Saturday saw 11 Scots and a Windmill out for our July Practice. Paul Silvernail
boldly predicted perfect sailing conditions for this event, how does he always get it right? amazing!
We had 8-12 from the West, bright sky, smoking hot, just like Paul said.
What Paul didn't know was that we were sailing Windward leewards with a leeward GATE, ok, he's not perfect! Big thanks to Amy and Jeff Linton for setting up and running the races as well as daycare for the Haywards!
Courses were short, and that kept the fleet packed and verbal. This cozy configuration put a premium on the turns and the ups and downs, whew!
Race winners swaped onto the RC boat, which was neat.
Results are with Amy....
It was good to see Henery Pico over from Merrit Island, we hope he becomes a regular attendee!
Some of the teams bolted off to StPete to catch the Rays game (which they won! Yea!!) Credit to the Ruarks for bringing the Evan good luck charm!!
August 14 is the next date up on the schedule, Please confirm this date and let me know if you will be able to attend as we seem to have a fair number of conflicts on this date, we couls make an adjustment...
Matt and Dawn are August RC thanks!!
Andy
PS Ask Al about the pin setting technique.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
NAC Saturday and Photos
BWYC
The Rental House
Up early to our morning symphony outside, Ryan and Carrie get an early start. Safe driving, folks! Taking the long tack first. We got the house cleaned up, puppies and stuff loaded in the van, and we head to BWYC to finish with the boat. Another beautiful thing about a Scot, the easy put away and pack up!
We hit the road just shy of 10:00. Interesting to see the clean up on the beach so close to our sailing area. Up to the highway, and around 10:30 we notice a headwind makes our mileage go to crap. 11:00 we cross the state line into Alabama. Like Susan and John, we encounter traffic outside the Mobile tunnel. Still no sign of Perna or God. That is one of the funniest stories, though.
We finished a book last week, just as we pulled into the parking lot at the beginning of our sailing adventure. It’s time to start another! More Janet E, I think we need some fun, lighthearted adventure.
12:05 pm, Florida! Still Central time.
8:05 pm Eastern time. Driving through Pasco County, marveling at all the BBQ places we have passed along the way. Mucho opportunity to purchase fireworks, as well. As a fitting end to the trip, those of you who joined us at BWYC will agree, we’ve been driving through rain for the past hour. A little batch of blue up ahead, though, hope it’s right over our house. Hope it stops by the time we get home, Missy and Lexi deserve a good walk, without rain. They’ve been asleep pretty much the whole trip, good girls. Janet’s 15th book about bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is ready for the shelf. Another piece of literary cotton candy, but it made the trip go by more quickly…Are we there yet?
Congrats to Hans and Rikki on their new bundle of joy! Hope everyone is healthy and able to go home soon. Jeppe looks beautiful!
NAC Friday
July 2, 2010
IN WHICH the regatta is a regatta after all.
In order for the Flying Scot North American Championships to be complete, three races had to be scored. As earlier reported, the weather has been unsettled to the point of malice – lots of thunderstorm squalls and then absolute millpond calms, and very little of the gorgeous, hot, sea-breezy conditions that we were expecting. (I was told there would be cake as well, but that’s another story altogether.)
Between the weather and bad luck, we started this morning (at 9:30!) with but one race on the scoreboard. Things were a bit tense. Still, the RC prevailed and sent the fleet out to race in some lightish conditions. We got in a race before the breeze shut down, which gave us a fourth. Richard Wake and Jennifer Judkins from Texas took the race categorically, though Robert Cummings and Nina Boswell (Hey Texas!) had great speed.
Then came the wait and inevitable countdown. No races to start after 3 pm, so as we most of us drifted around the race committee in the melt-your-macademia-nuts-off haze, we started counting. Two hours and twenty minutes until the cutoff. Two hours and fourteen minutes until the cutoff. One hour and fifty-five minutes.
At around one hour and forty minutes to go, there was rumor of wind, and Clinton put up a come within hail flag. This drew back those boats that had slid closer to the harbor (some even at the dock! Gasp! Some probably drinking at the bar! Not us, since we packed a big cooler) but alas, the rumor proved flat for another hour or so.
Finally this afternoon, with a half-hour or so to go, we got the kind of conditions we had been hoping for: hot like an oven, yes, but with a lovely sea-breeze filling in to around 7 knots. Al Terhune took an early lead, and though there was a big black cloud threatening on the other side of the bay, both fleets finished and got to shore without incident.
The Flying Scot class has a LOT of silver to award, and some of the notables from Florida: Kimmie and Dave won race 2 in the Challenger division trotting away from the rest of the fleet. Ray Laguna was in the money, finishing 10th in the Challengers. Both got cool bags. I’ve listed some of the results below. Maybe Dave and his magical slow computer will put up the rest…Must pack up and get ready to hit the road in the a.m. Maybe late in the a.m. Maybe after some lunch...
Partial Results
1 Al Terhune/Katie Terhune 5,5,1 11 points
2. Chris Wientjes/Dave Bolyard 2,2,8 12 pts
3. Jeff/Amy 7,4,2 13 pts
4. Andrew Eagen/Shelby Friedrichs 4,9,5 18 pts
5. Zak Fanberg/Gary Taylor, 10,3,6 19 pts
6. John Dane/Schaffer Dane 1.6.13 20 pts
7. Richard Wade/Jennifer Judkins 9,1,10 20 pts
8. Max Albert/Steve Hunt/Avery Sollberger 3,14,11 28 pts
9 Dave Boylard Jr/Bradley Jarvis 6,12,12 30 pts
10. Larry Taggart/Carrie Berger 12,7,14 33 pts.
Challenger Fleet
1. Ben Williams/Deb Aronson 1,2,3, 6 points
Some more from Kim;
Bright and early, the roosters and howling dogs outside greet the day. Nature, it turns out, is very noisy at times. The chorus of frogs at night is quite different from the chirping of crickets at home. New dogs greet us on our street for more morning excitement.
As expected, rain starts as we get ready to leave the house.
The last day of “The NACs that almost weren’t” begins with a race that actually counts! And, bonus, we won! The RC tried to start the next race in a ridiculous amount of non-breeze, and wisely abandoned as some boats in the Championship fleet have not crossed the starting line after ~5min. Wow. We settled in for a long stretch of waiting, bobbing, drifting. RC has till 3:00 pm to start a race to complete this regatta.
Between 2 and 2:15, our boat is pointed toward the yacht club and a horn is sounded calling sailors to get ready to race. It seems futile to us, Sailflow has nothing good on the radar (what would we do without a Blackberry), the smokestacks remain in a straight-up position, and Clinton starts a sequence in questionable conditions, patchy ripples on the bay, and potential for a very poor race. Dave and I make our final decision to continue on to the club, as beating the rush to the hoist, washing the boat, hanging by the pool, and margaritas seem like the preferred activity.
At ~2:45, though, the prayers of many on the water are answered as the promised sea breeze fills in, and the best and last race of the regatta is completed. The Terhunes run away with the win in the Championship fleet, and Diane and Greg Kampf win this race in the Challenger fleet. Fun to watch! Then, as if on cue, thunderstorms that had been threatening, finally let loose to complete the day and complicate hoisting once again, dowsing competitors and sails, once again. With the guidance of the volunteers at the hoist, all goes without incident. At least we had been warm and dry earlier in the day.
Congrats to the winners!! The hurricane-themed regatta is in the books, much to the relief of the race committee, I’m sure.
Dinner-time! The troops organized again for dinner at Trapani’s. This family is amazing. The older brother seems to run the restaurant, then, there are twin younger brothers, one bought us margaritas at the club, the other is the Commodore at the club and was available on award night for pictures. The Patriarch maintains watch at the weather/radio station at the club and monitors the comings and goings. He is omnipresent and helps with communication between RC on the water and volunteers in the club. I’m sure he’s in charge of many other things as well. At Trapani’s, we had our table with Jeff, Amy, Ryan, Carrie, and the Fowlers. Lo and ahold, Harry and crew also join in for a good dinner before the 3 hr trip to their evening destination. We are surprised by the arrival of plates of appetizers that we didn’t order, and we are thankful to Bubby Eagan for his generosity. Yummy stuff. I don’t think there is anything this restaurant makes that we wouldn’t eat. This is really a great small town with wonderful folks.
IN WHICH the regatta is a regatta after all.
In order for the Flying Scot North American Championships to be complete, three races had to be scored. As earlier reported, the weather has been unsettled to the point of malice – lots of thunderstorm squalls and then absolute millpond calms, and very little of the gorgeous, hot, sea-breezy conditions that we were expecting. (I was told there would be cake as well, but that’s another story altogether.)
Between the weather and bad luck, we started this morning (at 9:30!) with but one race on the scoreboard. Things were a bit tense. Still, the RC prevailed and sent the fleet out to race in some lightish conditions. We got in a race before the breeze shut down, which gave us a fourth. Richard Wake and Jennifer Judkins from Texas took the race categorically, though Robert Cummings and Nina Boswell (Hey Texas!) had great speed.
Then came the wait and inevitable countdown. No races to start after 3 pm, so as we most of us drifted around the race committee in the melt-your-macademia-nuts-off haze, we started counting. Two hours and twenty minutes until the cutoff. Two hours and fourteen minutes until the cutoff. One hour and fifty-five minutes.
At around one hour and forty minutes to go, there was rumor of wind, and Clinton put up a come within hail flag. This drew back those boats that had slid closer to the harbor (some even at the dock! Gasp! Some probably drinking at the bar! Not us, since we packed a big cooler) but alas, the rumor proved flat for another hour or so.
Finally this afternoon, with a half-hour or so to go, we got the kind of conditions we had been hoping for: hot like an oven, yes, but with a lovely sea-breeze filling in to around 7 knots. Al Terhune took an early lead, and though there was a big black cloud threatening on the other side of the bay, both fleets finished and got to shore without incident.
The Flying Scot class has a LOT of silver to award, and some of the notables from Florida: Kimmie and Dave won race 2 in the Challenger division trotting away from the rest of the fleet. Ray Laguna was in the money, finishing 10th in the Challengers. Both got cool bags. I’ve listed some of the results below. Maybe Dave and his magical slow computer will put up the rest…Must pack up and get ready to hit the road in the a.m. Maybe late in the a.m. Maybe after some lunch...
Partial Results
1 Al Terhune/Katie Terhune 5,5,1 11 points
2. Chris Wientjes/Dave Bolyard 2,2,8 12 pts
3. Jeff/Amy 7,4,2 13 pts
4. Andrew Eagen/Shelby Friedrichs 4,9,5 18 pts
5. Zak Fanberg/Gary Taylor, 10,3,6 19 pts
6. John Dane/Schaffer Dane 1.6.13 20 pts
7. Richard Wade/Jennifer Judkins 9,1,10 20 pts
8. Max Albert/Steve Hunt/Avery Sollberger 3,14,11 28 pts
9 Dave Boylard Jr/Bradley Jarvis 6,12,12 30 pts
10. Larry Taggart/Carrie Berger 12,7,14 33 pts.
Challenger Fleet
1. Ben Williams/Deb Aronson 1,2,3, 6 points
Some more from Kim;
Bright and early, the roosters and howling dogs outside greet the day. Nature, it turns out, is very noisy at times. The chorus of frogs at night is quite different from the chirping of crickets at home. New dogs greet us on our street for more morning excitement.
As expected, rain starts as we get ready to leave the house.
The last day of “The NACs that almost weren’t” begins with a race that actually counts! And, bonus, we won! The RC tried to start the next race in a ridiculous amount of non-breeze, and wisely abandoned as some boats in the Championship fleet have not crossed the starting line after ~5min. Wow. We settled in for a long stretch of waiting, bobbing, drifting. RC has till 3:00 pm to start a race to complete this regatta.
Between 2 and 2:15, our boat is pointed toward the yacht club and a horn is sounded calling sailors to get ready to race. It seems futile to us, Sailflow has nothing good on the radar (what would we do without a Blackberry), the smokestacks remain in a straight-up position, and Clinton starts a sequence in questionable conditions, patchy ripples on the bay, and potential for a very poor race. Dave and I make our final decision to continue on to the club, as beating the rush to the hoist, washing the boat, hanging by the pool, and margaritas seem like the preferred activity.
At ~2:45, though, the prayers of many on the water are answered as the promised sea breeze fills in, and the best and last race of the regatta is completed. The Terhunes run away with the win in the Championship fleet, and Diane and Greg Kampf win this race in the Challenger fleet. Fun to watch! Then, as if on cue, thunderstorms that had been threatening, finally let loose to complete the day and complicate hoisting once again, dowsing competitors and sails, once again. With the guidance of the volunteers at the hoist, all goes without incident. At least we had been warm and dry earlier in the day.
Congrats to the winners!! The hurricane-themed regatta is in the books, much to the relief of the race committee, I’m sure.
Dinner-time! The troops organized again for dinner at Trapani’s. This family is amazing. The older brother seems to run the restaurant, then, there are twin younger brothers, one bought us margaritas at the club, the other is the Commodore at the club and was available on award night for pictures. The Patriarch maintains watch at the weather/radio station at the club and monitors the comings and goings. He is omnipresent and helps with communication between RC on the water and volunteers in the club. I’m sure he’s in charge of many other things as well. At Trapani’s, we had our table with Jeff, Amy, Ryan, Carrie, and the Fowlers. Lo and ahold, Harry and crew also join in for a good dinner before the 3 hr trip to their evening destination. We are surprised by the arrival of plates of appetizers that we didn’t order, and we are thankful to Bubby Eagan for his generosity. Yummy stuff. I don’t think there is anything this restaurant makes that we wouldn’t eat. This is really a great small town with wonderful folks.
NAC Thursday
Sorry this is late but....
We try again! Again, it rains when we try to walk the dogs, but we are not deterred. We head toward Spruce Street, in the direction of Ben and Deb’s house where Ryan hopes to some day sample some cappuccino from Ben’s cool machine.
As we travel, we are greeted by 3 dogs that run off their porch (not much in the way of fences or leashes in these parts) and follow us home. Carrie lifted Alfie for the walk back to the house, Missy and Lexi managed to make friends after the human energy calmed down. They seemed young, one brown hound-y looking male, one brindle pit-mix female with white socks on her front feet, and a small, black male with all-too-prominent ribs. We continued on our way home, with our escorts. As we leave to go racing, the female stayed on our steps.
After another long day of racing, Clinton keeps his gun close-by. One race, but Dave and I came in early after some frustration. John and Susan and Ryan and Carrie had some great races that, of course, didn’t count. The pressure is on for getting 2 races in on Friday. We feel like we’ve been sailing for a really long time. Clinton alerts us to wake up even earlier tomorrow; so much for the civilized 1:00 starts and sea breeze schedule.
On the drive home, Dave remembers the dogs from this am. We hope we don’t see the girl when we pull into the driveway. Sadly, she’s still there. We drove in search of the house she came from, and find some nice folks who seemed to actually be concerned about their missing dog. Her name is Bella.
One of the guys follows us back to our house where she remained (phew!) and he takes her home.
Drinks start at the house, dinner at the club was nice, met some new people, and the annual meeting is blessedly short (a little nip doesn’t hurt!).
Blog entries are a little behind schedule, as dinners tend to go a little late and the mornings get earlier and earlier. No WIFI at the house, but we are thankful for Direct TV and cell phone reception. We ARE in backwoods Mississippi (see Amy’s post for pronunciation cues). The house is great, though, excellent situation for regatta-ing. We “heart” our roomies!
Thanks to Amy, here goes;
IN WHICH the Nannering Nabobs of Negativity had their say.
Thursday of the Flying Scot NACs featuring Guest sailor Hurricane Alex brought us a score! The series began! The RC pushed the schedule early, and we started at 10:30, in lightish air (all to the good!), but alas, when the wind began to die, and the RC called a finish at the leeward gate, it was after only three legs.
The NOR requires four legs for any race. (Insert the sound of Mark Taylor quoting Homer Simpson, DOHH!)
So, a second first race, under cloudy skies as the weather settled. And settled. And, during the final leg, shifted and settled some more. The kind of race where the windward leg becomes the leeward leg, and people are flying ‘chutes on the same leg others are beating to weather. Frustrating. Hot like an oven. Zephyr conditions, with the current just starting to flow…John Dane was about two boat-lengths from the finish when the RC called the time limit of two hours. (Repeat sound of Homer Simpson, in chorus: DOOOHHH!) We were in about 4th or so, ten boat-lengths back, ten minutes or so from finishing.
Back to the harbor under tow, three o’clock in the afternoon of Thursday of the week of racing, and not a single point to post on the finish board. (Unless someone can convince the jury that the offset mark makes another leg of the course, but we think that is a long-decided point.) We were over early that one, had to round the end and restart, and had battled back to top ten – which is nice, but still.
Some muttering and moaning on shore, lots of people glad not to be on the Race Committee. Clinton the PRO told us not to take boats our of the water, but many people figured the breeze was dead for the dead – Marcus Eagan was out on a powerboat, towed us in, and then asked if it was a beer-drinkin night… Still, we kept the Mighty Majestic in the water, loosened the rig some, and then BANG! Next start at 4:3o.
This time with feeling. This time, rather, the first race of the series gets off with a nice little seabreeze ruffling the water. And the current starting up. I imagine the RC was ready to sacrifice small furry animals to whatever gods and goddesses rule the –– WAIT right there, HOLD ON! This is the honest-to-goodness South, and we had a Christian blessing at the opening of this event -- so ix-nay on the acrifice-say! Heathens! They had to be about as frustrated as any of the sailors, let’s say that.
Anyway, although the weather looked very dicey, the wind never really let up (the spinnaker collapsed only a couple of times) and Bang! John Dane won by a mile. Bolyard second. We were top ten. Finished racing at 5:45, sailed to the dock, shower by 6:10. Dinner tonight at the club –– we sure earned it.
It’s astonishing to have had this much racing with so little scoring to show. Ryan and Carrie had a fabulous lead in one race for a long while, putting the petal to the metal on Hogwarts Express 2 2/3. I watched (and was ready to witness!) as Harry Carpenter dealt with a windward mark barger so calmly -- so reasonably! -- it was inspiring. He said, in a calm conversational tone, "Do I have to protest you?" To which the other skipper, nameless, replied, "For what?" as he continued to steer at right angles to the offset leg, on port, with a line of starboard tackers beginning to stack up rub-rail to rub-rail.
I imagine there are a thousand stories to catch tonight, but this is pretty much my entire brain contents for now.
We try again! Again, it rains when we try to walk the dogs, but we are not deterred. We head toward Spruce Street, in the direction of Ben and Deb’s house where Ryan hopes to some day sample some cappuccino from Ben’s cool machine.
As we travel, we are greeted by 3 dogs that run off their porch (not much in the way of fences or leashes in these parts) and follow us home. Carrie lifted Alfie for the walk back to the house, Missy and Lexi managed to make friends after the human energy calmed down. They seemed young, one brown hound-y looking male, one brindle pit-mix female with white socks on her front feet, and a small, black male with all-too-prominent ribs. We continued on our way home, with our escorts. As we leave to go racing, the female stayed on our steps.
After another long day of racing, Clinton keeps his gun close-by. One race, but Dave and I came in early after some frustration. John and Susan and Ryan and Carrie had some great races that, of course, didn’t count. The pressure is on for getting 2 races in on Friday. We feel like we’ve been sailing for a really long time. Clinton alerts us to wake up even earlier tomorrow; so much for the civilized 1:00 starts and sea breeze schedule.
On the drive home, Dave remembers the dogs from this am. We hope we don’t see the girl when we pull into the driveway. Sadly, she’s still there. We drove in search of the house she came from, and find some nice folks who seemed to actually be concerned about their missing dog. Her name is Bella.
One of the guys follows us back to our house where she remained (phew!) and he takes her home.Drinks start at the house, dinner at the club was nice, met some new people, and the annual meeting is blessedly short (a little nip doesn’t hurt!).
Blog entries are a little behind schedule, as dinners tend to go a little late and the mornings get earlier and earlier. No WIFI at the house, but we are thankful for Direct TV and cell phone reception. We ARE in backwoods Mississippi (see Amy’s post for pronunciation cues). The house is great, though, excellent situation for regatta-ing. We “heart” our roomies!
Thanks to Amy, here goes;
IN WHICH the Nannering Nabobs of Negativity had their say.
Thursday of the Flying Scot NACs featuring Guest sailor Hurricane Alex brought us a score! The series began! The RC pushed the schedule early, and we started at 10:30, in lightish air (all to the good!), but alas, when the wind began to die, and the RC called a finish at the leeward gate, it was after only three legs.
The NOR requires four legs for any race. (Insert the sound of Mark Taylor quoting Homer Simpson, DOHH!)
So, a second first race, under cloudy skies as the weather settled. And settled. And, during the final leg, shifted and settled some more. The kind of race where the windward leg becomes the leeward leg, and people are flying ‘chutes on the same leg others are beating to weather. Frustrating. Hot like an oven. Zephyr conditions, with the current just starting to flow…John Dane was about two boat-lengths from the finish when the RC called the time limit of two hours. (Repeat sound of Homer Simpson, in chorus: DOOOHHH!) We were in about 4th or so, ten boat-lengths back, ten minutes or so from finishing.
Back to the harbor under tow, three o’clock in the afternoon of Thursday of the week of racing, and not a single point to post on the finish board. (Unless someone can convince the jury that the offset mark makes another leg of the course, but we think that is a long-decided point.) We were over early that one, had to round the end and restart, and had battled back to top ten – which is nice, but still.
Some muttering and moaning on shore, lots of people glad not to be on the Race Committee. Clinton the PRO told us not to take boats our of the water, but many people figured the breeze was dead for the dead – Marcus Eagan was out on a powerboat, towed us in, and then asked if it was a beer-drinkin night… Still, we kept the Mighty Majestic in the water, loosened the rig some, and then BANG! Next start at 4:3o.
This time with feeling. This time, rather, the first race of the series gets off with a nice little seabreeze ruffling the water. And the current starting up. I imagine the RC was ready to sacrifice small furry animals to whatever gods and goddesses rule the –– WAIT right there, HOLD ON! This is the honest-to-goodness South, and we had a Christian blessing at the opening of this event -- so ix-nay on the acrifice-say! Heathens! They had to be about as frustrated as any of the sailors, let’s say that.
Anyway, although the weather looked very dicey, the wind never really let up (the spinnaker collapsed only a couple of times) and Bang! John Dane won by a mile. Bolyard second. We were top ten. Finished racing at 5:45, sailed to the dock, shower by 6:10. Dinner tonight at the club –– we sure earned it.
It’s astonishing to have had this much racing with so little scoring to show. Ryan and Carrie had a fabulous lead in one race for a long while, putting the petal to the metal on Hogwarts Express 2 2/3. I watched (and was ready to witness!) as Harry Carpenter dealt with a windward mark barger so calmly -- so reasonably! -- it was inspiring. He said, in a calm conversational tone, "Do I have to protest you?" To which the other skipper, nameless, replied, "For what?" as he continued to steer at right angles to the offset leg, on port, with a line of starboard tackers beginning to stack up rub-rail to rub-rail.
I imagine there are a thousand stories to catch tonight, but this is pretty much my entire brain contents for now.
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