1. The June CABB race is the 32nd annual running of the Around the Key Lighthouse Distance Race. This race has one of the best venues of any race during the year. It includes the circumnavigation of Key Biscayne and Virginia Key. It is an exciting sail with plenty of challenges. You will have to navigate the bay, the ocean, and lots of shoals. It is like a mini steeplechase. It has a little bit of everything you can encounter in beach cat sailing.

This is the only CABB race which has a perpetual trophy to honor the winner. Bret Moss won it last year on his A-Cat. The trophy winners over the years include a who's who of South Florida catamaran sailors. The trophy is a lamp which symbolizes the Cape Florida Lighthouse that you will pass during the race. The lamp shade has a map of the race course. If you win the race, yours and your crews names will be added to a plate on the trophy, along with a list of the other esteemed sailors who have won the trophy in the past. If you wish, you may keep the trophy for the coming year.

The date for this year's race is Saturday, June 17. Mark your calendar. I hope to see you there.

2. May 27, 2006. The Chicken Key Distance story. The chicken laid an egg! In fact it could be called a goose egg. At race time, the winds were zero, zilch, nada, nothing. We waited an hour and all we could come up with was about 1 knot of wind. We wanted to a least get the boats wet, so we went ahead and started an abbreviated race. After we started the race, the winds went back to zero. We drifted for a while, and when I saw another boat paddling in, I bagged it and turned around and tried to head for shore. After drifting for about 5 minutes, guess what happened, the wind filled in. So, we turned around again and sailed to the first mark. We had designated the "Danger Shoals" mark off West Point as the one and only turning point. There were just three boats participating and all of us made it to the mark about the same time. After the mark, the winds started to die again and I abandoned the race. Wilder Robles, on his Blade, continued on and won the race. Fermin de la Camara, on his Prindle 19, also continued and came in second. I took a DNF.

I was sailing with my son, Tobin and his fiance, Erin. We spent the afternoon curising around the bay. The winds did fill in finally and it was a nice day for pleasure sailing. We sailed over to Crandon Marina and stopped on the beach. Then we sailed to the sand bar just off West Point. We chilled out on the sand bar for awhile and played with all the live sand dollars in the sand. I had never seen a live sand dollar before. Very interesting creatures. After that, we cruised by the million dollar homes along the west shore of Key Biscayne. It turned out to be a very nice day for a sail after all.

3. The Jetty Park Ocean Regatta in this coming weekend, June 3 & 4. The race is in Coco Beach. This is always a fun out of town race. Sailors from around the state will be there to compete in two days of bouy races. They have classes for the more popular boats and an open class. Here is the link to the NOR if you are interested. http://www.adventureonline.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=518 I will be attending with Terry Greene. Wilder Robles will also be attending with his Blade. There is supposed to be a good number of Blades in attendance. I don't know if anyone else from CABB is going to JPOR. Let me know if you are planning on attending.

John McKnight
(305) 251-7600
CABB Forum: http://www.catsailor.com/forums/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=CABB