Of all the races, the September RTI event out of Ft Walton really sticks out in my mind.

You start with a cool northeast breeze (as you folks all know), you are usually stuffing donuts into your mouth and trying to keep the orange juice from rolling off the tramp as you push off, and if you have a decent upwind boat like say a NACRA 6.0 in the late 90's, you could probably get out ahead of most boats on the first leg up to the sea buoy.

Not having a spinnaker on my first few races, this was the time to turn back and watch 50-60 spinnaker boats pop their chutes and start to move out. The rest was usually a sleigh ride with a lull here and there. (Yes, I'm describing the picture perfect RTI race not the ones where you finish at 3AM)

I first saw the race in 1995. Two SuperCat 22's led off at the start. Some guy on a big G'Cat finished around 4pm. Many of the other boats were in around 5-7pm. It was the first time I saw a catamaran with a spinnaker. It was a pretty awesome site........

Tom Turlington
Va Beach
Bristol 27 #335