Tampa Fleet Racing Kick-off

It has been a long time since we fleet raced, and our group was pretty lean; 4 Scots and a 420. Early on it looked a little dicey for a lack of wind. It was looking like a little southerly was trying to fill in but it was really patchy. Around 2 pm it started to fill in so we all lauched and went out. Here is a shot of the wind;



During the second race it tailed off which is clearly visible on the graph. This was the lull before the pressure (seabreeze) filled in from the right. We sailed two more races in perfect conditions but by then, it was about 5 pm, so we called it a day.

It was a great day but sadly, the most excitement came from the haul-out on the hoist. Mark was in mid hoist with, gasp, a borrowed boat when the boat crashed to the ground. The forward half was over the ground/bulkhead while the aft half was still over water. The boat seemed to pause for a second or two after impact but the stern dropped into the water and with a sickening sound it scraped its way backwards until the bow fell back into the water. The mast was torqued pretty good...



This definently qualifies as one of those "sailing sucks" moments.





The boat bottom looks amazingly good, far better than the concrete bulkhead that has some chunks missing. Go figure!