VSS Racing News

The VSS racing season got under way (barely!) on Saturday October 3^rd. 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 10^th. 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 2^nd in Cruising (6 boats) and Reagan-e finishing 6^th (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 1^st “Distance” race on Sunday, October 18^th. 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 27^o 03.665N, 082^o 30.078W, ~ 3 nm off Casperson Beach.

John Lynch, Fleet Captain, Racing