Here is Kim and Missy in the back yard, we just adopted her in January 08 and she is way fun!
We hit the road Sat. at about 7:00 am to arrive at the club by 9 ish. On weekends when traffic is light we can get there in about an hour and 25 minutes which isn't bad at all. There was not much traffic and as we crossed the causeway leading to the barrier island we noticed not much wind either. Unlike St. Pete this is not usually much of a concern since the probability of a sea breeze is high. The cool atmosphere at the club also helps when a postponement is in order. We have visited this club many times but I continue to be amazed at the difference in the water between Sarasota and Tampa Bay. The agua green water color seems more like the carribean or bahamas. One of the links to the right is marinas.com if you want to look at some cool pictures click it and type in "Sarasota Sailing Squadron".
This regatta is a mult-class event and is the Class midwinters for the Albacore and Daysailer Classes so they start racing Friday while the rest of us start Saturday. E-Scows, SR 21's and Scots shared the second race circle. We did have a little postponement Sat. but it wasn't long before the sea breeze started to fill in so we headed out. Unfortunently for our group the RC boat was having engine trouble which delayed our start a bit and made course changes more time consuming. We did have two nice four leg races in by about 3:15 and the RC waved us back to the club, a surprise and disappointment to everyone.
The engine-less RC boat being towed to position
I have included the wind chart for the Sarasota airport which is a bit North and East of the club but seems to be pretty close to what we saw on the bay, or felt I should say.
Saturday's wind, pretty much ideal conditions
We arrived back at the club to see the customary beer wagon and soon the low country shrimp boil was ready. SWEET!! The food is always a high point for this event and several of us pigged out pretty good. It dosen't get much better than hanging out under the pavillion with a nice breeze, endless beer, shrimp and sailing buddies.
Kim and I have become good friends with Lainie and Marshall Pardey who have been generously housing us when we visit Sarasota. This is very cool and makes visiting our favorite club that much more fun.
Sunday morning we woke up to a nice easterly which held up long enough to get in three races before the 1:30 time limit. As is typical with an easterly there were big shifts along with velocity changes so it kept us all on our toes, or else...
Sunday's wind graph
In the end, we won the regatta followed by Harry and Karen Carpenter, and John and Susan Domagala. Ryan Malmgren sailed well Saturday but had to hit the road Sunday morning to get back to Wisconsin so he missed the action and likely a trophy, on Sunday. Winning was pretty good therapy for Kim (Karen) and I, after the embarrassing results from the FSSA Midwinters. The results for all classes are posted on the Sarasota Sailing Squadron website; http://www.sarasotasailingsquad.com/2008ODMResults.htm. Perhaps we picked up a few pointers from the Top Gun Classes and we sure as hell like the loose rig better. I may have a fairly new snug rig jib "For Sale" in the near future. I will try it out again but one lesson learned is never make a major change right before a regatta.
Sorry about the lack of pictures, I only took a couple and they were crap. I seem to have trouble remembering to take them, then when I try to while helming, Kim gets annoyed. What can you do!?
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