Building a Wave Fleet

We have just started our early winter series racing in the Keys. We race on Thursday afternoons at 4PM and on Sunday AMs at 10. Usually get in 3 to 4 races.., depending on time.
At this point we have 7 Waves participating and more ready to join in the fun and games.

This is awesome.., getting lots of practice at starts, mark roundings, watching for windshifts, tactics, tacking and jibing. It simply makes you a better sailor.

Mary and I started the same program in Ohio at Put-in-Bay YC, which had over the years turned itself into a bar and restaurant and had no adult sailing.
We started with 5 Waves and sailed on Thursdays and Saturdays.
By the end of the season we had sailed 55 races and had involved over 30 people in sailing and racing. Many of whom are buying Waves to participate. We expect 10 boat in the spring when we go north again.

The beauty of the Wave is you can concentrate on tactics and the fundamentals, i.e., starts, marks, tacks, jibes, etc.
The other beauty is the boat is so inexpensive and bullet proof that you can use it as a second boat. Keep your hot 20-footer and do your usual monthly race. But, the Wave will make you a lot better at it. Just because you will have had more practice at sailing in general.

Worked for me this summer. I don't think I have ever did so much racing/sailing.., and so much fun. Consequently, in major races I did extremely well -- won the Wave East Coast Championship, the North Coast Championship, The Wave North Americans, and have a big lead in the National Series Championship.
Now, that is all Wave stuff, but I also skippered Moxie, an F31 in Lake Erie and we won everything there as well.., even with a pretty green crew.

We have been sailing out of Gilberts, but most of us are joining the Upper Keys Sailing Club since Gilberts may not be there much longer after the Tradewinds.

So, if you want to have a barrel of fun and really improve your sailing, come and join us. Sometimes we have a spare boat you can try.
Or try the same thing in your own home pond. We get enough pockets of Wave sailors going and our class will be great.
Rick

Can you give me some more information about the upper keys sailing club?

It is a small club on Buttonwood Sound, about mile marker 100 in Key Largo. They have a ramp and a small beach area --and docks which are in the process of being rebuilt after Hurricane Wilma.

Buttonwood Sound is a great body of sailing water (almost as good as Blackwater Sound).

They have a nice little clubhouse with kitchen and bar, and lots of social functions.

I think the initiation fee is now up to $600, and, as I recall, the annual dues are $275. They charge, of course, for dockage and for dry-boat storage, but I'm not sure what the fees are for those. I think it's $30 or $35 a month for dry-boat, but also kind of depends on size of the boat.

Is that the kind of information you were looking for, Pete? Are you looking for a place to keep your boat in the Keys?

Give me a call if you have more questions, 305-451-3287.

Mary, Thanks for the information. I had hoped to find a place to keep my boat on a trailer in the Keys, and this sounds like it might work. Also, being a member of that club might let me get down to the Keys more often.

I'm going to try and get down for the Tradewinds, do you suppose I could launch from there and what would that fee be?

Thanks

Pete,
I am sending you a private message.