DIYC Couples Race - Flying Scot

What a great day to wrap up fleet racing for the year. Technically it wasn't a fleet race , instead we decided to promote the club's Couples Race to see if we could get some Scots out. The rules are simple, each boat must only have a male and female on board. Im guessing about 20 to 25 boats showed up, among them 6 Scots; Lintons, Taylors, Haywards, Taylor in-laws, Thinels and Silvernails.

The weather was awesome, one of those days when you can hardly believe its actually winter. when you see the weather map and most of the country is shaded blue its like "Oh yeah, it's December and cold as hell up there".

We enjoyed the moderate southwesterly, mostly sunny skies and the temps which were near 80. The Taylor's won the start and held off a late charge from the Linton's to win the race. Nice job! Racing finished at about 3 pm but we decided to put in some extra practice since we haven't been sailing as much as we'd like, or as well.

Update 12/31 - Here is Andys race report including results;

Six intrepid couples put their marriages to the test Saturday at DIYC. The six Scots was a super showing
for the fleet, and the Race Committee gave us our own start! THANK YOU! In order of finish: Mark and Shannon Taylor #4321, Jeff and Amy Linton #4925, Paul Silvernail and Leslie Fisher #5026, Andy and Lisa Hayward #38,Dave and Kim Thinel, #812, and Jim and Susan Taylor #2456.
The course was upwind to "G" mark, (almost a fetch) A long port pole run down to "B" mark, honor "A" to starboard, and a basin finish.
The weather was perfect, 8-12k of breeze, moderate wave action. Winning the start at the boat was Mark and Shannon, who use the right puffs are lifts to full advantage to a nice lead at the windward mark.
Jeff and Amy and the Hayward's started more toward the pin, and try as the might could not get over to the right to challenge Mark. At the mark it was #4321, #38, #5026, #812, #4925, #2456. The Hayward's, Silvernail/Fisher's and Thinels all jibe set and where bunched together, this allowed our Scot National Champs to bear away, set with speed, jibe and put on a amazing display of blazing downwind speed to pass all three boats and nearly nip the Taylors at the finish!
The Linton's Silvernail/Fisher's and Hayward's hit Rick's for some carbs, (liquid and pasta) where we managed to extract some downwind speed secrets from Mr & Mrs Linton! Look Out!!


We may soon have a new crew, check her out



Hope she can hike!

Happy New Year.

Tampa Flying Scot Fleet Sails in Lakeland

Yes, Lakeland, and Lake Hollingsworth to be exact. One of our fleets biggest supporters is Tom Taylor who frequently does RC and for the second time has organized a fleet race on Lake Hollingsworth. Tom also lives very close to the lake and is known to host a good party. Kim and I could not sail so here are a few words from Andy;

Our Lake Hollingsworth Invitational is in the books, and it was a wonderful event. A grand total of eight
Flying Scots put on a show for the Lakeland spectators that encircled the lake. Dave Bell and Susan Cintron #4156, Mike Douglas and Roy Burnett #4305, Andy and Lisa Hayward #38, Jay Kurtz and Crew #5140, Jeff and Amy Linton #4925, Paul Silvernail and Leslie Fisher #5026, Mark, Stu, and Drew Taylor #4321, and Bill and Michelle Watts #4921 were in attendance.
We filled up the parking area pretty good, but it wasn't bad at all, and the launching and recoveries went smoothly.
The sailing was typical small lake shifty, and then some, no auto tacks that I heard of. We (Fleet 168)
are really blessed to have Jeff and Amy around, because if you are feeling like you have peaked in one's
sailing ability, just go out and race the Linton's. Tom Taylor and Jammie Chorrushi ran six awesome races
of the perfect length and shifty lake square ness.
Will say that I personally was bitterly disappointed with the post race party at the Taylor's. I have been talking this up quite a bit these past months in regards to the quality and quantity of the food, sterling hospitality from the hosts, etc. It in fact was all that, only to personally be afflicted with the stomach virus from hell! I am so bummed. But I know that I am speaking for all involved, THANK YOU TAYLOR'S!


The view from the ramp looking across the lake

Results: R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Tot

Jeff and Amy Linton #4925 1 1 1 1 1 1 6
Mark, Stu and Drew #4321 5 2 3 2 3 4 19
Dave Bell and Susan Cintron #4156 2 3 2 6 6 2 21
Andy and Lisa Hayward #38 4 4 4 5 4 3 24
Paul Silvernail and Leslie Fisher #5026 3 6 5 3 5 6 28
Mike Douglas and Roy Burnet #4305 dns 5 6 4 2 5 31
Jay Kurtz and Crew #5140 dns 7 7 8 7 7 45
Bill and Michelle Watts #4921 dns 8 8 7 dns dns 50

Andy

If you are scratching your head wondering where you've heard of Lake Hollingsworth, you probably haven't or its not this one. This is a small lake, kind of in the middle of town, but with a Yacht Club!
Check out this map to see what I mean;
Ok the map thing doesn't work, not sure why but I will try to get it going.

A few words about Labels

A couple of you have asked about the labels that appear on this site so I thought I would provide a little explanation. If you haven’t noticed them they appear at the bottom of each post, depending on the length of the post you may need to scroll down the page to see them. Basically, they are meant as a search tool so a reader can click on a label and all posts that have that label will be shown on one page, newest first. This site (Blogger) is also owned by Google so labels also serve as search terms for doing a Google search. So you could be anywhere on the web and type in one of these labels in the Google search box and theoretically you would find this site in the search results.

Let’s look at the labels, the first one shown is “Fleet Racing” and it has a number 5 next to it. The 5 means that I have labeled 5 different posts on this site “Fleet Racing”, click it and all five will show on one page. Googling that same term ends up with 1.5 million results, the first of mine are on the second page of google results. The next most popular label on my blog is “Sailing Sucks – 4”. This is a better example for doing a google search because there are many less results. Why would an avid sailor say that sailing sucks? I bet most avid sailors, especially racers, can come up with their own answer to that!

The Sailing Sucks thing has been a personal joke with Kim and I. It actually started with hockey. We have season tickets for the Tampa Bay Lightning, the NHL team here in Tampa. A couple of years ago we went to a game that ended up being one of those really disappointing losses. We along with thousands of other people were filing out of the arena and the mood was really somber. It seemed that almost nobody was talking, you could have heard a pin drop even though there were people all around, in every direction. After a while Kim mutters the words “Hockey Sucks” and out comes the bottom lip and a classic pouty face. I reply “Yeah, We hate hockey” and we had a good laugh at it. It was one of those moments that just kind of sticks with you. Now, whenever a game goes poorly one of us is bound to say “Hockey Sucks.’

Needless to say this little joke has carried over to our sailing as well. So after a bad race, blowing a start, getting T-boned, etc the phrase “Sailing Sucks” is usually not far behind, usually followed by a chuckle or two. It seems we have been in a little “slump” this past year on Pig Pen so the words are spoken a little more often than we’d like.

Hopefully, I will soon be able to start a new label like; “Sailing is Awesome” or something similar….

Flying Scots at the Gator Bowl

Well, this site seems to be having issues. I had added a post earlier which seems to be lost in cyberspace so here is the important stuff;

Results and Fl District Standings are up on the District site http://www.fssa.com/fldist/news.htm

Gator bowl site has detailed results http://gatorbowl.home.comcast.net/~gatorbowl/OneDesign07.htm#scot

Maybe the lost post will become found and re-appear...