Hi all. The Round the Island race in Fort Walton Beach, FL is still on. Dates are June 25-27. Racing on June 26th. info can be found at www.fwyc.org .

The race will be a steeple chase in the bay this year due to the Gulf Spill. Some different courses are being played around with right now using government marks. The bridges are high enough to accomodate the current mast height on the NOR. It might very well be like The Great Bay Race from years past and possibly longer. Chances are it will not end up being a 24hour race for the smaller cats.

Again current NOR is at www.fwyc.org

Bummer it will be on the inside but should still be a great time. See you next week.

Craig,
What am I missing here? For some reason I can't find the NOR.

NOR's for Round the Island and Meigs Regatta (July 10-11) are both now available at www.fwyc.org.

Craig,
Thanks for posting. Not that it would matter, but I noticed that the NOR has changed the mast height to 65', which would exclude the racing waters of Santa Rosa Sound for boats with mast >50'. I do realize that the Brooks Bridge is 50' and the Mid Bay bridge is 65', and that none of us will be affected.

Looks like PRO decided on Bay race. The midbay bridge height relects curren tbridge requirements which meet the higher height. So no sound (no Narrows!). Just Bay. W

Will your boat be ready?

Yeah, The Hoof will be ready, rigged and waiting to see if the second repair will hold.

Talked with the PRO Tuesday night. Made mention that the race wil be ither a sprint, down the bay and back for 50+ miles, or a steeple chase (government marks) down and back the bay for about 72-73 miles. Depends on wind. Supposed to be a nice moon this weekend if the winds are light.

Saturday
Northeast winds around 10 knots becoming southeast 10 to 15 knots in the afternoon. Seas 1 to 2 feet. Bays and coastal waterways a light chop. Isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Gotta go long.

whats with the rumor about still starting at 7am? People keep saying that starting at 7 is "tradition." Going around the island is tradition too, but we ain't doing it. There is never wind that early.

It wil be light at night too. I posted this question to the PRO and response is:

That's true but the wind will be extremely light in the middle of the night according to predictions from weather man.

Depending on the course we select (I have 2), it might be possible to show the start back.

We'll see,

So let's see what the weather really does.

What are the results?
I was up in Pensecola, Sunday, picking up a new to me P19MX.
Weather was beautiful in the AM, but I drove through some really bad storms on the 10 East heading to Tallahassee, later in the afternoon.

results here

https://event-manager.compete-at.com/Manager/event/results.do?eid=2941

Interesting tid bit about the race was Brian Lambert and Alex where off the chart ahead until the last 23 miles to go. At the turn mark to come home the wind died and everyone stacked up, it was like a restart. Those in the back made huge and those in the front got totally screwed. Jonny Mac and Mark Murray were insanely fast downhill and basically had to give it all back along with Brian and Alex. Also Kevin Smith was on fire and probably would have taken it from the H17 but he capsized and required assistance because he was sailing solo, Mr. Mike Wilson was the hero on that one.

It was an extremely challenging day for the spin trimmers. There was a lot of tight spin reaching and those that did it best moved to the front of the pack.

FWYC always exceeds expectations with their hospitality. The pulled pork after a long day on the water hit the spot. Then we had a sit down Sunday brunch in the AC... yes beachcat sailors sitting in the AC eating Sunday brunch, it was so wrong but tasted soooo good!

Oh, Mathew and Taylor took turns rolling me, I'm sure it was something I said.

"Mathew and Taylor ..."
I'm looking forward to watching those two.

Great race, though still would have rather gone RTI! I was on Red and had a great time and would have been 2nd over the line if we hadn't made a dumb decision!!!!
I have never finished this race in time to see the CFoR with it's mast and sail still up!

Someone left a pair of cammelbacks on the rocks near the wash/parking area they are at the yacht club give them a call

Thank you so much for finding and turning the camel backs in they would be ours .....Jody will be back down for Meigs in a couple weeks...he can retrieve them then.

You guys leave a trail wherever you go. Is it like breadcrumbs so you can find your way back there again?