent when the spreaders failed in some way. All that and they still finished second, not bad. Mike Siau won the Conch Cup for 2006. That is two weekends in a row that Mike has come in first place. Congratulations Mike. If anyone in the race would care to write a more detailed account of their experience, I will pass it along.
John McKnight
Commodore, Catamaran Association of Biscayne Bay (CABB)
(305) 251-7600
