Saturday & Sunday, December 8-9, 2007
No shuttle launch. This was disappointing. Several of the regulars on the Florida series are NASA employees and it was fascinating to get their perspective on the launch and general shuttle scuttlebutt. One of the guys, the eventual 2nd place finisher, was scrambling for crew as his regular guy was tied up with the launch. So, the scrubbed launch was a letdown, but hey, we were there to race sailboats.
The weekend started on Fri. with a Joe Waters clinic in the parking lot on rig tuning and then continued out on the water with Joe setting up speed trials between boats and following in a power boat and providing coaching. Lots of fun and informative. Joe told me to send him my genoa as it needed to be re-cut. I had hoped to save my new genoa for the debut of #1222 but guess I will break it out for the next regatta, the Fun-n-Sun in Key Largo next month. After my old (2004) genoa is back from Joe's loft it will be relegated to practice/phrf duty. Jerry, from Boaters Exchange sponsored the clinic and provided refreshments post.
Saturday came with temps in the upper 70s to 80 degrees, 10-12 kts of wind and fourteen Catalina 22s on the line. The RC got in 4 races with the idea that if we could get in at least 2 on Sun. we would have a throw out. Our primary goal of of the weekend to improve our starts was met. We were stuck down in 7th or 8th place but the points between us and 5th were not that much and we had one very bad race to throw out with two 4th a 7th and a 12th. Sunday the weather was the same although the wind became a little more shifty. We didn't finish strong as we had hoped. Not sure yet where we ended up, but suffice to say we were not in the money. 1st. Frank Brown, True Love, 2nd Brad Ruffe, Mercury Rising, 3rd Gene Cochrane, Game Over.
After racing on Sunday. we ate our hot dogs and hamburgers, thanked the RC and went home. All and all a good weekend. We did improve our starts, got a reality check from Joe that my head sail is tired, enjoyed the company and competition of great friends and got the mast up and down without bending turn buckles, mast steps or dropping it over the side;-)
Oh yea, we also had a pretty good collision with eventual 2nd place finisher Brad Ruffe. We were on the starboard layline to the weather mark. Brad coming in on port. I hailed him, he looked me in the eye, and then tried to make it across. Too late he realized he wasn't going to make it and crash tacked right in front of me and we slammed into his transom. He turned around to me and said...... well lets just say he said it was his fault and he would do his turns. We made the mark and after we were trimmed up and going down to the leeward gate I said to my crew "he should have ducked" Later after racing for the day Brad came up to me in the parking lot, asked if there was any damage to my boat and if we were all okay and said "I should have ducked"
I should also give credit to the Indian River Yacht Club for hosting the event and Mike Nulf for running it.
by Glenn Warner
Goblin #10369 / JuJu #1222
Jacksonville, Florida
Notice of Race
Race Results
