Flying Scot Florida Blog

This blog has reached a little milestone that I never expected when I started it. This post is the 100th since it began in 2007. I haven't been counting but the administrators editing menu shows all the previous posts, which are numbered.

Time for a new look… for a while now I have thought that a new look was needed and this seemed a good time to update it. There are several templates available so I went ahead and changed to something new and played around with the colors a little bit. Any better?

There were two main reasons I started this thing; first was I thought the Florida District had a really good thing going but unless you were actively involved chances are you wouldn't know anything about it. Charlie Fowler served as the District Governor for a long time and worked really hard to build fleets and the District. It seemed to me that was the hard part, the easy part should be to get the word out, so here we are.

Here is Charlie leading the way on the water

The second reason for starting this was I wanted to learn about blogging and the best way to do that was to jump in and start one. I chose to start a "blogger" blog (also known as "blogspot") since it is FREE and it is geared towards a beginner who knows little or nothing about them. I certainly fit into that group.

Will anyone ever read it? I remember thinking that back when this was new. It turns out I didn't need to worry about that too much. At first readership was low but as time passed it steadily grew. Currently, the average is about 18 to 20 visitors a day and the all time high is 98 visitors. That isn't bad exposure from a site that is free to operate and own.

If your fleet or club doesn't have a website and you think it could work for you, it is easy to start, go to Blogger to see how to start one of your own. Let me know if you have questions about it.

I mentioned that the Florida District has a good thing going and the figures below tell the story. Even though the economy has been down and gas prices have been up our participation remains good:

2004-05 season = 17 boats average
2005-06 season = 19.8 boats
2006-07 season = 18.6 boats
2007-08 saeson = 21.5 boats
2008-09 season = 21.2 boats

To put these numbers in another perspective, I am contacted routinely by other clubs to see if the Flying Scots would like to participate in their regattas. We have all heard about declining attendance at regattas all around the country, this puts financial pressure on clubs hosting regattas. We will continue the practice of having our District regattas hosted by our fleets/clubs and strive to keep the costs low.

A new fleet in the making. The Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club has several members who are looking to buy Flying Scots, one already has bought one. In the past the club has not had an active racing program but they are now working toward getting an Opti fleet going for kids and a Scot fleet for adults. The prospects appear good and there are at least 10 existing Scots in that general area. The club will be hosting a regatta in Feb. 2010, I plan to attend and hope some other Scot owners will support the cause as well.

That’s it for now but I want to thank Andy Hayward, George Golder and Chuck Tanner for their regatta reports which appear frequently on this blog.

Lake Eustis Flying Scot Racing

We had an excellent turnout this weekend, with nine Scots racing on Saturday and seven on Sunday. The conditions were about the same both days, with variable winds generally from south-south east to southwest – challenging but enjoyable racing all weekend.

I will add that Don Browning is scary fast even sailing solo, and that I wish Ray had never sold Francois his new sails! Francois is sailing entirely too well.

On Saturday, in the first race, it was Jack Bazner and Joe Lobato finishing first on 3387, Ray Laguna and Monty Stamper second on 5770 and Don Browning, solo, in third on 5690. In the second race, Don finished first on 5690, Todd Hunter and I were second on 5810 and Francois Simon with Dean Grimes finished third on 3362.

In the first race on Sunday, it was Don (again solo) in first on 5690, Francois and Dean second on 3362 and Ray and Monty third on 5770. In the second race, Don was again first (see what I’m saying?) on 5690, Randy Boekema and Ron Baerwitz second on 5697 and Ray and Monty third on 5770.

This weekend was the last weekend of our Collene series. I’ll have the series and club championship results out to everyone soon.

We finished our Fleet 150 Collene Series last weekend, and with it our Club Championship racing for the season.

Collene Series. The Collene Saturday Series was won by Jack Bazner on 3387, always sailing with Joe Lobato, followed by Chris Erichsen on 5339 in second place and Ray Laguna on 5770 in third place. The Collene Sunday Series saw Francois Simon snag his first series win of the year on 3362, with Chris Erichsen again runner up on 5339 and Ray Laguna again in third on 5770.

Club Championship. The big prize – our 2008-2009 Club Championship – goes to Ray Laguna on 5770.

Ray won the championship in a walk, with a total score of 14 compared to 31 for the second place finisher. Ray’s win demonstrates the power of sailing consistently, and of sailing consistently well. He never finished lower than third place in any series, and won outright four of the eight series. Congratulations Ray!

Second place somehow ended up in my hands on 5810, with at total score of 31. Third place was tight, with both Francois Simon (3362) and Chris Erichsen (5339) having 40 total points. However, Francois’s best series finish was a first while Chris’s best was a second, so Francois finished third via the tie-breaker.

The complete weekend results are below and will be posted on the Fleet 150 website.

The next racing at Eustis is next weekend – Saturday and Sunday – when we conclude the season with our Memorial Day series. Also, after racing on Saturday we will take a minute to present trophies for the Collene and Norton series, as well as the club championship. Hope to see everyone there.

Submitted by George Golder

Flying Scot Centerboard Repair, part 3

We left off a while back (a long while) in part 2 with the fiberglass and epoxy work to return the board to its original shape. Here is a link to Centerboard Repair part 1. Epoxy was used to provide maximum strength since the boards are subject to side loads and an occasional grounding.

After we peeled the wax paper we are ready to sand and fill to get back to a smooth surface. Clicking on the photos will enlarge them.


The leading edge is roughly back to the designed shape and the black dots are where the edges of the lead are located.


The photos above and below were taken after some sanding and filling. The filler is the blueish-green stuff, also know as 3m Marine filler. Pretty good two part filler than sets up quickly and can be sanded in about 30 - 40 minutes.



Sometime a little before this point I weighed the board again and of course it was too light, about 3 lbs as I recall. So the remedy was to cast some lead into the shape similar to a hockey puck which was epoxied into a hole in the board. Too bad I forgot to take photos of that part of the job but that is true with many of my projects. Anyway more glassing, sanding and fairing and it was ready for paint. I think the final weight was 102 or 103 lbs, within the legal range.

The last step was to paint it, for this we used 4 coats (sprayed) of VC performance epoxy. An hour or so of wet sanding and the job is done.

The last two photos are of the finished product taken from a bad angle with bad light, too far away, etc.




The stuff at the bottom is a towel attached with masking tape to preserve the delicate lower edge. With the weight of the board it doesn't take too much of an "oops" to damage the lower edge. The End.

Florida's own Jeff Penfield takes on North Carolina

The annual Great 48 regatta was held this past weekend at the Lake Norman YC. They had a nice group of 38 Scots in town and the wind blew enough to get 4 races in. Jeff is a veteran of this event since it is a nice diversion from the ride up North, to the summer home. Jeff has been blazing fast lately and with Chuck Tanner crewing they are a formidable foe. Here is Chuck's take;

"Brother Jeff Penfield this weekend traveled to the birthplace of Nascar and went Nitrous Oxide on the typical large field at Lake Norman Yacht Club. He was so freakin' quick the race committee requested permission to look under the hood. Only Mad Sail's Ryan Malmgren and crew Carrie Carpenter were able to claw back ahead, and that's just because Carrie has sailed that fluky place with father Harry all her life! Jeff's been doing this stuff all year. We won't see him again 'til November, so it's time to win some local races while we can."

Unfortunately for Jeff (and Chuck) a pre-start collision Sunday left Damfino holed so some fiberglass repairs are in the works. They were able to finish the regatta, second only to Ryan and Carrie.

Way to go Jeff and Chuck!

May Racing in Lake Eustis

We had a nice turnout this past weekend at Lake Eustis, with six Flying Scots racing on both Saturday and Sunday.

The Saturday fleet included Dave and Jay Asaibene on 5179, Jack Bazner and Joe Lobato on 3387, Francois Simon sailing alone on 3362, Chris Erichsen, also alone (having been far too kind when his crew wanted to spend the weekend with family…) on 5339, Ray Laguna with Monte Stamper on 5770, and Greg Murphy (returning to the Scot after a season on MCs) along with Pat Murphy and me on 5810.

On Sunday, Dave and Jay were back on 5179, as were Ray and Monte on 5770. In addition, Chuck Smith and Tony Tussing joined us aboard 5125, Joe Lobato sailed with Francois on 3362, Greg Murphy sailed with Chris on 5339, and Rich and Tina O’Brien were with me on 5810.

Saturday’s conditions were frustrating, with light, patchy, shifty winds. But, as frustrating as it was for those of us sailing, I have to imagine it was worse for the committee boat. The course was set initially square to the wind, then, in spite of Dave and Joan Williams’ best work on the RC, each race ended up with tricky reaching legs on our supposedly windward/leeward courses. All of that put a premium on spotting the breeze and sailing in it – on the right tack, of course. In Saturday’s first race, Greg, Pat and I (with Greg driving) did the best job of sailing in favorable winds (picture finger quotes around the word “winds”) and finished first on 5810. We were followed by Ray and Monte on 5770, then Chris (solo) on 5339. In the second race, Dave and Jay on 5179 saw the breeze best and crossed first, with Jack and Joe on 3387 in second and Chris following in third. (I would provide more details, but Greg, Pat and I – with me driving this time (note the variable from the first race) – were so far behind that I have no idea what was going on at the front of the fleet.)

The wind on Sunday remained shifty but was stronger than Saturday, giving us challenging conditions again for the Race Committee and fleet alike. In the first race, Francois and Joe stormed to victory on 3362, with Chris and Greg second on 5339 and Ray and Monte third aboard 5770. In the second race, Ray and Monte on 5770 came from behind to win by a dozen boat lengths after trailing for two of the two-and-a-half laps. They were followed by Francois and Joe on 3362, who battled to hold on to second on the final half leg upwind, with Rich, Tina and me on 5810 in third, just failing to catch them (if only there were a couple hundred more yards!). All in all, challenging conditions but great racing from everyone, and great work from the Race Committee.

Complete results will be posted on our Fleet 150 website (http://fs.tmcentral.net/).

As always, you should visit the Florida District Blog to keep up to date on Flying Scot news in Florida. http://www.sailrace.blogspot.com/.

Our next racing will be in two weeks, over the weekend of May 16 and 17. That weekend will conclude our Collene series. Then, we’ll have our Memorial Day Series on Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and 24. After that, no more club racing until Labor Day, so don’t miss the last couple of weekends!

See you all in two weeks.

George