66th Annual Sarasota Sailing Squadron Regatta
Two Windmills made it out to one of the most awesome sailing venues on the west coast of Florida along with about 200 other boats of all sizes and shapes to sail in the pristine waters of Sarasota bay with lots of Optis, Lasers,420s, and PHRF boats. Those who missed this regatta really missed out on a great time. Because there were only 2 Windmills we ended up in the Portsmouth fleet with 3 other boats, Chesapeake 20, Vanguard JY15, and a Weta Trimaran and sharing our course were a fleet of 15 Sunfish and 10 Flying Scots.
Saturday was challenging with very light air, although it was more consistent in direction then on Sunday. The Chesapeake 20 with an extra 4.5 feet of water line was easy to hang with on the very light air races but tended to gain a huge advantage when the wind picked up around 10 kts and the crew could go out on the trap keeping the boat very flat and pointing 5 degrees higher then the Windmills with a steady gain in speed on us. The Chesapeake seemed to have a rating that was greatly in their favor against the Windmill’s rating. The Vanguard JY 15 was something to have to deal with too since the boat weighs 175 lbs with skipper around 170 and the crew weighed about 75 lbs, it was obvious that dad had lots of experience driving the boat in the local beer can races and was always a boat of contention on the starting line and throughout the race. The Windmills biggest advantage came on the down wind legs when we could pole out our jibs and the Vanguard had to hand pole it. In the extremely light air we never even saw the Weta unless we looked back but when the air got over 8 kts the boat came to life. I can only imagine what 15 kts would do for that boat but since that never happened on our racing weekend we never got to see it’s true potential.
Eight races were sailed in total with our 2 windmills taking turns winning races with the most spectacular race coming in our last race on Saturday when Colin and Nicky had about a 100 yard lead on Lon and Meg and all of a sudden Lon got his own private gust and came reaching on a plane past Colin who never even got the slightest piece of that gust and just sat in one spot with the jib getting back winded spinning around in a 360 deg turn on a dime just like in the cartoons, with Lon and Meg finishing that race about a 100 yards in the lead. Those kind of surprises weren’t rare in this regatta. On Sunday after the Flying Scots and Sunfish were already well on their way race committee blew the horn 3 times and recalled both fleets after the wind completely died. 3 minutes later the air came back with a 30 degree wind shift so the committee set a new course only to bag the first start when the wind shifted back about 40 degrees. This went on about 3 or 4 times over the course of about 1 hour before we finally had a course set heavily favoring the pin and all fleets were on their way and all boats that started ahead of our fleet started on port with the air shifting back for the Portsmouth start.
In the end the Windmills were tied for second with Lon and Meg beating Colin and Nicky with the tie breaker. I would have to say that these were the most challenging of conditions I have ever sailed in but that only added to the fun.
Sarasota is a definite do again. The all volunteer staff did an awesome with race committee, serving food, drinks at the bar, and keeping everybody happy. The dinner was chicken smoked in a giant smoker and it fell off the bone, pizza on Sunday, and all you could drink beer for $1. Kids even had a blast on the giant inflatable water slide while live music played under the pavilion. You snooze you lose. Sorry you missed this one it was a blast. It’s looking more and more like our Southerns may end up at SSS in the near future.
Colin Browning 9/7/2012
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