Hotel for Wife/Husband Oct. 2010

Wanted to let anyone interested know about this hotel deal. I just booked at the Fairfield Inn in Mooresville, NC for $55 per night on Priceline.com. I used the "name your price" option which is when you bid on a room at your price. I selected the Mooresville area (closest to club) then selected 2.5 stars and bid $40. I did not get the $40 deal but got a message that if I bid $55 something would happen, I don't remember exactly what the message was. I guess the something was an acceptance.

We have stayed at this hotel before and it was nice.

Here is a link if you want to bid Priceline This link takes you straight to the bid form, just complete the city, dates, etc. Note; If your bid is accepted it is non-refundable.

Happy days.

PS Fleet racing in Tampa this Saturday at 3 pm then BBQ.

Florida District Championship Schedule 2010-11

Summer is a slow time for sailing in Florida but the sailing season that begins this fall is not too far away. The district website has been updated for the upcoming season but I wanted to post it here as well.

Here goes;

October 2-3, Miami - Here is the NOR
November 13-14, Sarasota
December 4-5, Jacksonville
January 22-23, 2011 Port Charlotte
February 19-20, Lake Eustis
March 5-6, Tampa (also Midwinter warm-up)

Each skippers three best regattas will be used to calculate the season scores so it will be easier than ever to compete. Hope to see you all out on the water soon!

Tampa Fleet Race - August 2010

Shortly after the first start

Our light summer schedule continued Saturday August 14, which was also a DIYC work day. It was our turn to do RC, Kim and I brought out friend Wayne who is thinking about getting a trailerable sailboat. Hmmm, let’s see, what kind of boat comes to mind? Anyway, Leslie and Paul had their powerboat in the water already from the club workday so they offered to be mark boat. Cool, this was going to be like the real thing.

Fleet Captain Andy wisely bumped our starting time back to 3 pm during the summer months to give the sea-breeze some time to find the club. That worked perfectly, early on what breeze there was came mostly from the south but around 2pm it went west and began to fill. By race time it was pretty settled in from 300 degrees and maybe about 6 knots. Perfect.

We had a light turn out of racers since a few “regulars” couldn’t make it and two more were on powerboats. Summer racing in Tampa can be a little iffy, and always HOT so this is understandable. Todays victims; 38-Andy and Drew, 2262-Matt and Dawn, 504- Al and Andy, 3901-Keith and Andreas, 4925-Dave and Ed.


Andy and Al fighting it out

Race 1 - We thought the boat end was a little too favored even after letting out all of our fairly short anchor line. Not wanting to delay we started anyway and to our surprise the whole fleet was late and in the middle of the line. Cool. The left side looked better than the right and it played out that way, Dave and Ed, 4925 scored the first bullet.
>
A familiar site, Dave in the lead

Race 2 – The start was much better, 504, 38 and 2262 were a little OCS but everyone was even including 4925 at the leeward end so we let them go. Dave and Ed sailed another good race and another bullet.

Al about to cross the finish line

Race 3 – We are amazed the breeze is still at 300 and is up to 10 or 11, nice! 38 was OCS and promptly re-started, half way through the race they were within striking distance of Al, who led and Dave who was hot on Al’s heels. When Al’s chute refused to come down at the leeward mark Dave had the lead and another bullet.>

Get that ________chute down!



Now look what you did

Race 4 – Wind still 300! I guess boredom on the mark boat was getting too much for Paul who hopped aboard 3901 for this last race. This was really a cool thing though since Keith and Andreas are new to Scotting and Paul has mucho racing experience. Andy and Drew headed in to the club so race 4 had 4 boats. A clean start and Al grabbed the lead early like he did in race 3. Dave’s string of bullets was on the line, with no spinnaker snafus Al was able to hold him off and win the race.

Here are the results;
Boat # Race 1 Race2 Race3 Race4 Total
4925, 1 1 1 2= 5
504, 3 3 2 1= 9
38, 2 2 3 6= 13
2262, 4 4 4 3= 15
3901, 5 5 5 4= 19


Matt and Dawn charging up wind


Though the forecast was for a high of 95 it never seemed that hot to us, maybe the shade of the bimini had something to do with it. So for a change we have an RC boat and a mark boat to deal with all the shifts you always get at DI and…. You guessed it we never changed the course once. Go figure. Next fleet race is September 11, don’t miss it.

I said Starboard God --------!

Florida District Championship Schedule & other bits

Seems like a while since I have logged in here but it is summer and sailing has taken a backseat to air conditioning. This fall things will get going again which brings me to the upcoming schedule. The 2010-11 Fl District Championship begins October 2 and 3, 2010 at the Coconut Grove YC in Miami. To check out the entire schedule go to the District website here. Everyone is welcome so join us!

The FSSA Midwinter Championship will be in Sarasota next March. John and Susan Domagala have put together a nice little event website, check it out. Make plans early to attend you won't be disapointed, the venue is awesome.

The Davis Island YC will host a warm-up for the midwinters, the warm-up will be March 5 and 6 2011 and will also be the last race in the FL District Championship.

The newest fleet in the Fl District is on a roll, the most recent addition is FS38 formerly belonging to Andy Hayward of Tampa. The Port Charlotte fleet is up to 7 (I think) boats and looking for more. Here is a link to a new website for the fleet and also one for the club. Thanks to Martin Holland for creating the site.

My old boat FS812 has moved south to Miami but you should be seeing it soon as Larry Ames plans to race.

P.S. Fleet racing this Saturday at DIYC 3:00 pm with Kim and I as RC! Oh No!!