CDM to Cabo San Lucas Race: #4

The Curmudgeon is sending in reports while he participates on a Jeanneau 52, "Between the Sheets," in Balboa Yacht Club's 800-mile race from Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas (race website)

(Wednesday, March 29) I’ve probably sailed into Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 40 times or more ... but never finished a race like this one. When we crossed the finish line of the Balboa Yacht Club´s 800-mile race down the Baja peninsula, the wind was dead astern at 20-25 knots. The traditional parking lot simply did not exist.

We got to the dock ahead of all the boats in our class, and all but two boats from the class ahead of us (that started at the same time as we did). How did we do in the standings? As of this writing, I have no idea, but with more than 30 knots blowing as I walked off the boat, it is quite possible that the lead we had built during the four plus days at sea could soon disappear as the trailing boats surfed to the finish line.

One thing I do know, however, is that right now I need to check into my hotel and get horizontal. - The Curmudgeon

Note: It is worth a stroll over to the race website to check out the FlagShip Race Tracking solution that was developed by FlagShip Integration Services. Search a boat or a class, and you can get either a graphic display of their progress, or a spreadsheet with the number data. Pretty neat. Click here to view, and below is a map from 6:20 am, with the red line being "Between the Sheets."

Update: The results are now up (Thursday, March 30), and show that the Curmudgeon and his team on 'Between the Sheets' survived the fast finish, wherin they claimed 2nd in PHRF C and 3rd PHRF Overall, and 1st in Americap C and 5th Americap Overall.

Blog Reports: One, Two, Three, Four

CDM to Cabo San Lucas Race: #3

The Curmudgeon is sending in reports while he participates on a Jeanneau 52, "Between the Sheets," in Balboa Yacht Club's 800-mile race from Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas (race website)

(Tuesday, March 28) The last 24 hours have been sailed downwind in light air, with enough oscillations to punish those who lost their focus even briefly. In the early evening, we also had to back the boat down once to get the kelp off our keel.

Our strategy for rounding Cabo San Lazaro simply could not have worked out better. After only 90 minutes, we had worked through the transition zone and were off again -- heading for the final potential parking lot at Cabo Falso, which marked the bottom of Mexico's Baja California peninsula. It now looks like a dawn arrival -- which could mean we will be starring at the lighthouse for a lot of hours.

We still only have 9-12 knots of wind, and it looks like that's all we can expect between here and the finish. Although we had a very good role call today, it's way too early to celebrate -- the real test will be in the next 18 hours.

Opps -- change of plans. The wind just stopped, turned around and is now coming from the South. The kite came down and we are now sailing with a double-head rig towards Cabo Falso. This is going to be a weird finish. - The Curmudgeon

Blog Reports: One, Two, Three, Four


The standings as of 1pm had Between the Sheets in 2nd in Class and 4th in Fleet in PHRF, and 1st in Class and 6th in Fleet for Americap with 154 miles to go. The chart below was the position of BTS as of 4:24 PM PST on March 28th.

CDM to Cabo San Lucas Race: #2

The Curmudgeon is sending in reports while he participates in Balboa Yacht Club's 800-mile race from Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas (race website)

(Monday, March 27) Bright, sunny skies, short pants temperatures, and 10-12 knots of wind from astern - not quite the adrenaline-pumping, surfing excitement that is the fabric of many Mexican races, but some truly wonderful sailing.

The daily routines have now been comfortably established and for most of the crew, that includes a hot water shower. Our Jeanneau 52 still looks more like a tidy yacht that a balls-out racing machine. Yet we are leading our class in Americap II and are doing well in the fleet standings. The big guys (Magnitude 80 and Zephrus), which started a day behind us, flew by sometime last night, and will get to the Cabo finish line at least a day before we do. Oh well - I suspect our dinner wine is a better vintage.

We will round Cabo San Lazaro early Tuesday morning. I'm pleased with how we are set-up for the critical point of the race, but it's not unusual for that area of the race course to become a giant parking lot with a subsequent re-start for the race. It's important to execute properly . . . which will be our focus for the next 18 hours. - The Curmudgeon

Blog Reports: One, Two, Three, Four

CDM to Cabo San Lucas Race: #1

Here is the first report from The Curmudgeon, who is on his umpteenth Mexican race, and as you will see below, he doesn't seem to be roughing it anymore.

Blog Reports: One, Two, Three, Four

(Sunday, March 26) So far, Balboa Yacht Club's 800-mile race from Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas (website) has been very 'geezer friendly.' We put up a kite a couple of hours after our start on Friday and have been running under spinnaker in steady 10-20 knot breezes ever since. The boat (Jeanneau 52) likes these conditions and we are currently in a podium position. At 38,000 pounds, the boat is never going surf, but she does rumble along smartly with pole pulled all the back to the shrouds - sailing dead down wind. Also, with the 16-foot beam, there is plenty of volume 'downstairs' to store and stuff, without giving up the functionality of the dinner table in the salon. It's good living!

There's a big 'High' sitting West of us that will keep us warm on deck, but also promises to keep the winds light the rest of the way. We just passed Cedros Island and a Wednesday finish seems realistic at this point. - The Curmudgeon

Blog Reports: One, Two, Three, Four


BTW - The stateroom with its in-cabin head that I'm sharing with a fella on the opposite watch is a very civilized to go offshore racing. Boat details below:


Owner: Ross Pearlman
Sail number: 51593
Rig: Sloop
LOA (ft.): 49.00
Draft (ft): 7.8
Beam (ft): 15.9
Hull color: Blue
Yacht Club: Del Rey YC
Hailing port: Marina del Rey, CA USA
Designer:Farr
Class or type: Jeanneau 52
Builder: Jeanneau
Where built: France
Year launched: 2000

Blokart Western Regionals

A friend of mine from college, Brian Kent, took his family in '99 for a distance cruise that would find them in New Zealand in '01. Looking for ways to earn a living, he eventually came across the Blokart - a compact landsailor - and came to an agreement with the manufacturer to become the US Importer. Brian remains based in NZL, but he has teamed with his brother Joe in California, and together they have formed Cart Action Racing.

Long story short, this past weekend they held their first racing event in the US, the Western Regional Championships in Long Beach, CA. For sailors, a trip to Long Beach often means coming to Long Beach YC (below) for events like Congressional Cup or Long Beach Race Week,

or Alamitos Bay YC (below), for one-design championships,

or the US Sailing Center (below), which is home for college and high school sailing teams.

However, the blokart event location was breaking new ground, so to speak, and is part of the Kent's plan of bringing blokart racing to the people, and creating track type racing for the landsailor. They have worked hard to establish local sailing parks for the blokart, and this event was held in a beach parking lot near the local sailing sites, with hay bails marking the track.

On Friday I headed up to Long Beach for their "Sponsors and Dignitaries Invitational Race." I am not sure where I fit into that weighty title, but it was meant to be a precursor to the main weekend event, and it gave a few of us a chance to see what it was all about.

I hopped on the track to get some practice in, and quickly learned that I was the passee and not the passer. The track layout easily gives the karters a measure of their skill, and it is fun to dual with the others. Since I stunk, it was perhaps a blessing that the wind died out prior to our race. Below are some photos from the day:

The schedule was for their fleet of twenty something blokarts to compete in heats, which would provide the chance for several folks to share a kart. Click here for images that photographer Glennon Stratton took during the racing on Saturday. - Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt

470 Olympic Report: US

TEAM HEADS TO EUROPE, FINISHES TRAINING IN SAN DIEGO

Hello form Detroit,

Yes, Detroit. We are on a layover before catching a flight to Europe and a busy Spring season in Europe. Up first is the Barcelona Olympic Sailing Week, followed by the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma, and then Semaine Olympique in Hyeres, France. We'll wrap up this segment in Europe by representing the top Men's team spot at the ISAF World Games in Neusiedl, Austria. For sure, these next seven weeks will be exciting, long, full of challenges, and a great chance for us to test our racing as a team!

Our first job once we get to Barcelona is to pick up our van, have a good dinner, and get some rest. We'll spend Saturday and Sunday organizing ourselves for the week, and most of the day on Monday unloading the container. If all goes well, we'll get out on the water for practice on Tuesday.

To recap previous updates, we spent the month of January and some of February in Miami. There we sailed the 470 North American Championships and the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta. Both were ISAF-graded events, completed the 2006 US SAILING TEAM rankings, and were qualifiers for the World Games and Olympic Test Event (in China this coming August). We finished 2nd and 4th respectively and were the top Americans in both events. We were quite happy with these finishes in a fleet dense with foreign talent. Nonetheless, the regattas gave us the top spots on the US Team, World Games, and Test Event. The results also launched us to 19th in the World rankings. Good stuff!

Back in San Diego we've been busy with campaign organization, presentations, boat work, and so forth. It's a full-time job. The No. 1 US Women's team -- Amanda Clark and Sarah Mergenthaler -- came to San Diego for two-weeks of training. The camp was very productive on many levels. We focused on boat-handling, in-boat communication, starts, downwind technique, and crewing. Also, we took a tour of the Olympic Trials venue in Long Beach and worked on sail testing. Afterwards, we flew to Miami for Miami Race Week. Mikee raced Mumm 30s and Dave raced Melges 24s. Busy...busy!

Special thanks to Brian Camet, Alex Camet, Jane Rowe, Julie Michels, Kim Kruger, and Marissa Parks for all their help with video taping. Stay tuned for an edited piece available on our website.

Thank you to the gang at North Sails, particularly Vince Brun, Steve Pickle, Chris Snow, Andy Stagg, Chad Hough, Trick Murry, and, of course...Bobby!

Special thanks to Brenda Martin and Billy Clark at Bank of America. Thank you to Tom Carruthers, Whit Batchelor, and JWorld San Diego for lending their coach boat. Thank you to Jay and Pease Glaser. Thank you to Bill Shore, Mark Ewing, Justin Smith, Chuck Brown, Sarah Callahan, and Deneen Demourkas. Thank you to Ray Pope, Jen McCoy, and Rocco at Rigworks, Inc in San Diego.

Thanks to Orbitz.com for providing flights to Europe, to Matt Porter and the team at Kokatat Watersports Wear, to Darren and Steve Rosenberg at Kaenon Polarized for all their continued support for our vision, Steve 'Haro' Harrison for his welding expertise, Cameron Roy at Auto Europe for setting up the Euro-van for the upcoming trip, and McLube for providing ample product!

Lastly, a huge thanks to coaches Skip Whyte and Morgan Reeser.

We'll be in touch from Spain!

Stay tuned,
Mikee Anderson-Mitterling & David Hughes
Team USA 1734
http://www.teamusa1734.org

Look for more reports from the Number One and Two ranked US Mens 470 teams, and the Number One ranked US Womens 470 team, by clicking here.

Lightning Circuit: Head'n Home

North Sails rep Greg Fisher and his team of JoAnn Fisher and Steve Davis will be keeping us updated on the this year's Lightning Southern Circuit, which began in Savannah, GA (March 11-12), continued on to Miami, FL (March 14-15) and finishes up in St. Petersburg, FL (17-19).

(Sunday, March 19 - St Pete, FL) This morning the fleet arrived bright and early (once again) to find a nice, but light, Northerly blowing down the bay. PRO Bob Johnson did a great job to get us off nearly on time. Most everyone felt the breeze would fade right as it also was supposed to die as the Northerly fought the sea breeze. Our team with, Steve Davis driving, had a decent start, great speed, and were able to get to the right just ahead of Neil Fowler and Tommy Allen. We felt that the breeze had faded right enough that a gybe set was in order...but it is challenging making that kind of decision when in the lead.

After we gybed, we all became very quiet - except for someone, maybe JoAnn - who broke the silence with a "ruh-roh." Seems that although we were actually aiming on course or maybe even below the leeward gates (we got that part right), we forgot about the offset mark, which the 71 boats behind us seemed to have remembered (that part we did not get right). After we finished passing around the oxygen bottle (we sailed in a true vacuum for about 5 minutes), we all commented on how expensive that kind of boo-boo was! I think we finished a solid 12th that race, but not certain as the official standings as of this report still have not been printed (I think there were some scoring issues in the last race - we'll get to that later).

We did complete 3 races in some very trying conditions for both the sailors and the race committee. Since the current was flooding quite hard by the second race, the race committee chose the Black Flag to help "discourage" the fleet from pressing the line (which was a tall order given that the current was pushing everyone over the line as the wind was from the North). There were a number of causalities, one of which was David Stark with his 2 brothers Joe and Tom. This was an especially tough break as there were not enough races to earn a throw...and it also may have affected the overall circuit results.

One of the real stories from the day was the shortened finish of the last race. Maybe 15 boats finished before the wind lightened some more, and the rest of the fleet - all 55 of them - stacked up right at the finish. I have never in my life seen such a pile-up at one mark (and I’m been around long enough to be able to say that)!

We think it may be because of this stack up, and the difficulty in recording finishes, that we don't have the official results yet. But we do know the following: there were a number of consistent finishers who did fare well in St Pete. The true champion was the Lutz family, this time with Uncle Jody steering (nephew Taylor and brother Jay crewing). I think on Sunday they clicked off a 10,1,1,2 - very remarkable given the conditions - to win the event over Brian Hayes, who was also consistent with a 7,5,7,7. Our team was third with a 1,12,9,18, tied with Bill Fastiggi who finished up 4th with 15,7,12,6.

Interestingly enough, the tricky sailing and tough finishes at St Pete (perhaps other than Stark's BFG) for both Linton and Stark didn't drop them out of the top two spots in the Overall Circuit. The Linton team finished up St Pete with a 11,15,13,14 to Stark's 14,21,74,2. Jeff Linton (with wife Amy and Mark Taylor) still ended up 4 pts ahead of Stark for the Overall Circuit win. Neil Fowler was third with Bill Fastiggi 4th and first time circuit sailor (winner of the newcomer award) Todd Wake in 5th.

It was indeed a hurried migration back North for much of the fleet. It seemed that on Monday, nearly every rest stop or gas station had a car and Lightning resting off I-95. Of course, the trek was not without stories. Al Terhune, who had the misfortune of blowing some computer chip in his dash on the way down to Savannah – losing all his dashboard gauges (including speed and fuel), had been unable to find a mechanic along the circuit route who could help with the repair. He made it ALMOST all the way home, however, a North Carolina State Trooper had no sympathy for Al's mechanical issues and added a hefty speeding ticket to the repair expenses.

Steve and Jan Davis left St Pete in 80 degrees and sun, but 18 hours later they're sliding along in 10" of snow on their way home to Colorado. Ched Proctor and I passed and re-passed each other twice I think... I was busy eating and he was busy napping! You almost need a long drive home to decompress, and prepare for life after the circuit

The 2006 Lightning Southern Circuit set records in all areas. The weather was the best ever, as we didn't see a rain cloud the entire week! There were 51 boats in both Savannah and Miami, and 72 in St Pete. 37 boats is by far the biggest number to make the entire circuit start to finish. And it was obvious everyone had a super time as well. Amy Linton, who organized the Circuit for the Class, did a great job keeping it fun while still providing some great, competitive racing. As we said before, there were plenty of new faces at each of the three events... and certainly next year we'll have even more! Come join us!



Rum Party
St Pete winners Jody Lutz, Jay Lutz, and Taylor Lutz
Southern Circuit champs Mark Taylor, Jeff Linton, and Amy Linton

Complete results are not yet online, but should soon be either on the class website or the SPYC website.

View all Circuit reports:
Savannah, Miami (One, Two, Three), St Pete (One, Two, Three, Four)

Lightning Circuit: Light & Long

North Sails rep Greg Fisher and his team of JoAnn Fisher and Steve Davis will be keeping us updated on the this year's Lightning Southern Circuit, which began in Savannah, GA (March 11-12), continued on to Miami, FL (March 14-15) and finishes up in St. Petersburg, FL (17-19).

(Saturday, March 18 - St Pete, FL) Today was a long day for the Lightning gang. We left the dock today at 8:15am in hopes of a start at 9:30am in a very light northerly. Our PRO Bob Johnson pulled off a start but shortly thereafter the wind lightened and faded left about 40 degrees. Then 10 minutes later, it faded back to the right, then lightened on the sides and finally died in the middle in a long painful gasp. The fleet, well spread, ghosted around the top mark as 3 horns were sounded...seemed like they were tough to hear above the cheers from most of the fleet.

For a couple hours the fleet drifted around, waiting for the sea breeze to fill in. There were several valiant attempts, but then it would die back and fill from the North. Finally around 1:30pm, the westerly began to fill and the race was started in a nice 5-8mph. Most felt the breeze could phase right and with the flooding current, so the right side was the pick. Sure enough, it was the right at the top end of the beat that indeed proved to be the way to go.

Our team, steered by Steve Davis with my wife JoAnn and yours truly as crew, finagled through the shifts and weeds to round first followed by Debbie Probst and Tom Allen Jr. Frankly, we felt as though it might be somewhat of a parade as the course was a simple windward-leeward-windward. The positions did not change until half way up the last beat when the breeze began to fade once again...and back to the left. Many of us were not very prepared for that switcheroo, and at the finish the lead was well up for grabs. After several traded tacks, weed patches and puffs, we managed to hold onto the lead with Mark Allen from Michigan closing in for second and Tom Allen Jr a close third.
There were many jumbled places this last leg with nearly half the fleet falling victim to the 30-minute finish rule…that is if you didn't finish within 30 minutes of the race winner you were scored DNF. Tough day for sure. Later that evening, the Stark family hosted a very well attended party on the yacht club dock held on Ernie Dieball team's boat. I think, as usual, everyone was there and lots of stories and disappointments were shared. As the party progressed the mood lightened for sure! Hopefully tomorrow will bring better sailing...but the forecast begs to differ with more light winds predicted. - Greg Fisher

View all Circuit reports:
Savannah, Miami (One, Two, Three), St Pete (One, Two, Three, Four)

Lightning Circuit: Wind vs Party

North Sails rep Greg Fisher and his team of JoAnn Fisher and Steve Davis will be keeping us updated on the this year's Lightning Southern Circuit, which began in Savannah, GA (March 11-12), continued on to Miami, FL (March 14-15) and finishes up in St. Petersburg, FL (17-19).

(Friday, March, 17 - St Pete, FL) Well, I was wrong. The fleet blossomed to 72 boats overnight! This is probably one of the biggest turnouts in several years. It is great as there are many new and enthusiastic faces!

Unfortunately the breeze wasn't as enthusiastic this morning and an easterly fought the westerly trying to develop. Champion PRO Bob Johnson made numerous wise decisions today, holding the fleet on shore with several postponements waiting for good news to come from his "scouts" placed at different places around the bay. The good news never came and the races were eventually called for the day at 2:30pm.

Although the fleet waited it out on their trailers, the group found plenty to keep them occupied. First came lots of tuning and retuning...tensions gauges and tape measurers were passed all around the lot. Then came a little football led by the Lutz clan and finally Chantelle Leger opened up her “hair salon” and started trimming up the fleet with some high quality haircuts (see below). For a modest fee (a donation to her Yngling Olympic Campaign) one would receive a nice cut and a beer! I think she said she had 20 customers today. Yours truly was her last of the day...I asked Chantelle to trim out the grey but she said she only had an hour to get the job done.



Most of the fleet met for a dip in the club pool and a drink (okay, drinks) at the Tiki Bar after the races were abandoned (see below). Tonight we had our annual banquet at the St Pete YC - always a nice party and great food. The whole gang was there for a night of thanks to many of those who have helped make the Lightning Class what it is. Brian Hayes, secretary of the class, emceed the event and helped pass out the trophies. There's no doubt Brian will soon have his own late night show to compete with Letterman and Leno.



There were many well-deserved awards of thanks presented tonight, but a very special award that produced two standing ovations was the new Karl Smither trophy, which was presented to Anne Allen. Anne (Karl Smither's daughter) has done so much for the class, from being a very effective President to bearing the class's very active builder, Tom Allen Jr. Tom, too, received an award for his "above and beyond" efforts as builder to the class. It is never unusual to see Tommy working on someone's, anyone's boat after races, between races, anytime. He is always available and for sure, his type of dedication to the members helps the Lightning Class continue to grow.

As I said, there were numerous other awards that could and should be mentioned as well. It was pretty special that Class President Carter Utzig and the executive committee of the class personally presented mementos to all 37 boats who traveled all 3 regattas of the 2006 Southern Circuit. 37 boats was obviously a record. Savannah Deep South regatta winner, David Stark, organized a "50-50" raffle where the proceeds would be donated to help the devastated Gulf Yachting Association. John Steiner won the raffle and graciously returned half of what he had won as well. Nearly $1800 was gathered to help those struggling clubs recovering after hurricane Katrina.

So it is with the Lightning Class...there's always much more than just the racing. One of the top 5 skippers in the overall circuit said to a group this afternoon at the Tiki Bar, "Geez, I've never had so much fun NOT racing at a regatta!" Hopefully tomorrow will bring a bit more breeze. For sure it won't be windy but maybe we'll have enough to click off a couple races. But whatever happens, I am sure we'll have plenty to report! - Greg Fisher

View all Circuit reports:
Savannah, Miami (One, Two, Three), St Pete (One, Two, Three, Four)

Lightning Circuit: Three to go

North Sails rep Greg Fisher and his team of JoAnn Fisher and Steve Davis will be keeping us updated on the this year's Lightning Southern Circuit, which began in Savannah, GA (March 11-12), continued on to Miami, FL (March 14-15) and finishes up in St. Petersburg, FL (17-19).

(Thursday, March 16 - St Pete, FL) Thursday was the day to catch up...what a beautiful day. The sea breeze kicked in at 2pm and blew a nice 6-10mph. As in Miami, a handful of boats took advantage of the great conditions for a little practice. We did a little boat work and laundry while our skipper, Steve, worked on Lightning class stuff with his Executive Secretary wife, Jan. They were busy all day.

After the skipper's meeting, the annual class meeting took place. The large group in attendance is indicative of the support and strength that exists in the class. There are sixty-two boats this year...a great turnout for the last regatta of the circuit! Unfortunately the breeze doesn't look so breezy for the rest of the weekend...but we are hopeful that the sea breeze will soon arrive. Of course, at this point of the circuit, we have a pretty good handle on the Tiki Bar conditions, which always seem to be favorable at the St Pete YC. - Greg Fisher

View all Circuit reports:
Savannah, Miami (One, Two, Three), St Pete (One, Two, Three, Four)

Lightning Circuit: Two Down...

North Sails rep Greg Fisher and his team of JoAnn Fisher and Steve Davis will be keeping us updated on the this year's Lightning Southern Circuit, which began in Savannah, GA (March 11-12), continued on to Miami, FL (March 14-15) and finishes up in St. Petersburg, FL (17-19).

(Thursday, March 16 - St Pete, FL) Wednesday did indeed bring more breeze as predicted for the final day of the Midwinter Regatta in Miami, FL. With puffs up to 20mph and a steady 12-15, the sailing couldn't be any better. The direction was near North so it was much shiftier, so "connecting the dots" was the tactical style of the day, with many of the dots/puffs filling in from the right. By the last race the breeze had built to a point where 4 boats capsized during some of the offwind legs.

Interestingly enough, once again it was a who-beat-who set up between Linton and Stark for the regatta win going into the last race. But this time it was Linton who banged off a great start at the weather end and hit the first shift to the right. Stark on the other hand, had a tough start and was deep at the first mark. But Stark's speed in the breeze was nothing less than spectacular, grinding through the fleet to an impressive 9th at the finish. However, Linton (see below, left) also was having an impressive race, and won it in convincing fashion.



Several others showed some serious spark in the Wednesday conditions. Todd Wake claimed the day with a 2, 4. Neal Fowler sailed to second overall in the regatta with a 7, 3. Al Terhune climbed back into 5th overall with a 5, 7. Then there was 14 yr old Taylor Lutz, who showed us old folks the future by going out and winning the first race!

We all talk of the importance of the "race to hoist"...this one is key as packing up and being ready to hit the road as soon as the trophy presentation is over is nearly as tactical as any weather leg of the day. Coral Reef YC does a nice job of setting out a Mexican buffet while the trophies are handed out, and usually people are able to hit the road to St Pete by 4:30pm. This timing is important due to rush hour in Miami, and this year the schedule was nearly perfect as most were on Alligator Alley in record time.



I would guess that this stretch of RT 75 is the US's version of the Autobahn in Germany. We weren't exactly crawling along, but we witnessed some cars blowing by us - not all that much unlike Stark on the second beat the last race. I am not sure where the Highway Patrol hides out but I bet they can easily fill their daily quota there.

Like the trip from Savannah to Miami, the entire regatta migrated north to St Pete Wednesday night. After 4 hours of driving we ran into (not literally of course) our friends Al and Katie Terhune from Annapolis, MD and stopped for dinner at 8pm. Now in St Pete, our goal is to get the boat set up, get the van organized, maybe a little sailing, hopefully a little laundry, and ultimately get ready for the 9:30am start tomorrow morning.

You just can't emphasize enough the superb sailing in Biscayne Bay and the great job Coral Reef did for us both on the water and at the club. The courses were spot on and the Tiki Bar by the pool (new last year) was equally appreciated. What a circuit so far! The best- ever weather appears like it will continue here in St Pete. Sunny, a 5-10 mph breeze, and again great race management are in store for us. AND… St Pete YC has a nice Tiki bar too! - Greg Fisher

Click here for results (scroll down to bottom to view)

View all Circuit reports:
Savannah, Miami (One, Two, Three), St Pete (One, Two, Three, Four)

Lightning Circuit: Miami Midpoint

North Sails rep Greg Fisher and his team of JoAnn Fisher and Steve Davis will be keeping us updated on the this year's Lightning Southern Circuit, which begins in Savannah, GA (March 11-12), and continues on to Miami, FL (March 14-15) and St. Petersburg, FL (17-19).

(Wednesday, March 15 - Miami, FL) After the traditional stop at EZ Kwik and the breakfast buffet at Coral Reef YC, 50 boats were soon on the racecourse Tuesday for the beginning of the Miami Midwinter Regatta. It was a typical beautiful day on Biscayne Bay, and although the breeze was a bit around to the right at 190 degrees, it was still up to 15mph at times. While many were under the impression that the breeze might fade right, and therefore protected the right side, the left proved to be the way to go, especially at the top end of the beats.

Jeff Linton and David Stark once again traded close finishes with Jeff ending the day with a 6,2,1 and David with a 8,1,2. Neal Fowler is close behind with a 1,6,5. Taylor Lutz, the Optimist Champ, really was on a roll with a 3,7 and was very speedy, especially downwind. Unfortunately a 21st in the last race dropped him back a bit overall. Deb Probst, past Highlander National Champ, was on fire as well with a 2,4 in the first 2 races. However, an unfortunate capsize in the 3rd race drop her out of contention. Our team, with my wife JoAnn steering, had a fun day...though we had a bit of trouble getting off the start line. Unfortunately I was one of those feeling that protecting the right would be wise. Steve will be the tactitician today!

As if the racing wasn’t enough, a great pasta dinner at Coral Reef YC proved to be an adequate set-up for Amy Linton (Jeff's wife and expert tactician) and her mischievous ways. How about a couple of hula-hoops to make a bunch of sailors feel totally inadequate? Contest MC Brian Hayes got folks moving, though we all agreed that he might want to redirect his professional interests toward being a ringmaster for Big Time Wrestling. I am not sure you'd call the ensuing competition the North American Championships, but there was some serious attempts at keeping it swinging for more than 2 seconds.

To say the men were weak in this event would be fair...in fact only Victor Lobos posed any competition to the women. He "hula’d" for a solid 46 seconds - a very proud moment for us men, and it earned Victor a standing ovation. Neil Fowler, while unable to keep up with Victor, won the masters contest. However, the women, lead by Chantal Leger (who also cuts hair - see earlier report), Toby Moriarty, and Judy Gorman were quite impressive. Toby stopped when she got bored. Judy won after 2 minutes! But it was Chantal who had all the moves.

It did seem that three long races on Tuesday took their toll on the group, and the gang was slightly more subdued than usual.... and many retired early (or earlier) as a result. Wednesday calls for two more races, with reports that the wind will climb into the 20's. That should make for a quick day, and then we’ll be off to St Pete tonight! We'll have a final report tonight! - Greg Fisher

Click here for results (scroll down to bottom to view)

View all Circuit reports:
Savannah, Miami (One, Two, Three), St Pete (One, Two, Three, Four)

Lightning Circuit: Second Stop

North Sails rep Greg Fisher and his team of JoAnn Fisher and Steve Davis will be keeping us updated on the this year's Lightning Southern Circuit, which begins in Savannah, GA (March 11-12), and continues on to Miami, FL (March 14-15) and St. Petersburg, FL (17-19).">

(Tuesday, March 14 - Miami, FL) As usual, it was a spectacular day when we pulled in to the Coral Reef YC parking lot Monday afternoon for the second regatta of the southern circuit. The breeze was a solid 15 knots, the air temperature was a sunny 80 degrees… makes the drive here easy with conditions like this. Much of the fleet had already set up, with about 10 boats having taken to the water for a little practice. One boat (another family boat of course) was skippered by Optimist Champion Taylor Lutz with his Uncle Jody and Dad Jay crewing. David Stark and his team went out for a little practice as well. Rumor has it that a cooler went riding with them. There's promise of another 50 boats here at the Midwinter Championship!

The parking lot was buzzing with tension gauges, tape measures, and electric drills. Olympian Carol Cronin was even having her hair trimmed by Bill Fastiggi's teammate Chantelle Leger. The remainder of the circuit will be a bit different on our boat and for me. The class allows (and encourages) co-skippering throughout the circuit as long as the same team sails together. Steve Davis and my wife JoAnn will trade steering for the next two events with yours truly as crew. My hunch is that we will be relying heavily on speed and smarts, as I sense our boat handling skills might be taking a hit with me in the middle. JoAnn is steering here in Miami and Steve will steer in St Pete.

Steve is traveling with his wife Jan, who is the new executive secretary of the International Lightning Class. After watching them at work, we definitely have a great appreciation for their commitment to the class. Jan is on 24/7 taking calls, helping set up registration, and answering emails! Thanks to them both.

Our first race is at 11:30 am today, with a perfect 10-12 knots expected. We'll keep you posted with more info tonight. - Greg Fisher

View all Circuit reports:
Savannah, Miami (One, Two, Three), St Pete (One, Two, Three, Four)

Lightning Circuit: Tour Begins

North Sails rep Greg Fisher and his team of JoAnn Fisher and Steve Davis has kept Scuttleblog updated on this year's Lightning Southern Circuit, which began in Savannah, GA (March 11-12), and continued on to Miami, FL (March 14-15) and St. Petersburg, FL (17-19).

View all Circuit reports:
Savannah, Miami (One, Two, Three),
St Pete (One, Two, Three, Four)

(Monday, March 13) Each year the Lightning class enjoys a 3-regatta midwinter circuit, which attracts 40 plus boats. The circuit kicks off with the Deep South Regatta and this year marked the 50th anniversary hosted by Savannah Yacht Club. The Savannah Yacht Club graciously lowered the entry fee to fifty dollars and ironically fifty boats attended the event.

To say the racing in Savannah is interesting would be an understatement. The Wilmington and Skidaway rivers join together nearly in front of the yacht club, with the river current often as high as 3 knots. This makes for some challenging and exciting conditions, where trying to find a lane while short tacking along the marsh with the centerboard up half way in not unusual. On downwind legs, the crew may even sit on the foredeck to keep the rudder out of the mud. Then there is the tactical use of the mud, where dropping the board into the muck while on a screaming plane may be necessary to keep from plowing into the boat in front.

This year the sailing was spectacular, with temperatures in the mid 70s, sunny, and a sea breeze of 8-12 mph. David Starck and his team of Jared Drake and Ian Jones (photo below) mastered the challenging conditions over second place (and past world champion) Jeff Linton with wife Amy, and Mark Taylor. Jeff said his slick move of the regatta came in the last race, where he gybed around the weather mark and close reached on port through the starboard tack layline crowd to seek relief from the current. Once 5 feet from shore, he popped his spinnaker, and promptly picked up 5 boats (welcome to Savannah!). Newcomer to the class, Chris LaBorde, was third with Jay Mueller and Eduardo Cordero. Click here for complete results.

Although the sailing is exciting, what really makes the Deep South Regatta special is the combination of the southern hospitality of the Savannah Yacht Club and the Lightning class “family.” John MacIntosh Sr. with sons, John, Neff and Olin and nephew Billy, Commodore of Savannah Y C, have long been the backbone of the Deep South Regatta and this year was no exception.

There was plenty of family teams racing too. Larry Macdonald , 4th overall, sailed with his 12 yr old son Adam. The Lintons, Terhunes, Ruhlmans (also with son Ryan sailing another boat), Moriartys, Fishers all sailed with their spouses. Gary and Joan Hurban each sailed their own boat and enjoy a friendly family rivalry. On one downwind leg, we battled with 19 yr old Rob Crane, who had his dad Jim and grandmother Anne Allen as crew. Rob’s grandfather Tom Allen sailed another boat as did his uncle Tom Jr, the builder for the class. On shore, Rob’s grandfather Bob Crane watched the racing. Bob was the first winner of the first Deep South regatta 50 years ago.

The members and staff of the Savannah yacht club provided a plentiful “shuck your own” oyster roast on Saturday night, which for this Ohio boy was quite a novel experience. The bar was stocked with more than enough liquor and bartenders, and we were told that Lightning class had nearly paid for next year’s regatta with the size of Saturday night’s bar bill. At the trophy presentation Sunday afternoon, not only was the Macintosh family presented with several well deserved awards on behalf of the Lightning class, but so was the bar staff!

In all seriousness, few clubs roll out the red carpet to the extent of Savannah YC. Our cars and vans even had cleaned windshields with a note stating: “It’s clear you’re number one with us- courtesy of Savannah YC!” after the trophy presentation. For the Lightning Class, the Deep South Regatta (especially this year) is equally special. Obviously it is the kick off event for the weeklong circuit and presents THE best opportunity for everyone to catch up socially after the winter.

Now we’re all on our way down to Miami for the annual Midwinter regatta hosted by Coral Reef YC. The racing for this regatta starts tomorrow (Tuesday), so if you happen to be on I-95, be kind to the blurry-eyed Lightning sailors as they drive south for the next event. We’ll keep you posted…. Greg Fisher

View all Circuit reports:
Savannah, Miami (One, Two, Three), St Pete (One, Two, Three, Four)

Miami Race Week: More to do

(Jim Madden recently launched his new 66-foot canting keel Reichel/Pugh design named "Stark Raving Mad," and will be submitting reports from their first regatta: 2006 Acura Miami Race Week. This Part Five of a five part series)

Sunday, March 12, 2006: It’s a wrap. Four days of great weather and great sailing. We completed two races today, despite the canting time of our keel slowed down to a pedestrian three minutes (likely giving up two minutes to two and half minutes during each tack and jibe). We identified the problem as a minor valve issue.

Even with the problem, it was great to get two more races under our belt. Also, great to have the crew together for four days straight to learn the boat. Since we never had over 8 knots of wind for sea trials in San Diego, this turned out to be a great venue to test her. Speeds over the race series ranged from 9.5 knots to 20 knots in winds from 12 knots to 22 knots. Will need to keep a close eye on the “land mines” and lobster pots underneath.

Now off to getting the boat ready for her next racing this spring in New England.

Click here for results.
Photo by Sharon Green/Ultimate Sailing (complete gallery here).Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five

Miami Race Week: Baby Steps

(Jim Madden recently launched his new 66-foot canting keel Reichel/Pugh design named "Stark Raving Mad," and will be submitting reports from their first regatta: 2006 Acura Miami Race Week. This is Part Four of a five part series.)

Saturday, March 11, 2006: Another mixed day. Took a 3rd in race one today (race 6 of the series) while continuing to take things conservatively. Got the best corrected time out of first - less than two minutes. Still a gap, but progress. Lot’s of time owed to the fleet in our class – anywhere from 9 to 30 minutes, and we typically finish 7 minutes to 45 minutes ahead. Trying also to be friendly to the other 31 boats on our race course (19 Farr 40s, 6 Melges 32s, and 6 Mumm 30s). Sometimes though it’s a little tricky winding our way around them while going offwind at 16-17 knots of boat speed.

We had what is most likely a minor malfunction on one of our electrical switches that controls one hydraulic motor causing us to retire from the rest of racing today so we could see what can be done to race Sunday. Interesting to note, even with our DNF in race 2, our overall at the end of race 5 brought us into third place overall. We are still at the bottom of the learning curve on the boat - today brings us to a total of 5 sailing days since she’s been launched. Robbie Haines tells me that with the MaxZ86 Pyewacket, they had over 20 practice/shake down days before her first race. So maybe we’re pushing things a bit, but we’re looking forward to her potential.

Click here for results.
Photo by Sharon Green/Ultimate Sailing (complete gallery here).
Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five

Miami Race Week: Progress

(Jim Madden recently launched his new 66-foot canting keel Reichel/Pugh design named "Stark Raving Mad," and will be submitting reports from their first regatta: 2006 Acura Miami Race Week. This is Part Three of a five part series.)

March 10, 2006: A great day today with lot’s of fun and excitement. Two races with 3rd place finishes in each – big improvement from yesterday. Goal today was to get around the race course without mishap by erring on the side of conservatism.

Although in each race we completed, we finished 10 to 40 minutes in front of the fleet on elapsed time, we need to improve by 2-3 minutes more to win on corrected time. A tall order given we’re still in learning curve mode with only three completed races under our belt.

The 2A spinnaker that was “shrimped” yesterday has now been repaired and will be with us on Saturday. Highlights from Thursday’s races can be seen in a video clip on the Premier Sailing web site. Only surprise today was having the keel bulb bump the bottom while we were hauling along at 15 knots downwind. No worries and no damage, but ten seconds of shock.

Click here for results.
Photo by Sharon Green/Ultimate Sailing (complete gallery here).

Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five

Lightning Southern Circuit

Look for North Sails rep Greg Fisher (right) to soon be filing reports from the Lightning Southern Circuit. This three regatta tour begins this weekend in Savannah, GA (March 11-12), and continues on to Miami, FL (March 14-15) and St. Petersburg, FL (17-19). Greg will be joined on this road trip by Jo Ann Fisher and Steve Davis, wherein each will take a turn skippering at one of the events (and likely take some turns posting reports too).

Star Bacardi Cup: Day Six

2005 Star North American champ and Quantum Sails rep George Szabo files the following report from the final day at the Bacardi Cup in Miami, FL:

(Friday, March 10) Look for George's report later today. He's had a heck of a week, having been rammed at the dock, broke a shroud, and got Black Flagged yesterday. The good news is that he feels the boat is going very well now, and all they have to do is put it all together. We'll see if that happens today.

UPDATE: John Dane/Austin Sperry win the 2006 Bacardi Cup!

SECOND UPDATE: Just got off the phone with George, and he sounded like he was taking advantage of the open bar that has been provided by Tito Bacardi, and he felt like it was unlikely that he would be able to submit a report today. However, he did want to thank his editors this week, Jay Moss and Eric Monroe, along with Tom Vandermolen and the folks at Harken (not sure what Tom and Harken did, but our guess is that it helped George get through his chaotic week).

According to George, John Dane was very humble in his victory speech, which went something like this, "I've been coming here for thirty years and have gotten beat up by all the players in the class. For all you old guys out there, go get yourself a young buckeroo crew and this could happen to you."

Scuttleblog would like to sincerely thank George for his efforts this week, as coming up with whitty tidbits after a day of Star racing can be a strain. Btw, if anyone talks to John Dane or Austin Sperry, tell'em to contact Scuttleblog so we can find out what happened at the front of the fleet this week. Click here for results.

Day One - Day Two - Day Three - Day Four - Day Five - Day Six

Photos by Alex Gort


The father and son-in-law tandem of John Dane (left) and crew Austin Sperry of Gulfport, Mississippi, toast their overall victory following the final race of the 2006 Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta on the waters of Biscayne Bay. Their fourth place finish Friday assures them the Bacardi Cup title, and Dane, 55, becomes the only Master sailor to win the Bacardi Cup in the regatta's 79-year history.

Star Bacardi Cup: Day Five

2005 Star North American champ and Quantum Sails rep George Szabo files the following report today from the Bacardi Cup in Miami, FL:

(Thursday, March 9) Most fantastic sailing conditions on the water yet. Mostly warm, not to shifty, and a very fun 15 knots of breeze. This is the reason that we keep coming back sailing here.

Out on the water, you can tell that the end of the regatta is near. There were more spectator boats than ever, a few large ones, and more press boats too. Lots of action on the water at the marks

Our boat was fast today. Tighter shrouds, more rake, and life was really good. We started near the boat end of the line and were going high and fast. Higher than Horton who was next to us. About 4+ minutes into the race we were leading the fleet. Definitely ahead of the pack to the right, and would be able to cross the boats on the left. Then trauma stuck again! A RIB was coming at us at high speed. Normally a cause for concern, and this one was from the RC and it was flying the checkered b/w abandonment flag. This was going to be bad. It ended up that there was confusion over the RC radios, and the pin end put up the General Recall flag while the Weather end boat Individual Recall flag. The race was abandoned, and restarted a little bit later.

From there, events began the downhill slide that seems to be typical for the week. If you have ever been racing, and thought “this only happens to me,” whatever that was has likely happened to us this week. For the second start of the same race, after we finally got away from the boat to weather of us who draped his mainsail all over our rig, we started, and had one of those starts that looked really, really good. We were well ahead, and it was looking like it might be one of THOSE starts (you know what I’m talking about).

Well, . . . . . . . got to the weather mark, and were just shy of layline when a port tacker came at us thinking they might want to cross, but we wanted them to tack so we could get back up to the layline. Yada yada yada – as we crash tack to avoid a collision, my crew Eric was stuck in the straps and the jib was still cleated after the boat tacked. A witness of the event called it a ghost ship. No one on the weather side, and the keel out of the water. Eric was gargling on the leeward side. Once that one was sorted out, we got back going with a bit of a loss only to find out that we, and the guy who was on port that we had to avoid moments before – were the only two over early boats in the whole fleet.

Enough about sailing. Wildlife report: no sightings on at Coral Reef YC, or on the race course, but two Manatees were reported to be seen near the hoist of the sailing center. Sorry no photos.

The great thing about this event is not just the sailing, but also the people. Making new friends and seeing old friend from all over the world is a fantastic part of the trip. On that tangent, I’d like to check back in on Christian Finnsgard’s tan report. Remember at the beginning of the week, Christian was pasty white, and coming from 30” of snow. Now he is beet red, and still as happy as ever – we’re just not allowed to touch a few red parts (see photo below).

The parking lot is getting more full of junk daily as well. With the wind picking up, we are starting to see very odd breakdowns- some blocks and other items breaking from corrosion and everything else in very odd ways. Only a hand full of broken masts this trip, but a large amount of bondo is being applied to keels.

It used to be pretty easy to find your way in and out through the tricky part of the mooring area, which could save a few minutes to the race course. Unfortunately, with the past few hurricanes here, many of the moored boats sunk, and are still under water – and unmarked. The tide moves them around from time to time, and it seems to be Miss or Hit going through the zone. Unfortunately, Augie Diaz tapped one yesterday, another sailor just two days ago hit one so hard that a pint of bondo was required, and today Mark Reynolds found one of the sunken boats. Mark hit hard enough that his crew, Christian Finnsgard, remarked that the gelcoat from the sunken boat was still on their keel.

I thought that was going to be all of the excitement for the day, but my crew Eric keeps telling me that he is seeing celebrities here in Miami. Last time I picked him up at the airport, he swore he saw Evander Holyfield (the boxer) – he told me that his ear was missing a piece and everything. I said yeah right. Well tonight at the grocery store buying food he swears that he saw the basketball player, Glenn Rice. I said yeah right again. Well, as I went in search of food down another aisle, he came back with this picture (below). So if anyone can identify this person as someone else, please let me know. Keep in mind, my crew, Eric is 6’ 4”!
Last race scheduled for tomorrow. Same forecast as today. Should be fun. - George Szabo

Click here for results. Photos below by Alex Gort.

Two-time Bacardi Cup Champion Peter Bromby (left, back), sailing this week with crew Bill McNiven, of Bermuda rounded all four marks ahead of the rest of the fleet and won the fifth race of the 79th Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta on Thursday, March 9, 2006. He climbs to fourth in the overall standings with one race to go. The father and son-in-law tandem of John Dane (right, back) and Austin Sperry of Gulfport, Mississippi, round the third mark on their way to a sixth place finish on day five of sailing Thursday, March 9, 2006, at the 79th Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta on the waters of Biscayne Bay near Miami. The finish assures them the overall lead by eight points ahead of their nearest competitors heading into the sixth and final race.

Day One - Day Two - Day Three - Day Four - Day Five - Day Six

Miami Race Week: Tough day

(Jim Madden recently launched his new 66-foot canting keel Reichel/Pugh design named "Stark Raving Mad," and will be submitting reports from their first regatta: 2006 Acura Miami Race Week. This is Part Two of a five part series.)

Thursday, March 9, 2006: The good news - we now have our first race ever on the boat completed - the bad news is that we were only able to finish one of the three races today.

In race one, we were well ahead at the first leeward gate, but “shrimped” the kite on take-down after a wave caught the clew. Barreling along at 12 knots took the rest of the kite over the side quickly. It took a long while to untangle, so we were forced to drop out of race 1, sacrificing our 2A spinnaker along the way.

In race two, we were going fast while one third up the first upwind leg, and we had the bad luck to catch a submerged line on the keel bulb (we draw 15’), which would not break off – not a simple lobster pot as it was attached at two ends, and no buoy or floating part on the surface. That snag took us from 10 knots to 2 knots – feeling like we sailed into a rubber band. After repeated tries, we were unable to get the line untangled, so we had to turn on the motor to get free.

Race three was much improved - three times around with a nice elapsed time lead (lapping one of the boats), but not enough for a corrected time win. As we thought, a very steep learning curve, so we’ll just have to try harder days two through four.

Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five

Miami Race Week: Tune Up

(Jim Madden recently launched his new 66-foot canting keel Reichel/Pugh design named "Stark Raving Mad," and will be submitting reports from 2006 Acura Miami Race Week. This is Part One of a five part series.)

Tuesday, March 7: First day of practice today, which in reality was our first day of proper sea trials as the most breeze we previously saw in San Diego was under 10 knots. Today had wind from 16 to 20 knots out of the NW. Upwind saw boat speeds of 9.5 to 10 knots, and off-wind we saw speeds of 13 to 16 knots. Still fine tuning many components of the boat including keel cant timing, sail shape, winches, and blocks. Very happy we have another practice day to go. - Jim Madden

Wednesday, March 8: Just completed day two of practice on “Stark Raving Mad III”. Consensus of crew is we’re ready to race, but still in the very initial stages of a steep learning curve. Today’s best lesson was to determine just how many contraptions could be used at one time (forward board adjustment, keel canting, backstay, etc…). The boat is certainly not simple. Racing should be fun and exciting with 9 boats in IRC 1 on the same race course as 19 Far 40s, 6 Melges 32s, and 6 Mumm 30s. Thursday should be a photographer’s day.

The team for the event - a mix of Newport, RI, and SoCal guys. Jim Madden – Skipper; Robbie Haines & Dave Ullman – Tacticians; Artie Means – Navigator; Plus: Mick Harvey, Chris Busch, Jim Canon, Keith Lorence, Jeff Brock, Dave Culver, Mike Nash, Jon Gardner, Greg Nelson, Dave Calverley, David Doucett, and Greg Isett.

Shortly after the launch in San Diego Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five

Star Bacardi Cup: Day Four

2005 Star North American champ and Quantum Sails rep George Szabo files the following report today from the Bacardi Cup in Miami, FL:

(Wednesday, March 8) This is turning into a tough week. Just when you think things are going to sort themselves out – they fall apart. Same morning routine, boat in the water, breakfast, review with the coach, get changed and then go out sailing. Sort of. As we were tied to the dock, and putting our sails up, a Star boat leaving the dock tacked onto the wrong tack and was sailing back towards the boats tied up the dock. There is not always a lot of control at slow speeds, and today, we were the target. Yup, we got a hole in the boat while still tied to the dock! We taped that one up, got the rest of the jib and then the main up, and headed for the race course. Not sure if we want to rename the boat Trauma or Drama.

The conditions started out good. 15-18 in the puffs, and relatively steady breeze. Then things began to deteriorate. There was a postponement, and during that time, the massive shifts began. 50 degrees true wind direction on the left side of the course, 80 degrees at the committee boat, and 110 on the right side. Needless to say, things didn’t settle down too well during the postponement. When the race did get off, 40 degree shifts were fairly regular up the first beat. On the second beat, the puffs were still shifting through 40 degrees, but were coming with more ferocity. Auto-tacks were seen on all sides of the race course, and more than one skipper was heard to have asked his crew, “can you get in, can you get in” after the auto-tack.

The shifts were all fine and dandy until the last beat when the 40 degree shifts went from oscillating to persistent. Yep. And we were on the wrong side of it all. Deep left corner pocket, and the wind went from 16 to 60 degrees on the starboard tack compass heading. That was bad. The guys around us that kept going after we tacked to port said the wind went another 10 degrees right for them. This big trend changed our race from the low 20’s to the mid sixties, which officially turned our last beat into a ‘meet the fleet’ leg. We got to see all sorts of people I hadn’t seen in awhile. This race now moved our overall score to the top of the second page of the results. Hmmm.

In the front of the fleet, John Dane and Austin Sperry sailed a great race, were well out in front, and have taken over the lead with a 16 point gap over the next boat before the toss is put in after Thursday’s race. Second place has race scores of 10,9,10,9. Reynold/Finnsgard, who were leading this morning, got hit with a few tough shifts and finished 27th today, moving them back to fifth. It is a difficult fleet.

Forecast for tonight is the mid week Bacardi rum and Dinner party. Tomorrow we should have 10-15 from the South. I sure hope that the shifts go away. - George Szabo


Photo by Alex Gort
The father and son-in-law tandem of John Dane (right, behind) and crew Austin Sperry of Gulfport, Mississippi, head toward the leeward mark with a commanding 10-boat-lenthe advantage over the rest of the fleet on day four of sailing at the 2006 Bacardi Cup Regatta on the waters of Biscayne Bay. With today's victory, they regain the overall lead going into the final two races of the regatta.

Day One - Day Two - Day Three - Day Four - Day Five - Day Six

Star Bacardi Cup: Day Three

2005 Star North American champ and Quantum Sails rep George Szabo has filed the following report today from the Bacardi Cup in Miami, FL:

(Tuesday, March 7) Once again, perfect Miami weather. We got to the club early as usual, put the boat in the water early, and sat down for breakfast. As breakfast progressed and we talked to the coach about mast trim and sail trim, we found out that in the mix of mast and sail shots, our coach had found time to take 30 pictures of dolphins!

I didn’t realize there were so many dolphins in the bay here. Now I can understand one or two photos, but he swears that they were surrounding him, and swimming all around. Send over the wildlife. I hope he doesn’t go home tonight and use dartfish – like the overlay of the skiers in the Olympics - to figure out which one was swimming faster. As we discussed the topic, we heard of a turtle sighting on the water yesterday as well, but we don’t have any turtle pictures as of yet.

The sail out was in 15-knot breeze coming off the shore, and some shifts to go with it. All was well for the first hour. We had a few good line-ups with our tuning partner, and the speed looked good. It took three attempts at starting to get the sailors off the line. The RC did a great job with the line considering the long line and shifty conditions. Many boats were caught over early, at least 10 from the last I heard.

Unfortunately for us, we were playing the shifts on the left hand side, sailing faster than yesterday, and then disaster struck. Tacking from starboard to port, and onto a 20 degree shift, we heard a big BANG from our rig. Not a good sound. We looked up, and saw that intermediate shrouds swinging in the wind. Not a good sight. Our race was over, so we dropped the sails, and got ready for a tow from a RC support boat.

It wasn’t too long before Craig Prandini came by with a RIB, only to quickly pass us off to a bigger RC crash boat with another of our friends in tow. Strangely, it was a sailor that we were unable to separate ourselves from tack to tack yesterday, and we had made the agreement to give each a bit more space today – so much for that one. As the tow went on, we picked up another friend from Holland who had broken a forestay. We watched the fleet take off on two fantastic looking reaches, and head back for a beat before they went out of sight.

Tough day, but at least we had some friends on the long tow in. Eventually, back on land, the rig was pulled, and the boat put back on the trailer. We spent our extra time in the warm pool waiting for the rest of the fleet to get back in. Eventually, we got back to sorting out a fix for the boat while many of the fleet went out to South Beach for the evening, which we hope will open up the early morning parking spaces again. - George Szabo

Click here for results.

Photos by Alex Gort

Two-time Olympian Andy Beadsworth and crew David Carr of Great Britain charge toward the finish line well ahead of the rest of the fleet on day three of sailing at the 79th Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta.

Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and Seven-time Bacardi Cup Champion Mark Reynolds, sailing with Swedish crew Christian Finnsgard, finished in 12th place on day three of sailing at the 79th Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta. Reynolds, who is currently tied with legendary Star sailor Ding Schoonmaker for most Bacardi Cup victories, vies for his eighth "Trofeo Bacardi" this year. He and Finnsgard climb to first in the overall standings after three of six scheduled races.

Day One - Day Two - Day Three - Day Four - Day Five - Day Six

Star Bacardi Cup: Day Two

2005 Star North American champ and Quantum Sails rep George Szabo files this report from the Bacardi Cup in Miami, FL:

(Monday, March 6) Things were starting well today. We got to the club early, found a good parking spot (parking is at a premium with 93 boats on the line), and the weather was clear, sunny, and warm. With little or no breeze as we put the boat in the water, it looked like a postponement was going to be in the works. Fortunately, the breeze began to fill, and there was an 8-knot oscillating breeze at start time. The fleet was a little jumpy again, but we all got off the line on the second attempt - with the Black Flag up. About six boats were recorded BFD - including Horten/Nichols who would have had a fantastic result otherwise.

I have not been through the rulebook with a fine toothcomb yet, but a little controversy began at the weather mark. While rounding the first mark, the RC had an "L" flag up - the yellow/black Come Within Hail flag - and a notice board with six bow numbers that were determined over early. Normally with a Black Flag start, and a notice at the weather mark, you are required to sail off the course and retire from the race. If you continue sailing, you are thrown from the race, AND you are unable to drop the score from your results.

One of the teams that were BFD and listed on the Black Flag board continued to sail and finished the race. Now for the controversy - they went into the room, and claimed that they were not notified correctly. The decision made by the jury, was that the team was not notified correctly, and they are allowed to drop the score from their results. It might be correct, but I have to look into that one later.

(Curmudgeon's Comment: George sent a note Tuesday morning to say that the fine tooth combs have been busy running through the rules, and found out that the decisions regarding the Black flag decision last night were sorted out correctly.)

Our boat speed was a little frustrating today, and we are now certain that the tuning numbers from the previous boat are not working on this boat (which we are sailing for the first time). After the start, we were near the eventual race leaders, but did not have the same speed. There was the choice of pointing and not going fast, or going fast and not pointing. On the second beat, nothing was working. I tried hiking (it was at least 12 knots) and that seemed better, but it still was not quite right.

The elusive fix had to be found, and after the race finished at 2:30pm, we turned back upwind for some tuning and tweaking with a coach in tow. The wind came up to a beautiful 12-15 knots. Looking like we were in detention, all the good students were allowed to sail home and back to the pool, and we had to stay out and do our homework. After moving the rake, changing both shrouds, and even experimenting with a different mast step position, we think we have solved a problem or two. The boat is definitely feeling better, and tracking better in the puffs.

Back at the dock, the new hot ticket is the $20 massage for 30 minutes from the U of M Grad Students. 15-17 knots from the NW forecasted for tomorrow (Tuesday). That should be shifty, and the left side should be favored. - George Szabo

Click here for results.

Day One - Day Two - Day Three - Day Four - Day Five - Day Six

Star Bacardi Cup: Day One

2005 Star North American champ and Quantum Sails rep George Szabo will be filing reports on Scuttleblog this week from the Bacardi Cup in Miami, FL

(Sunday, March 5) 93 Star boats made it to the water for Day One of the Bacardi Cup. Warm water and warm air made the sailing comfortable. Perfect conditions really, except for the very shifty winds.

On the way to the racecourse, coaching wisdom said to protect the left, but stay away from the clouds. That sounded easy enough, but was a bit difficult in practice. While racing, we found plenty of clouds, and the left breeze filling in strong from the causeway, but as it died and shifted right 20 degrees, many skippers were mistakenly led to believe that it was the end of the left, and the right was coming in with the seabreeeze. Rick Peters (crewing for Rick Merriman) said he was convinced that the seabreeze was going to fill and gave it a try, but lost distance on the leaders.

Flying in on the red eye from California, Mark Reynolds did a good job protecting the left to win the race. His housing host, Carmen Diaz, wants to make sure that he doesn't sleep tonight so that he can repeat the same performance on Monday. Mark's crew, Christian Finnsgard, Star World champion crew from Sweden, was very happy with the win, but is fighting a losing battle on his sunburn. Christian just came from 30 inches of snow back home, and missed a few spots with the sunscreen. Ouch.

My crew, Eric Monroe, and I are sailing a new boat to us this week, having just sold 7995. Changing boats after sailing your previous boat for 4 years makes it a bit more difficult to find the gears. We also spent too much time on the right side of the course, and found our way to the middle of the pack, having then to play catch up for the remainder of the day. Fortunately, on the last beat, we finally caught up with the boat that we just sold!

6-10 knots and shifting right forecast for Monday. - George Szabo

Day One - Day Two - Day Three - Day Four - Day Five - Day Six

Photo credits: Jan Walker (above) and Alex Gort (below)

Race One winners Mark Reynolds and Christian Finnsgard

Crossing the line?

This week in Issue 2041, there was a story titled X-RATED which claimed to report on US Senator Ted Kennedy being mistakenly cited by police for being topless in public while sailing. The story was in jest, and was found in the ChronWatch.com, which call itself "a media watchdog and conservative news site, with a focus on the San Francisco Chronicle."

We get a lot of stuff sent to us, we thought the bit was entertaining and harmless, so we included it in the newsletter in an effort to provide some variety. A lot of readers thought it was a hoot, but we learned that others did not. It certainly is never our desire to either offend anyone, nor to use Scuttlebutt as a means to promote a political agenda (whatever that is).

We know that not everything in Scuttlebutt is of interest to all our readers, but our goal each day is that there is a nugget or two for each reader. This story caused a few to unsubscribe, and one in particular has been on a bit of a tear. Here are some of his recent comments:

"The gratuitous and tasteless attack on Senator Kennedy was enough for me to request immediate deletion from your mailing list. I will find a way to contact every one of your sponsors."

And in another letter:

"I will not support the on-line sailing magazine known as “scuttlebutt’ since it has decided to become the house organ for the right wing yahoos who will politicize our sport with the venom that we so assiduously try to avoid. I am not a crusader and have never met or voted for Sen Kennedy. I am an avid sailor who is sick of the relentless intrusion by these mindless ideologues into areas of my life that I consider immune from their bile. "

It all seems a bit harsh to us, as it was not our intent to do any of the things this person is claiming. If we did do them, it was unintentional, and certainly not part of any master strategy (as if we had one).

For each and every person that was offended, we apologize. - Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt

Who owns our address?

Sometimes I wonder about the stuff that comes in the mail to Scuttlebutt World Headquarters. Today we received a very nice marketing mailer on Bass Hunter Boats latest product, their new "EX" design watercraft (see photo below).

While the EX looks like a pretty slick ride for fishing, it's not what we do here. Sooooo, someone out there owns our mailing address, along with who knows how many others, and is selling this "fools gold" to Bass Hunter Boats. Buyer beware.