Congratulations to the Mikes in the RTI

Rumor has it Michael Coffman came in 3rd in the RTI, coming close or beating some 18ht's boat for boat? Way to go Mike. RTI is a 100 mile race in the gulf. The guy I talked to was on an Inter 20 and finished in 16 hours. Mike was a couple of hours behind. Mike Crawford finished 23rd out of 65 boats. Way to go Mikes.



Chuck

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for the info.



Mike and Mike.

Any chance we could convince one or both of you to give us a report on the race.



Regards,

Phill

I found it what unbelievable hard to find anything concrete about this race or what the meaning is of the Divisions. Only information I could find was a post by Dave Peters on the old forum.



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Seeing as this was my first RTI participation, I would have to say that ANYONE finishing this race was a WINNER in his/her own right. There is nothing like spending 100 miles tweaking your cat for optimal boat speed for extremely extended periods of time. Gives you a different perspective of what you are made of as a sailor. Also, the chance to race against some of the best distance sailors adds to excitement and learning experience.



PLEASE!!!! This post is for "general information" ONLY. I am posting off the "printed results" that I was given at the awards and assume no resposibility for "possible errors, disputed results and correct spelling of names". (My name was not spelled correctly). Bear this in mind, and I'll give you what I have. I am certain that someone with the ability, will be posting complete results.



OVERALL DIV BOAT FINISH CORRECTED

Smith/Magee 6 H20 16:18:49 26.325010



DIV 1

BEERY/YOUNG H21 18:40:35 27.668720

DIV 2

COFFMAN/NABO TF16 18:30:43 27.671070

DIV 3

WILLIAMS/VAN H16 21:38:15 28.432990

DIV 4

REJDA/SPRATT N6.0 17:04:44 28.436380

DIV 5

HABERMAN/HAB ARC22 16:16:14 28.149750

DIV 6

SMITH/MAGEE H20 16:18:49 26.325010

DIV 7

INGRAM/INGRA I20 16:35:23 28.023180

DIV 8

BROADWELL/LA(?) TheMightyHobie18 21:49:02 30.513600



Sorry for the incomplete "crew names". It appears that the "print out" could only handle so many characters. Probably why my name didn't have all the letters. No big deal. We know who we are.



Mike and myself had the joy of racing his M6.0 in DIV 2 with TF16, JAV 2, P19, N5.5, and N5.5S.



My thanks for all that were involved with putting on, and running this race. We will return.

Thanks,

Dave Peters





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Can anyone tell me what the signifante differences are between devisions : Length ? Handicap rating ? One-design ?something else ?



But if Dave Peters post is correct than it is very clear that Micheal Coffman sailed a good race. Although we need to know elapsed time results to trully get a feel for how well he and his crew Nabo did !



But Team Coffman/Nabo congratulations with your 1st place in division 2 !!



Wouter

I still think we should start a rap group with all the MC's we have. (Mike Coffman ; Mike Crawford)



Wouter

Hi there:

Not being able to answer your more "in-depth questions" on the calculation of numbers for the RTI race, There is some information I can pass on to you. Mike Crawford may be able to be more specific.



Boats that raced "against" one another.



Div. 1

H21, RC30, Tornado, RC27, HFOX,



Div. 2

TF16, JAV2, P19, N5.5, MY6.0, N5.5S



Div. 3

H16



Div. 4

N6.0, N6.0X



Div. 5

ARC22



Div. 6

H20



Div. 7

I20



Div. 8

TheMightyHobie18, H19M



Hopefully this will be of some help. Mike Crawford is a sailing friend of mine, and yes...the Taipans were sailing (and were sailed) fast. The air was light, with fairly smooth water.



Hope this helps a bit until you get all your answers.

Dave

P19MX

Thanks alot Dave. Appreciate you taking the time to reply.



Wouter

The race was fun and challenging. We started at 8:00 am (after about 3 hours sleep) and sailed my new spinnaker right after the start. Stevie (my cousin from Detroit) was brand new to spinnakers and I used it only once before. We sailed east in the Intercoastal Waterway to Destin Pass and then out into the Gulf of Mexico. Current (tides) were with us thankfully or we wouldn't have made it with the little wind we had. A few large swells left over from the storm (Isidora) greeted us at we entered the Gulf.



I actually got a little tired for the first time ever (at about 3:00 in the afternoon). I felt better after about an hour with Stevie taking over the helm. The winds were too strong to have me in on the boat, but too light for me to be fully trapped out. I was in, up towards the front, out all the way, half way, etc. for about two hours straight. Stevie had to stay at the main beam near the mast (out of the wind).



We then headed west to Pensacola Pass hugging the beach (about 1 mile off at most) approximately 41 miles away. It went well except light winds and for almost an hour there was no wind. We rounded the Pass at about 5:00 pm. and headed east again in the Sound under spinnaker.



I was letting Stevie sail the boat for the last 10 miles in the Gulf and now for about 10 miles under spinnaker in the Sound. We just passed under the Pensacola Bridge before dark. East of the bridge it opens up real wide and the shoreline is completely natural for about 25 miles (no buildings and no roads for about 10 miles). We had a little worry about barges and saw two, but had no trouble. Winds were light (thankfully).



It was my first time sailing the cat at night and I was a little nervous at first. However, after a little while I could tell when we were sailing well by the sounds coming from the boat moving through the water. You couldn't see the sails to tell how they were trimmed. We still had the spinnaker up too. It turned out to be the most beautiful part of the sail. So many stars and fish were jumping all around.



The hardest part was coming through an area called the "Narrows." It was dredged and we were told to stick to the channel. There were islands in the way, marinas, docks, and much else we couldn't see. Well, the wind and current don't always cooperate, but we did our best. We sailed out of the channel a few times, but it was high tide and we didn't run aground. It was very dark though and I could barely make out were we needed to go. We mostly went from channel marker to channel marker.



It was eerie to see boats coming and going behind us in the darkness (65 boats racing). You could only see them if they were lit (very few) or you could see their darkness against the slightly lighter sky. Really quite eerie with us all ghosting along.



We made it through the Narrows and under two more bridges (I don't like them - no wind and always current). We finally arrived at where we started at 3:05 am. Nineteen hours and 5 minutes, 100 miles later. We got third place in class and I haven't heard the overall results. I'm expecting about 23rd out of the 65 boats. MichaelCoffman took first on the same boat as me and was third overall!!!!



I was pleased with our results, but more importantly we had a wonderful time. Stevie fell asleep a few times, but I was really alert and felt strong. He really enjoyed himself. We can't wait for next year!



The hardest part was navigating with spinnaker, in unfamiliar waters, in the Narrows, against other boats, at night, after 19 hours on the water. That's all. It's a guy thing (no offense to the women who were in the race).





Mike taipan 4.9 #213

MIke,

Thankyou very much for taking the time to write that report.

They say life is a collection of experiences and that sounds like one experience I'd like to ad to my list.

It seems like a grueling ordeal but a worthwhlile experience none the less.



Regards,

Phill

Open the attacnment on the left

Probably not as well-written as Mike Crawford's, but here's an edited copy of the description I gave to Helen:



I sailed with Bobby Nabors, a friend from college (we sailed dinghies together) and we came out to about 310 lbs. of crew weight plus the usual distance racing gear.

We got a terrible start - I was still tweaking stuff at the last minute, as I'm still changing stuff to be sloop + chute vs. catrig.

Winds were very light. We were between hurricanes, so we started in 2-5kts, and the wind was dying. We were one of the last boats through Destin pass, and even went backwards with the chute up for a moment. We made our line basically straight to P-cola (+about 6degrees out to sea so we didn't get stuck when the wind clocked). We made out well, since a lot of the boats stayed inshore hoping for better wind, but it never came. Most of this time, the wind was 5-ish, and we were clocking 9-ish on the GPS with the chute up.

We got to see a huge sea turtle, and a pod of about 12 dolphins - really made the trip worthwhile!

At about 10 miles from Pensacola Pass, the wind clocked from a spin. reach to the nose, and all the boats converged. In about 6-7kts. (my guess - we ranged from no one on the wire to one on the wire) we were able to catch the back-and-mid-fleet 18-20 footers.

Matter of fact, we passed 2 18ht's upwind! One passed us back during the next 10 miles. The difference was very clear: 5 or less of wind, 18ht's smoked us. Once I could get out on the wire, we came back up to their speed. The 4.9 wasn't faster, but it was nearly as fast.

The wind built to the most of the day as we came to Pensacola pass (maybe 8-10), and we popped the chute as soon as we could, even though it was initially above a beam reach. I slacked the halyard, the crew cranked the sheet, and we rounded double trapped and doing 14-ish plus. We drove above a F31 tri and the f18ht that had passed us.

Then we did something really stupid (hey, 50 miles with no major errors is a record for me!) and rounded the seabouy in the pass - turns out, we didn't have to. The 18 ht didn't, and gained on us. We then compounded it by gybing early, and the 18ht gained a lot more. Then the wind died down to 4-5, and they walked away from us. It was downwind in 4-5 for the next 15 miles, and so we weren't able to make any big gains.

The wind clocked, and blew from the north then. We were able to again slack the halyard, beam reach (or higher), and even in 1-3 kts, maintain double windspeed. We started to pick boats off again. It was really touchy, but we carried the chute WAY up on a reach. The 17.5 meter chute reaches incredibly well! The combination of flat chute/light boat was perfect. We finally (2 miles from the finish) got run over by a parade of tall-mast boats... including a SC22, F31, Mystere6.0, H20, etc., in a narrow neck of the channel with 1-2 kts wind, after we had to finally drop the chute. We started to gain again when the wind returned, but couldn't catch them.



All in all, these boats rock! Bobby, my crew, was very impressed, having crewed last year's RTI on my 5.2. He seemed to think it might be a little more fun ;-)



A thought on spin size/shape: The size is perfect - the F16 class needs to remain at 17.5 meters square. If it performs well with 310lbs in 1-8kts, and any more would make it just too much for singlehanding, there's no sense in messing with it. Also, I think any more would make it difficult to sheet fully to the tramp while reaching with a slack halyard...a really important thing for distance racing.

I hope to see more of you guys and gals there next year!

Michael Coffman

T4.9 #32

Mike,



Mighty good press for the F16 class as a whole.

I think the class can take heart in your incredible result.

Thanks for taking the time to fill the rest of us in.



Regards,

Phill