Moving to St. Pete

I am moving to St. Pete in late Oct., and I had a couple of questions:
<br>1. Is there anywhere to safely leave my N5.2 rigged? Sailing clubs, cat-friendly public beaches, etc.?
<br>2. Is there a yacht or sailing club worth joining (that is, reasonably priced and not too snotty about cats)?
<br>3. Where is the most active racing?
<br>I'd really appreciate any general advice about sailing in the area as well. Most of my experience there has been at collegiate regattas hosted by Eckerd and USF, so I'm pretty unfamiliar with the catsailing in the area.
<br>Also, anyone with a big cat (N6.0, I20, H20, etc.) need crew? I'm a reasonably experienced skipper, weigh between 135-145, and I can fly a chute.
<br>Thanks,
<br>Michael Coffman
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Congrats on the move to the Tampa Bay area. I'm not up on all the cat activity in the area but can point you in the right direction, I hope.
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<br>The Tampa Bay Cat Sailors usually sail out of Davis Island over in Tampa. They sponsor cruises like the recent Davis Island to MacDill Beach and another from Ft. DeSoto park to Egmont Key. They also have Thursday night racing at Davis Island and had a nice regatta at Oldsmar earlier in the summer. They also particiate and/or support the Statue of Liberty Race at Dunedin Causeway and the Macho Man distance race from Davis Island to Dunedin Causeway.
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<br>Windjammers of Clearwater is a pretty casual sailing club. We meet at the Clearwater Sailing Center on Sand Key, just south of Clearwater Beach. Right now we have our summer series (casual) going and then will move into the regualr fall/winter series for both bay (dinghies, cats, etc) boats and Gulf boats. We have several active cat sailing members like Barb & Chip Short who have been campainging up north with their new I-20 this summer. Pretty social bunch and though they pick on us cat sailors a bit we still have a good time. Robbie Daniels shows up at the Sailing Center periodically with his Tornado and or Marstrom 20.
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<br>Both organizations are cheap to join. I don't think TBCS is having regular meetings but keep in touch via email, etc. The Windjammers have regular meetings (second Tuesday of each month) and education classes the Thursday following the regular membership meeting with topics like racing tactics, outboard maintenance, use of GPS and other electronics, celestial navigation, etc. The Windjammers also host/sponsor the Bikini Cup regatta for Gulf and Bay boats in the early summer to provide the ladies a form to race -- they match crews and boats in the larger classes and have a training division for beginners. They love to have any type boat and use Portsmouth ratings to even the field. So, if you have a female significant other that needs to sail they are a good bunch to talk to. Check out www.windjammersofclearwater.org for more info -- we have a local (Clearwater Beach) weather site on the web page, too.
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<br>Tampa Bay Cat Sailors have their own web page at www.tampabaycatsailors.org with membership info and so forth.
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<br>There is usually Thursday evening racing at Dunedin Causeway but the tide determines whether the races go or not -- water's real thin out there. Usually get started around 6pm or so during the summer.
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<br>Sorry I don't have more info about cats in St. Pete but I'm sure there are some catsailing organizations down there.
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