The VSS racing season got under way (barely!) on Saturday October 3rd. There were only 4 boats and the wind was a weak sea breeze which varied between 5 and 7 knots. I'm pretty sure the 7 knot gust didn't make it to Summertime. The sea breeze appeared just before 1 PM, so that seems to validate the 1 PM start decision we scheduled for this season. We sailed 2 rather short races and everyone seemed to have fun. Jim Liston's Cat's Meow jumped out to and early lead in the season standings by scoring 2 bullets. The results can be found at http://home.comcast.net/~venicesailor/VSSracing/buoyraceresults.html
The Cortez YC Cortez Cup Regatta was held on October 10th. The wind there was fairly light most of the day (perhaps 5-8 knots) and there was a miserable chop running that seemed to be right on the nose on one tack or the other on every windward leg. Summertime and Reagan-e were the only VSS entrants, with Summertime finishing 2nd in Cruising (6 boats) and Reagan-e finishing 6th (8 boats). The results can be found at the Sarasota Bay Yachting Association web site, http://www.sarasotabayyachting.org/.
Finally, we
got
some real wind for the 1st
“Distance” race on Sunday, October 18th. Some might say too much wind at 20-30 knots most of the
afternoon! 6 Boats came out but Lou Salhany and Lois Abrams decide it
was a bit
much for them so they were spectators. Of the 5 boats that started
two were new racers in my experience. Joe Russo sailed (solo!) his
Prout 45 Catamaran Grab a Chance
and Gordon McKeehan sailed his Morgan 30-2 currently known as
Nautical Trader. Of the 5 starters only Cat's Meow
and Steve Saewert's Ces't Sea Bon
finished
(in
that order). Joe was somewhat dismayed by the prospect of a 3+
nautical mile beat in a big boat with no crew, so he motored home.
Gordon had some navigational problems (possibly crew induced) and
John Lynch ripped one of the jib tracks off Summertime's
deck (self induced). John's been kicking himself since for not
jerry rigging a quick repair and continuing. Every boat had its
problems and everyone seemed to have had fun. No serious damage was
done. Results can be seen at
http://home.comcast.net/~venicesailor/VSSracing/distanceraceresults.html. A feature of this race is
that we made use of both the new
mark I
put out last month (See the October TellTale) and a Mote Marine
Observatory red tide detector buoy at 27o
03.665N,
082o
30.078W,
~ 3 nm off Casperson Beach.
John Lynch, Fleet Captain, Racing