We has another fantastic Tradewinds Regatta this past weekend. We got in seven exciting races in two days. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and perserverance to put on a regatta of this magnitude. These are the people and sponsors who made it possible for you to enjoy this regatta.

Personnel

Founders Park Watersports (Chip and Barb Short) Organizing authority for the regatta

Rick White: PRO, trophy acquisition, publicity, regatta book, sailing instructions, supplied one of the chase boats, marks and ground tackle, trophy presentation, post race story author and photo editor.

Warren Green: Assistant PRO, supplied and skippered the signal boat.

Barb Short: Venue coordination, registration, scoring, door prize presentations, beach captain.

Chip Short: Chip Short: Venue coordination, registration, door prize presentation, chief hamburger cook, beach captain.

Mary Wells: T-shirt design, RC lunches

Kathy Kulkoski: registration assistant

Sue Bennett: Flag person on bow of signal boat, recorder.

Ellen Berosh: Signal boat assistant

Debra Hogan: Signal boat assistant

Eric Arborgast: Supplied and skippered one chase boat, mark setter

Nelson Eads: Chase boat driver on Eric's boat

Beth Langfeld: Chase boat, regatta photographer

John McKnight: Chase boat driver, mark setter

Sean McKnight: Chase boat first mate and regatta photographer.

Sponsors:

Founders Park Watersports
Catamaran Sailor Magazine
Catsailor.com, www.OnlineMarineStores.com
Catamaran Association of Biscayne Bay (CABB)
NAMSA Chapter # 1
Hobie Fleet 36
Zhik Sailing Gear (Mike Krantz), door prizes
Calvert Sails, supplied the free beer.


John McKnight
Commodore, Catamaran Association of Biscayne Bay (CABB)
CABB Forum: http://www.catsailor.com/forums/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=CABB

WHAT A TEAM! From my perspective it was very smooth and efficient, it makes me want to do it again next year. Things were happening on time and quickly. The team had good communication and TEAM work.

BTW, Nelson Eads has an excellent eye for mark placement.

It was a fantastical beautimous weekend!

Thank you John for listing all who made it happen. I believe the hard workers go un appreciated and unnamed, so it is great to see the entire list of all who worked for us to have a great weekend of racing.

Thanks to all of you listed above, and to the competitors who drove for endless hours to get there as well. Great to see you all again.

I would really like to find a single -alcohol friendly- location where we can all get together after the racing. It was very hard to find people after the boats were put up and everyone split for their hotels or favorite eatery Saturday night.

Perhaps if we all stayed at a single location like they do at the A cat event, we could get good rates and have one big party on Saturday night?

"Thanks to all of you listed above, and to the competitors who drove for endless hours to get there as well."

Indeed! Thanks to all.

Yes, that would be more fun. I've thought that all along since moving to FL, there's rarely a Sat. party. In the Midwest and East (NC),where I have been a fleet member, the party Sat. night was always the big deal. We'll have to work on that in this neck of the woods.

Eustis and Gulfport are two that come to mind that offer this kind of scene. I look forward to Kelly Park this year as we are planning to have the party at the race site too. I apologize if there is another location that does this as well that I have forgotten to mention.

I agree that a Sat night (or Sun night if Tradewinds is 3 day) party would get the most turnout. Even better if everyone is staying at the host hotel, as it would reduce the number of designated drivers

Maybe a BBQ somewhere there would be space for "fun" activities, like that drink/spin around baseball bat/ tag teammate...?

Or drunken midnight Wave racing by moonlight!

or a sea-kayak water-bucket fight. with stri... uh, dancers

When Dan Lawrence was CABB Commodore and we did the first one at Plantation Yacht Harbor Resort, nee Founders Park, liquor was allowed, there was a bar there and the whole bit.
We did a fish fry and only about 1/4 of the sailors stayed. They all went to their favorite restaurants. So, we just decided to let it be a freestyle doing on Saturday Night and reduced the entry fee.

After John McKnight became Commodore we had a year we made profit on the regatta and he said in that case we should give T-SHirts to Skipper and Crew (used to be just one shirt per boat as is the case with most regattas -- shirts can get expensive).

That is sort of how things have evolved.

By the way, there was lots of beer available at the picnic table by the registration area. Only catch was you had to put it in a cup so no one could see the beer cans. Founders Park management does not allow booze, but turn the other way as long as we don't flaunt it.

Lastly, the A-Cat venue is a huge tradeoff to Founders Park. The hotel there has a vast area for rigging. A big plus. However, there is a narrow rocky slot to launch. On the water part of the venue, the seas usually are quite lumpy, instead of the flat water we have on the Bay Side of the islands. Also, quite often you will get huge islands of kelp, or a million cabbage heads.
Sailing on the Bay Side of the Florida Keys is ideal in comparison.

Hmmm! Should I buy Rick's Place Motel Resort back! Government funding perhaps.
Rick

I do like the Founder's Park beach for launching and the flat water of the bay side.

I heard many Acat sailors comment how nice it was sailing on the Bay side in the flat water. I have to agree it's really great sailing there.

Next time Barak calls, I'll ask him where the "Rick's Bailout Package" is in the Senate approval process.

Is $400 billion okay, Rick? I know real estate in the keys is kind of expensive...

I like Founders, the format, etc. Don't need T-shirts.

Like brag flags and/or hats for winners.

Free beer is good, BBQ on Sat night sounds nice (especially if Harken/Zhik do the raffle stuff again - would shorten the awards ceremony AND guarantee more people hadn't left), but I guess you've had poor turnout at that... Maybe it was best that the sailors just got together themselves and figured out what to do...

I learned a good deal sailing in the lumpy stuff on the other side - the a-cat is just such a different and more sensitive sail boat that it makes learning and feeling different techniques much easier....but I do love the flat water on the backside for sure.

What is going on with Rowells? Maybe we can pool our money and create an equity membership cat sailing association? We own the land, pay the mortgage, keep any retail sails from racing. Charge the mono's triple. Time share concept? I don't know...
There is an answer in there some where.

It is in there.....MONEY.

equity % ownership.

Jake, we all know that you hav e a few mil rolling around, if the rest of us gather our nickels we can have a cat sailing mecca available at all times.....

No Doubt that Rowells would be awesome. A little known fact is there is pretty good sized beach for launching on the South end of the lot.

All joking aside, the Keys folks are really worried about losing waterfront access. Who knows.., the Tourist Development Council has moocho millions that they don't want to spend, for some reason. They still owe me $9000 from two years ago and don't intend to let go of it.
But, maybe they would finance Rowells. Right!?!?!?!
I have always thought that Blackwater Sounds was one of the best. Founders is awesome as well, but doesn't have quite the expanse of water unless you go way out there.

Thoughts on next year's courses to make Bob Curry happy.
During those years when we were designing courses to make Olympics more observable (which never happened), one of the courses was a trapezoid.
So, I am going to work on designing such a course. The Spin boats and faster boats will sail the Orange Course again to the weather mark, then reach way off the to the left side of the course where they will have their own windward-leeward course, thence back to a finish line or a leeward mark to lee of the finish line.
The slower boats, i.e., H16s and Waves will sail the normal course on the Yellow Course.
Might even keep the RC Boat at the leeward end of the courses instead of the Modified Olympic setup

All in the thinking stage. By the way, Mike Hill lost his bow in the collision with the Wave, but Dave White could have lost his life. Dave says he did see it coming a couple of seconds before the collision and veered off as best he could to allow not quite so much of a t-bone. He was sitting up and saw the N20 coming, but he usually lies down and focuses on his telltales. Had he been doing so, he would have nailed in the head.
With spinnakers up, and flying a hull, there is not much vision to leeward of you. He or anyone else flying a hull and a spinnaker are flying blind to what is below them. No way to put a window in a spin either as it would be destroyed the first time you dropped it.

Anyway, some ramblings about next year.
Rick
Rick

The course your describe sounds like a workable solution.

The course Rick describes is used quite often when you have boats of unequal performance sharing the same course circle. It requires mark boat operators who really know what they're doing. I suggest you hire some B.I.M.B.O.s


Word is that they work for cheap (= beer, but not cheap beer)

I was on the RC for the Olypics in Savannah where the Tornado and Soling were on the same circle. The Solings started first and used the course off to the left, while the Tornados used the main course.
It worked better than if they were all using the same Marks.
Rick