Flying Scot Midwinters 2013, Day 4

Well this is it, the last day. The forecast is for a nearly perfect day, sunny and about 10 knots from the NE. Of course the weather will improve as the regatta wraps up, it seems that has become some sort of Midwinter law. It goes something like this, schedule the regatta and wait for the inevitable cold front to roll through with big breeze. Done.

The starting time was moved to 10:30 to see if we could catch up a little on races. The breeze was there so we banged out the first race in 50 minutes or so. David Ames had a near horizon job with our old boat, probably the most decisive win of the regatta. Continuing the old boat theme Marshall Pardey won the second race as the sea breeze was trying to fill in. There was some delay in getting a third race going as we waited to see what the wind would do. The 2:00 pm limit was looming, the sea breeze just didn't have enough punch to break through and we called it a day. We did get 5 races for the regatta so all was not lost. Paul Abdullah and his crew Alex were solid in all conditions and won the regatta but a nice margin. Very impressive and big congratulations to them!

It is kind of a shame that we could not have had better weather for the out of towners. Sarasota is an awesome sailing venue, hopefully one of these years the weather will be more cooperative.

John and Susie Domagala did a great job running the regatta as did all the volunteers. John awarded the Allen Douglas sportsmanship award to Mark Taylor who helped many of the competitors with boat tuning and set up. Good job Mark!

Larry Taggart reminded everyone to get the third week of March on the calendar for the 2014 Midwinters at Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans.

The results have been posted on FSSA.com for your viewing pleasure.

P.S. by the time awards were being given there was a solid sea breeze from about 260 or 270. Just the way it goes....

Flying Scot Midwinters 2013, Day 3

Sarasota Midwinters Day 3

Well, where to begin...the wind howled through the night and there was some difficulty sleeping, and the wind continued this morning, where Jeffrey was heard saying, "I was going to go fishing, but I can't stay standing up on the sea wall." Amy returned the s'more ingredients, as it ended up being too cold last night to stay outside and grill and eat. We had been picked up by Ryan to join the "folks in the house" (with whom we stayed last year) for dinner.
Amy, Dave and I discussed how to photoshop best RV dog, Lilly, into a picture depicting Amy flying her as a kite. Then it was discussed what game would be chosen for game day. We have scrabble, dominoes, boggle, cranium, and jenga to choose from.
Larry Taggart: "There are white caps on the pool" he and Carrie decided to visit the Myakka River State Park today, turns out to be a good call.
Postponement (again) as we listened on the radio to the RC take wind readings for 2 hours (poor Dave, poor Lainie, poor Bob) while we anxiously awaited the cue to hop in the boats and go! There was a lull predicted and I believe the RC was waiting for the perfect time to send us out to play. Finally, the sign was given and we left the dock, the wind seemed a little light for the 3 of us on the rail, but it remained choppy enough that we thought we could hang in there if it lightened a bit. First we heard some wind readings (we were paying attention to RC on the radio) that scared us, "Avg. 8.1, gusting to 10" YIKES! Then we heard numbers that helped us relax, and made us think we had a chance, "Avg. 11, gusting to 16" PHEW said the boat with 3 people on it. The RC was hoping to start a race in a few minutes, then...their anchor started dragging and she felt that it was time to send the sailors back to the dock. Boo. The wind had picked up again by then and the wind readings were at the highest during the sail in.
Tonight was BBQ at the club and more beer. Dave, aka "Keg Boy" keepin' it flowin' all week long. The Salty Dog is also popular for long pours of vodka for Paul A.
Tomorrow promises to be what those of us who normally sail with 2 have been looking for all week. The computer has been teasing us with 8-10 on Friday and we are really looking forward to it as the resident crew whore (Kim) floats from sitting between Ryan and John, back to the Piggy sitting next to Dave where she belongs. Tune in to see what happens!!

Flying Scot Midwinters 2013, Day 2

So after a shoreside postponement both fleets got one race in for a total of three races. Paul Abdullah has moved up to first place in the standings, many others are in hot pursuit. The schedule calls for eight races with no throw-outs so anything can happen.

We will embellish more later. Thursday forecast seems to be more of the same, mid to high teens from the North. Friday looks light to moderate. Stay tuned.

P.S. My wife won the race today so all good!

Out.

Here is the promised further embellishment;

On Wednesday morning, Brian Hayes put together an excellent video assisted presentation and discussion that received rave reviews. He is a patient and understanding instructor. Good use of postponement time. He also jumped in the water (again!) to aid a sailor in distress after racing.

The flag came down and the boats were launched. Pretty windy and wavy, and I must say I'm happy to be part of a 3-person boat. Dave and I would be having very little fun trying to keep the boat down, and moving in the right direction in these conditions.

Dave was helping Lainie on the pin boat today, and he had an excellent view of the "midline bulge" - the exact opposite of the midline sag- and at 40 sec to go at the start, he and Lainie accurately predicted a general recall. The I-flag went up, and we were more careful on the 2nd try. The wind came up even more, and the PRO considered sending us in, but, fortunately for us, the racing continued and we pounded upwind and surfed downwind, resulting in our best race of the regatta.

Quotes from Wednesday:
as Brian pointed out on a picture of Dave and I during the practice race...
"Hiking would also be a good idea.." Thanks, Brian
"Respect the luff!" stated by Jeffrey re: the interesting tendencies of the sailors on the line
"I've got shutes coming out of my butt!" from Mark, the one to see if you need a new kite!

FYI, If you wnt Kreidler to meet you just mention a titty bar.

Flying Scot Midwinters 2013, Racing Day 1

Today really started last night when we woke up to rain, wind, and concern for the boat. Dave went to check on it, we brought the sails inside the RV and tried to get some more sleep. We are very lucky to have the RV and we feel sad for the tent campers. So, as some of us dreamed of other things we would do today, the Race Committee postponed on land for a bit, but sent us out at 12:30! After the wind switched to the north - also noting it is much colder than the southerly that we had previously. On the sail out to the race area, Ryan Malmgren was pretty pleased with how the boat felt with both John Wake and Kim on the boat, as it was pretty windy. By the time the first race started, the wind settled down and was gusting to 18-ish. Dave and I decided it would be no fun for us on the boat in these conditions, and we split up, loaning Kim's weight to the boys, and Dave assisted on safety boat #2.
The wind lightened some for the 2nd race, and we were a little pokey downwind with 3, but the forecast is for more wind tomorrow and Thursday, so we will have the work cut out for us.
Jeff and Amy are superstars, and the lead group is tightly bunched together, there are 6 more races, anything could happen (like, say, a protest that results in a dsq, that we are not talking about.)

Notable quotes of the day;
-RC reporting "a collision resulting in a dismasting"
-following an individual recall signal "Dave is gonna kill me if we are OCS"

Results are on fssa.com

Out.

Flying Scot Midwinters 2013, Volume 1

For some, the midwinters begins with the warm-up regatta the weekend prior which this year is at Davis Island YC. We decided to skip this one since 6 days of sailing in a 7 day stretch loses appeal quickly. Instead we got a sort of early start and landed at the Squadron late Saturday afternoon. One pleasant development is the powers at the Squadron have cleared an area of old boats and are designating it the RV area. Sweet! Electrical hookups are rumored to be on the way soon, so that will even be even cooler.

We mostly chilled on Sunday but did find the time for a two hour-ish sail. Pretty nice to get out and do a little sailing for a change. Most of the last few regattas have included little or no sailing.



Monday was the final check-in day and last we heard we have about 60 boats or so. Not too bad all things considered. We also had a practice race on the schedule which became interesting as it breezed up a little and a couple boats capsized. Some of us finished at about the time a freakish monster powerboat wake was blocking the finish line. We saw a couple boats ahead of us hobby horsing there way through but I didn't expect to plunge the bow three times. Lots of water to bail later!

We volunteered to help coordinate the welcome party Monday night and were happy it went off well. All of the local Sarasota fleet members signed up to bring a dish and they did an awesome job!!!!! We definitely out-fooded the gang this year, and it was good.

The forecast for the week is for a front to come through Tuesday and for a breezy few days to follow.

Some quotes for the day;
-The official videographer said "you probably passed more boats than anyone out there" real meaning is you were behind a shitload of boats.
-Brian Hayes said hello and casually mentioned "saw you reaching around the course today"
-Opti dad talking about his parental powerboat (full of gouges) "Optis are perfect gelcoat removers"
-From Ryan our sailmaker "So, do you ever thinking about taking a third crew?"
Out.