Charlotte Harbor District Regatta

Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club
Florida State Series Race
Jan 22-23 2011
Kim's report (mostly)

Yay! Another State Series Race! We were looking forward to a return trip to Charlotte Harbor since the location is beautiful, the folks are nice, and the fleet has been growing, and developing their Scot sailing skills.

John Wake swung by as he was driving home from an (unexpected) trip to Key West for Race Week. We love to see the out-of-staters! He called up Terry from the minors to join him; Mrs. Wake is recovering from a surprise heart catheterization, or she may have made the trip.

Blast from the past, Jim Egan, also made an appearance crewing with Marshall Pardey, recently back from a trip overseas. The two were OCS in the first, crap! On Sunday, we think they cruised to a beautiful finish in the first race (we were watching from land).

Saturday started out with everyone talking about the weather and forecasted winds were pretty heavy, but one website had nothing over 15 kn all day, so we liked that one and went with it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even close. The field and parking lot were buzzing with activity for the 11:30 start, and all boats were in and off the dock except our old friend, FS 38, who grappled with a “mechanical problem” that we didn’t quite get the full story on.

Sadly, due to our own “mechanical problem,” we didn’t make it to the racecourse ourselves. A bit of swimming and a lot of mud on the mast later, we returned to the dock to get warm and dry. Turns out, a missing nut on the rudder head may have been the culprit. With it gone, there was not enough tension keeping the rudder in place (the “down” position), and, when I (Kim) tried to take the spinnaker down, a puff hit, and splash!

Warning: Don't try this at home

We were the first to swim, but not the last. Increasing winds (and some unofficial reports of wind readings after the fact were recorded in the 25-30 range) resulted in more carnage. Henry Bernstein and crew, Paul Cocatos and Chuck Tanner, Ron Plesch and Barry, and Martin Holland and Bob all took a refreshing dip in the harbor. Just about everyone looked like they had gone swimming upon return to the dock. I suspect there was a lot of wet gear hanging in bathrooms overnight. Fortunately, the club’s rebuild after Hurricane Charley included bathrooms with wonderful heat and lots of hot water!

Ron and Barry won the first race, we heard that going right got you to flatter water and that was helpful. Mark and Tina won the 2nd, and the Safety Boat folks had their hands full with the swimmers, so the plan was for 3 races on Sunday, especially with better weather in the forecast. If you look at the results, there was a bit of alphabet soup, so just finishing races without being OCS put you in pretty good standing for Sunday.

The reports of racing Saturday, were not only was the windspeed a challenge, but the shifts were tricky, as they are when they come off the land, taking many by surprise.
The schedule allowed for a bit of downtime at the hotel prior to return to the club for rehashment of the experiences of the day. The van has some regatta funk and the spinnaker smells fishy, VERY fishy. Martin had race trophies for the top three finishers in each race. Way to go, Martin!

Wake turned us on to a great hotel that he pricelined and we took advantage of it, and passed the word on to Mark. Nice having us all next to each other, and this particular Country Inn and Suites had the benefit of large bathrooms and W/D to hang wet stuff in, as well as dry Dave’s sneakers. Note to self, bring more than one pair of shoes to a regatta. Not a problem for the girl who had no less than 4 pr this weekend!


Distance kudos goes to Mark Fleckenstein who made it to Sarasota in November AND here from Lake Scheneyadelas (Dave, please look this up for me)(no, its close enough)in NY. Again, great to see the folks making the trip.

Sunday morning was chilly. Dave said, “Forget it,” or something like that…Chilly enough that we stayed in bed, but had thoughts of catching 1 or 2 races later in the am. Weather Channel said, 33 deg with an optimistic “Feels like 28 deg.” Nice. The sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day, so, at least the long distance travelers and the folks who were still drying out from the gray, windy day yesterday had some great racing today. We found quite a bit of mud on, and water in, the mast and thought it better that we do some safety inventory and try again another weekend, our luck hadn’t been too good this time. We watched a little from land as we packed up the boat.

Nice job by Chris Morgan with Monica crewing, no letters and they cruised to a nice win. Here are the results

Nice job also by all the volunteers at the club. This looks like it will be a great annual stop on the District schedule.

We’re thinking of coming back for the Charlotte Harbor Regatta in a couple of weeks for some practice and to shake off the bad juju from this weekend before the State Series in Eustis. Speaking of Eustis the dates are Feb 19 and 20. Registration is open here is a link to the club website. Look for the George Washigton Birthday Regatta.
The fleet will be doing a sunset celebration Saturday night, sunsets on the lake can be awesome. Here is a link to last year's Eustis Regatta Hope to see you in the big crowd.