Some rain this morning to be followed by clearing and winds north at 15 is what the weather man just said, I'm off to Gulfport to suit up, see ya! (note time, 06:45 local)

GOOOO the red genni!

Have fun everybody

Greetings from Switzerland!

Greetings from Switzerland from me too!!
(just leaving Geneva on my way home after visiting my sis' in Chamonix - got in some great skiiing!!!)

lucky bugga....

weeeelllll how about now??

Yeah whats going on? Lets see some results or pictures.

Today we ran five races. The first two were light/shifty, the last two were honkin' and pretty good. Started off cloudy, ended up sunny.

Robbie Daniel is in 1st
Matt/Gina Mcdonald in 2nd
Taylor and Mathew in 3rd

Dan and I are in 11th.
I don't know anything else.

Come on Karl get on it?

Shall we look at the final crew make-ups, boat types and other data while we wait for more racing news ?

Please correct or complete any data that is wrong or missing. Together we can easily fill in the blanks.

Sandra/Jamie and Zach/Matt are both on Vipers.

We're tryin' to get on it! In the 4th race we were first to the windward mark, and damn near 1st at the gate. Then we had a bit of trouble getting the kite to come down and capsized. Many explatives followed, managed to pull a 8th out on that one. In the 5th race we were OCS, dipped back around the committee boat, and still scraped a 7th up. Big wind with a heavy crew the Viper is an absolute freight train going to weather. Extremely impressive in that respect, we were untouchable going uphill.

The first race was started on time, and with less than a 1/3rd of the participants there, (including Dan and I), I'm hoping that one will get thrown out. The extra 24pts is killing us, and the light air.....

The facebook page of Kris Hathaway shows a Falcon F16, is that also the boat he is sailing as the nationals ?

If so then the boat distribution is as follows :

22 crews participating
34 sailors in total
12 2-up crews
10 1-up crews
10 Viper F16's
7 Blade F16's
3 Falcon F16's
2 Taipan F16's

Wouter

Seth took delivery of his battleship-gray Falcon on Thursday. Beautiful boat!

The RC started a couple of minutes late as it was - there is no way that race should be thrown out. When there is a start time posted, and the RO says quite clearly at the skippers' meeting that he is starting on time, you'd better get a move on.

And yes - the SquidPig was hauling A$$ uphill in the breeze.

Some photos would be great!

Thanks Karl. How much crew weight you running?

Four races yesterday, the first two in very good wind with several crashes, then it died out and while it did, lots of big wind shifts. The last race was a frustrating drifter up at A mark with no laylines, just tack and hope for a puff!

We started the first race at 10am, in 18+ gusts. Check out the windspeed charts for yesterday, look closly at 2pm. It went from NE at 18-25 to NW at 4-6. http://www.bcbaywatch.com/

I think the top 3 remain the same. Last day is today, got to go watch the news to see what the wind is -supposed- to be...

It is all over, including the shouting. I am comfortable in a cushy hotel room with my family waiting for a 6AM flight back to LA. It was a pretty weekend and the wind was very challenging, but PRO Fairlie Brinkly did his normal outstanding job of course management - we got thirteen races in three days with highly variable conditions.

Some notable items:

• 1. GYC is great. I love that club and they always have a very warm smile for catamaran fleets. Great food for the dinner Saturday night and plenty of volunteers on the RC.
  
  2. Give the SquidPig it's due. Karl has the loudest truck in the northern hemisphere and he could trade insults with that stupid dog hand puppet. That anchored monohull never had a chance.
  
  3. Gordon Isco is a terrific friend. Many thanks for the use of his spare room again and for sharing some fine rum, un-freaking-believable stories and advice.
  
  4. Matt By-God McDonald never, ever, ever gives up. You can roll him, hole his boat, flip him on the finish line, or snap his rudder - he and super-crew Gina just keep coming. He can start four minutes late and finish top five... at least twice in one regatta. If he'd been sent to Baghdad, we'd have finished up years ago. The guy is a tsunami. Hats off.
  
  5. Taylor and Matt will be the best team on a catamaran in the World someday... soon.
  
  6. Jill knows everything. Yes, everything. Don't question - just go with it.
  
  7. Robbie Daniel is a good friend, coach and mentor. Tear his big toe off and he'll still be there for you. Even if you step on it later.
  
  8. Go Pete! Thanks Pete and the rest of the excom for putting together the first F16 Nationals in the US. That first step is a hard one. This effort came off very nicely from a competitor's perspective.

So now, for me, it is bedtime stories for the kid and a hot shower for me. I think there are two Aleve in my immediate future.

Cheers

Thanks for the kind words John and for making the long trip back east for this event. It was great to see you again.

So when is Sara getting a trap harness??? ;^)

And thanks to all the out of state sailors who made some very long drives, to make this event a success, great turnout and that wouldn't have happened without your efforts, thanks for coming!

Now, we Florida boys have to get a caravan figured out for the next F 16 N/A's, up in Maryland, next year!

Ed, where did you disapear to? I still owe you some beer!

I saw a link yesterday for results, but can't locate it today..

Anyone have the URL?

Its naturally that loud. Being a bad butt pickup took some coin.

Insult the Comic dog ain't got **** on me.

I've got nothing about the moored boat, except massive amounts of disappointment. We had 2 dnf's, and (I think) 4 dns' thanks to Spinlock producing two junk cleats. The last race of the whole friggin event, we're first around the windward mark, we're first through the gate, we're four or five boat lengths ahead of the boys with a leg and a half to go and while Dan's throwing me off the boat, I throw it all away trying to add a foot to our lead. Nice.

BTW- Dan and I are about 385lbs. We felt it in the light stuff......

Great event, too far away at 1700 miles, but I've managed to drive to Florida 4 times in the last 18 months, so I'm sure I'll pile a few more miles on the ol' smoke wagon and make the trip again.


Where's next years event.