Great Party! Small turn out with 22 boats. There was no spin fleet persay, rather a "low portsmouth" which consisted of two I20s, two F18s (both Tigers), two F16s (Matt/Gina on the Falcon, Stefan and me on the Blade), and two non-spin boats a Nacra 5.5 and Prindle 19.

Sailing with Stefan Kaschkadayev is a blast! I've come to think of hime as the "mad Russian" or "Crazy Ivan"! He's full of energy, game for anything, and always, always smiles and laughs! I need to mention he's a damn good sailor as well.

Serious about sailing, he doesn't let it get in the way of fun. In a dead serious duel with one of the Tigers, he takes a second to snag a football out of the water! And the attitude is infectious. Later, we get hit with a really big puff; I thought we would go over for sure, and Stefan looses his hat. Now, it turns out this hat has a history. It is "the" hat, stolen from his good friend Seth. So, while Stefan is lamenting the loss of his icon, Mark Herrendeen(sorry about the spelling Mark)comes along on his Tiger and scoops up the hat, returns it to its rightful owner (Stefan), and balance is restored to the Universe. Not much of a story you say, "What does that have to do with racing?" you ask? Well, all the while, the wind is blowing about 8-10 we're working to weather and getting some nasty puffs; usually big lifts but an occasional header. And, we're racing hard! Mark and crew are only back 1 or 2 boat lengths.

What's the moral? The F16 is competitive with the F18. If you have a really good crew, you can pull all the strings, get the combinations right and drive it like you stole it!

We came second in portsmouth, that's nice. More importantly we were able to beat two Tigers and in our best race, beat them convincingly!

The F16 is a great platform.

LIfe is good.

Thanks for the report Pete. Fun is why I sail, sounds like you two have found the right combination, if you can't get off the boat after the race and be laughing 'bout everything that went wrong, and right, sell it.

And Mark, if you can hear me, a real classy move on the hat snag to return to Stephan. Lots of good Karma comming your way in the future.

We had such a fun time at this regatta and we missed all of you that couldn't make it (you know who you are). Maybe you'll come out again next year and try to make Gilligan's Run this Aug. Great party Saturday night at Caron's.

The racing was interesting due to the wind conditions. Up and down, but Pete runs some great races.

Thank goodness for the pool or I would've passed out. We sat in the pool for quite a long time drinking our beers and discussing the races of the day. Terrific people! But next time keep the rum away from Matt.

WHAT! You can't do that. That's what being a sailor is all about! Of course, I have to pace myself with rum, especially after GYC in April! Man, that hurt!

Mike, I think that was his "Wife" talking...

No crew has the balls to say it.

Rum? what rum??

http://www.fleet80.com/Sizzler2009.shtml

Looks like there was a significant error in the scoring! Instead of finishing 2nd Stefan and I finished 7th, but at least it wasn't my mistake! We still had fun and got the two Tigers by a decent margin in the sixth race.

One other thing to remember is that when the "wife" comes down and tells you we are in room 203 you should not take a shower there and then spread your stinky sailing gear around the room because it is not necessarily 'your' room.

Still makes me laugh.

So he heads for my suitecase, saying he needs clean underware and something about "monkey butt". I didn't ask!

You guys are FUNNY!

Rum will do that to ya'!

20 people in the room and not 1 of you bastards said anything untill I was all moved in.

Took me till we left (8 pm)the following day to track down the trail of stuff I had

It was just way too entertaining to watch!

Okay! So what do I do with my "trophy"? I've asked "Nine finger" for an email address, but surely we can think of something fun to make out of this.