It currently looks like we will have 9 F16's and possibly 10 for Saturday and Sunday.

If you are on the fence about going, it is going to be a great regatta and great way to get this class moving in the right direction.

See everyone Friday.

Thanks
Seth

If possible, try to have someone make pictures. I will then place these on our F16 website. I could be convenient to burn these on a CD and send them to me. Last year we had some trouble getting the pics to me.

But most importantly I think this Gulfport event is the most important and respectable F16 event we have to date and as such I think that not having a photo page of it this year will be really missed.

Best of luck to all who are competing.

Fair winds

Wouter

Seth, Gordon, Jennifer, et al......

Is camping allowed on club grounds? Maybe just in a tiny little corner, waaaay out of the way..... All my $$$ goes to gas....

Are we at the Club, or "Downtown"?

The racing was GREAT!

Winds were blowing as a front was moving thru for the weekend. THE Chuck, Tom, Pete and I were due to sail uni. With the winds forecasted to blow near 20, Tom and I hooked up and sailed sloop. THE Chuck sailed with Matt (Saturday only) ... something about Gina and Nancy ooohhhing and aaahhhing over this new "baby" skipper (Seth and Nancy's son). Leaving only Pete as a uni F16 skipper on Saturday.

Saturday had 5 F16 starting.

The course was set for windward/leward with gates. The wind direction forced the RC to set the marks on a pretty short course due to land constraints and shallow waters.

The first race Tom and I overstood the layline for the first windward leg (you just get settled in and you needed to tack). We had the boat moving pretty fast and were double trapezed and saying to each other that we're glad we weren't sailing solo). We finished the race 2nd just behind Matt and THE Chuck. Seth and Stefan 3rd with Robi and Mary 4th. Pete de-masted as his shackle for the standing rigging came loose...ouch. No injuries or boat damage.

The second race started just 4 F16's. Everyone had good starts (in fact every race seemed to have good competitive starts). Tom and I were more aware of the windward layline and a good layline to the windward mark. On the following leg to windward the wind had picked up and so too the chop ( a shallow bay made for a hard bumpy ride). Tom lost footing a couple of times and had a tough time with the crew trap lines. We lost some time as we were making repairs on the water. In the meantime, Robi and Mary helped an A-Cat skipper who was separated from his boat and Seth and Stephan had capsized.

We were heading down to the leward gate and could see Matt and THE Chuck finishing...we thought they'd only gone around twice and as Seth/Stephan were *making* the gate we also went thru the gate and headed back to weather. We got edged for 3rd place as an A-Cat was parked on the finish line and we had to delay our jibe ...Seth/Stephan beat us by a half boat length.

It turns out, discussing over many beers by the campfire, that Seth/Stephan were watching us on whether we'd finish or round the gate...just as we were watching them. Both of us sailed an extra "lap"!!

The 3rd race Tom and I got bounced around on the trap and had a nice high impact pitch pole going to weather. We both got catupulted so far forward that we were both separated from the boat past the spin block on the mast. Tom quickly swam for the mast and I swam and grabbed his foot. Once righted we'd found that we snapped the bungee cord for both traps and had lots of trapeeze "spagetti" hanging around. We figured it was easier to beach it and make the repairs. DNF for this race.

In the final race similar results. Tom was a little cold and both of us were getting cramps and tired. Lack of focus caused another capsize. We righted the boat and both agreed that we could use a beer on the beach.

Sunday saw Matt with his regular crew. THE Chuck, and I were uni with Seth/Stephan and Robi/Mary for the other two boats.

Tom packed up early for a long drive back to Birmingham...too bad as the ealy winds were sufficient to have a sloop rig. Tom and I usually sail uni, so it took us a bit of time to work as a team. I really do need to find a regular crew....Gina, you should seriously consider dumping your regular skipper!

3 Races Sunday and Robi/Mary were really fast today as were Seth/Stephan. I'll let the others fill in the rest as I'm weary and ready for some shut eye.

Thanks for the report Terry! Sounds like a real gear buster!

That report is going to be tough to top. Terry and Tom were darn good the first day. Sadly some things led to another and it did not work out for the best. This is were "regular" crews definitely help. First race for us (me and MaryG), we had to get settled and back into the groove. This race was a total CLUSTER [censored] FOR ME. I had no idea how the setup was with the gates. I am still learning the courses and if you do not know where to go, obviously you wont go fast. We used the starting line as a gate! DUH, so that gave us a DSQ. On the second race we chugging along darn good. I want to say Matt, Seth and I had a separation of maybe 20 +- 5 seconds, when we rounded the gate. I rounded up to starboard and that is when I noticed Fred's taipan flipped. Then I am looking around to make sure I have enough room to avoid him, I noticed someone trying to swim towards the boat. It was Fred himself. I came about, got him onboard and I dropped him off at his boat. I sat around to make sure he was alright and they got the boat up. After all that said and done, he did not had a tiller or a rudder crossbar. So me being my coastie self, I grabbed on to his spinnaker pole, powered up the boat and I started towing him. After I towed him to the committee boat they got a tow into the club and that is when we both decided we were done for the day. We were both extremely cold and very uncomfortable.

The following day, we made sure we had some wet suits under our spray suits. Today we did much better. We were feeling much more comfortable as well. All of todays starts were very hairy and we all pushed each other. On one race Matt and I were almost over early, luckily we both headed to the pin and we were moving along very fast. The gun went off and in a split second Matt was on proper course and here I am coming very fast. All this is going and I am trying to sheet in and I can hear Gina from the top of her lungs "UP UP UP UP! GET THAT THING UP!! It was great. We both chatted, laughed and discussed that start on the beach after words.

Today we scored a DNF 3 - 3 we lost to Terry by four points. All in a all a great venue, awesome management, great people, the best food of all regattas so far, coolers that just keep giving out beers and lots and lots of rum to keep warm. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I was glad to see that Mary was off the water. I think she was just on the verge of hypothermia. She is still very new to sailing and has not accumulated the proper gear.

We lost two more boaters to hypothermia last week. That makes a total of seven cold related deaths here in Florida. And that is just from my personal recolletion.

The food was great.

Friday night Gordon Isco hosted all the sailors at his home. Bob Webbon was on the grill and his wife, Carrol, handled the stove. Both did a great job!

Saturday evening, the club brought in a chef to do individual stir-fry. The food was good and plentiful with sufficient variety to please everyone. Later on, there was a campfire, drinks and lots of kids jetting around doing what kids do. A very pleasant evening.

Sunday afternoon was all the pizza you could eat and more drinks.

GYC did another great job!

Hypothermia? Me too! I landed at JFK Friday at 08:00 morning from Bombay, ran for the 08:30 flight to Orlando but missed it by 5 minutes. Since I commute from Florida, and layover in Bombay, I don't always bring a jacket. It's a 7 day trip and I don't have much extra space in my one small suitcase, and I -almost- never need the jacket. This was one of those times, the Bombay weather was clear and 90 degrees... Stupid me.

The early rain we landed in at 0800 in New York turned to freezing rain at about 0900, then clear ice and sleet, all day long.

To make a long, ugly, story short, I spent the day running from gate to gate, trying to get the HELL out of NYC, but every flight, after that first one to MCO, was eventually cancelled, after boarding and sitting at the gate for hours, waiting for the ice to stop fallying from the sky. Nobody was leaving NYC on Friday. There are FAA restrictions against trying to fly into ice storms, brought about by that Air Florida crash in DC years ago.

So at 6pm, I try to get to a hotel. Mind you I had been up since the day before, and I have to go out on the curb and get a ride into the city, wearing a short sleeved shirt, in 30 degrees, wind and sleet, waiting for about 30 minutes until my ride finally showed up. By the time I got to bed it was midnight (after 3 hours on the phone to Delta Crew Sched, most of it on hold). I had to be up at 03:30 for a 04:00 van ride to LaGuardia, to hopefully get on the 0600 to Atlanta, to then catch a flight to MCO, wearing the same short sleeved shirt. That 06:00 flight didn't push back until 7:30, then took a full hour with two deice trucks spraying hot fluid to remove all the ice, we finally got airborne around 9am.

I was lucky and got a flight out of Atlanta to Orlando, because most of the passengers never got out of NYC. So I finally got home late on Saturday, missed my daughter's gymnastics event (again) and when I counted back, I had a total of about 9 hours sleep (in three, 3 hour naps) since Thurday morning. This Airline Pilot stuff is great fun. And I will always bring at least a nylon windbreaker from now on!

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

The race was GREAT!!! It was soooo nice to see everyone again and to be out on the water. I was a bit nervous Friday when Robi and I did a practice go to get back into the groove of things. Due to experienced skippers- Robi, THE CHUCK, and Pete, I had never flipped. Robi knew that I was a bit uneasy about flipping so he intentionally flipped the boat and it wasn't all that bad. I'm glad we did practice cuz the next couple of days we ended up flipping over and it wasn't so scary. I remember Robi yelling "DON'T LAND ON THE MAIN SAIL!" I actually ended up landing on it close to the boom, but thankfully there were no damages. Saturday was so incredibly cold; Robi and I came in shivering. While around the nice warm camp fire, Stephen said I could borrow on of his wet suits. He was my hero and on Sunday I was good to go with sailing. Everyone was doing great and sailing fast. Overall it was such a great time. Familiar faces are always wonderful to see again and it's great to meet new exciting people. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />