Boca Ciega Yacht Club District Championship Regatta 10-23,24-2010 Southern District
Saturday brought awesome sailing weather, winds were I'm guessing around 14 down to around 8 throughout the day and were shifty which kept the race committee from moving the marks on the modified Olympic course but most races started with the pin end favored. Water conditions were flat with wind coming from the East. The waves never got a chance to build. This made for outstanding plaining conditions in the gusts.
Our newest Windmill racer Tug Graves a former collegiate team sailor, sailing with his lovely wife Monique who is new to sailing did an outstanding job sailing the boat formerly known as De Valk, under the aka Mood Poodle borrowed from Alison Hardage finishing the day in first place.
All boats crossed the line within seconds of each other after sailing a long course proving that the skill level and boats were closely matched in the first race, with Red Barron finishing first in the strongest wind of the race. Red Barron is known for outstanding speed in heavy air races. As the wind tapered down the lighter boats started to move to the front with Mood Poodle first in the second race and
My Mojo first in the third race. Mood Poodle again took the lead in the forth race with the air tapering throughout the day.
Sunday brought lighter winds around 10 kts, still very shifty, with large buildings on the horizon affecting wind currents, we call it condo breath. Only 3 boats raced, Mood Poodle, Bonfire and My Mojo, hammering out 4 races in 2 1/2 hours. The first race started out very competetive with Bonfire completely on fire but Bonfire started taking on water and ended up having to bail for the rest of the races which can be extremely distracting for the skipper and crew, when they finished the day they had about 15 gallons of water in the boat. We really though the skipper and crew would be stepping off the mast and onto the dock as they arrived back at the club. Mood Poodle got the first bullet of the day followed by My Mojo who faught extremely hard to maintain 3 bullets to finish the regatta in first place.
What an outstanding weekend! The race committee did a great job and I think they enjoyed the race almost as much as we did, they said they could hear the laughing going on out on the water coming from the windmill sailors, just knowing we were having a blast. In all, there were no protests amongst the Windmills, Daysailors, or Catalina Capris which all shared the race committee and course. Boca Ciega is definately a do again for the Southern Fleet |
