OK, so I thought it was a good idea at first.

I put the Stiletto in a race that was hosted by the local YC (Read all lead mines), haven't raced in quite a few years. As noted in another post, winds here have been blowing 20+. My thought was to sit back a little on the start, foot off and go around the leaners. Well its hard to throttle back when its blowing like that. So, I shoot into the mix. Problem was the upwind mark was so close everyone got there in a couple of minutes. I needed to get outside but couldn't, the boat outside of me tacked on top heading me up and stalling... %$#&. While attempting to gain stearage, the next slug started screaming at us to get the hell out of her way! My kids looked at me with the "What the...?" look, and I decided that racing with slugs was not for me. I radioed the committee and said "we're done here".

A couple of points:
1.) I wasn't a member of their club, I'm sure they thought I was an intruder.
2.) Should have held to my guns and stayed back. It would have been better to stay out of their way. It was supposed to be a fun race anyway. Well at least for some.
3.) I think the screamer probably didn't like the way we blew past them at the start then parked at the mark.
4.) I'm not sure what the rule is about the boat that headed me up at the mark. I was in the process of giving room to the inside boats. Didn't matter to me, I didn't want to hit anyone.
5.) I figured the boats behind me were going to protest me being in their way, so we bailed.

We ended up blasting around the lake averaging 12-16kts. Not to bad if you ask me.

Next day (Sunday), blowing 20 again, one of the bigger leaners came out on the lake, about a 36'er. We were crossing them when they tacked as we approached (onto the same heading as us). I looked at my buddy and said "No, he didn't just do that did he?". You know 2 boats going in the same direction is a race right? We got a puff, (well a little more than that) and sheeted in. Its hard for something doing 7kts to keep up when you are doing twice that. Some things really do work out. I wonder if he told that story back at the club?

Just a bit of rambling after a blustery weekend.
Anyone else have something interesting?

Clayton

Your kids doing the "What the..." reminds me of sailing with my father and the Flying Scot crowd. Slow boats, incredibly absurd bunch of cussing morons. Instead of the racing committee, I let my dad know no more. Those people were scary at speeds of 3 mph.

Are you saying they were bumper cars, with sails?

At that point, it sure seemed that way.

My girlfriend and I took my Corsair Sprint 750 over to the MS coast for the weekend. Had a lovely sail and picnic/beach day out to Ship Island on Saturday (about a 12 mile sail from Gulfport). Nice sail home in the evening with the chute doing about 9-11 knots the whole way.

On Sunday, we participated in the annual Race for the Case from Gulfport YC to Biloxi YC. It’s a 14 mile race with a staggered start based on your PHRF rating. I think there were about 22 boats total (Spin A, Spin B, Non-spin, Centerboard (where they had some Scots, a Sunfish, and an E-Scow racing with converted from Portsmouth PHRF ratings)). We were the only multihull entered so they registered us in Spinnaker A which had four boats (us, a Melges 32, a J-130, and a J-35). The breeze was out of the SE around 12-14 knots so it would be a one tack starboard beat to the Biloxi channel (about 10 miles) followed by a 2 mile broad reach in the channel, and then another 2 mile run up the channel in front of the casinos to the finish. In our class, the J-35 (75 rating) started first followed by us (33), followed by the J-130 (30 rating), and the Melges (15 rating). All the other boats would start 30-60 minutes in front of us. Well shortly before the start, told us they had changed our rating to 0 where we started last (about 3 minutes behind the Melges) and of course we became the last boat to start in the overall fleet. The J-35, J-130, and Melges all had 8-10 sailors on the rail. My girlfriend thought the rating change was “rude”, I thought it was a challenge! We started and passed the Melges in about 12-14 minutes. We then slowly grind through the lee of the J-130 (we were sailing 8.5 – 9.5 knots, I think they were doing 7-8 knots) and we could see the J-35 getting closer and closer (we had given them around a 15 minute head start). About 1 mile from the mark where we turned downwind, we were 100 yards in front of the J-130 and were able to free off a bit and blew right by the J-35. We rounded and set our chute with Elise driving and me trimming. We weren’t sure if we had enough runway to catch the Spinnaker B boats (4 of them about 1/2 mile ahead of us at the turn). We started gaining and then turned back on the wind in the inner channel except now the water was flat (it was real choppy in the sound) and the boat just started ripping at 10-11 knots. We blew by three of the four we had to pass about halfway down this leg and had one more to reel in. The breeze lightened a bit and that last boat made a pretty good effort to pinch us off but with about 20 yards to the finish we squeezed by.


We tied up the boat at BYC and headed in to the club for a beer and the awards. The Melges driver was razing me about our speed but hey, they would have killed us if the wind would have been 5-10 knots. I asked him if he would take a rating hit in that scenario! But the final slap in the face was they took us out of Spinnaker A and gave us an award for top multihull after they registered us in Spin A, guess they could not stand it! It was an awesome sail back that evening to Gulfport with the chute up doing 10-14 knots the whole way. We showed them how fun, easy, and simple these boats are and I guess you can lead the horses to the water but you have to wonder if these guys will ever consider taking a drink!

Cool! Don't you just love it when you whizz past them and you see the expression when they realize they can't do anything about it?

That reminds me, one guy at the club (aforementioned) a few months back was inquiring about the Stiletto and what rating it had. I think the rating I usually use is around 76 or so. I feel its pretty slow comparatively. Their eyes got a little wider then he said "no matter, we'll do our best to screw you". I took that as a challenge, but didn't expect what I encountered.

I sure miss sailing the Miss. Coast. We did Slip To Ship about 20 times, plus Horn Island about 1/2 that probably more. Used to have a house there before Katrina, now its just a slab...

what do one of those go for? I keep seeing one parked at Bradenton Yacht Club (forgot the name) and wonder what a good price to offer would be (if I can find the owner)

I crew on the Stiletto 27 "Inflight" here on Charlotte Harbor. We regularly line up with the monomarans for WL's. We are in a seperate class, but start with the spinnaker boats for the sake of the race committee.

We have too many light air races so we get killed going upwind and cannot make it up going downwind. With the spin "Inflight" rates 42.

The skipper in an active member of the Punta Gorda Sailing Club and this year he is the Racing Chairman. We have good relations with the other boats. But there are plenty of egos on the water.

Waterbug, try the Stiletto website. A sailable project starts out $15,000. If I had a spare $40,000, I'd buy "Bob's Legacy. The hard ($) part is in the water storage.

http://stiletto.wildjibe.com/

I'm lucky, mine is here: http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=30.047284&lon=-92.737106&z=19.9&r=0&src=msa

;-)

I am bringing my family over to Charlotte Harbour for a couple of weeks in October. Do you know anywhere that we can hire something with more than one hull? something stiletto or F27 size would be good.

Did you officially register for the race? If so you should be following the RRS like everyone else is (hopefully). And, you should KNOW the RRS! If you weren't officially registered it would be advisable to stay away from organized events! Did you go to the club and talk with the other sailors? Did you make any attempt to be social and talk about the days racing, either before or after the race?

See, YC's put a lot of effort and time into organizing events, and if you just show up, don't register, don't go to the YC or talk to the PRO or talk to other sailors, it kinda rubs people the wrong way. What if a keelboat just decided to race with a bunch of cats "for fun" one day and took everyone up at the start? You wouldn't look too kindly on that... So, if you're gonna go out and race with a bunch of monos, at least follow the rules, register, and expect that they will take every opportunity to use the rules and boat handling to their advantage.

I can't think of a word...

Clayton et.al. This boat is on a trailer in dry storage, which might be more hassle (but cheaper) than in-water..

but you're right. The cost increases with the square root of length.

Yup, did go to the club, registered all that sort of stuff. This is not my first time racing (just over there). BUT, I did not meet EVERYONE at the club that was racing. SO not being a member of the club I'm sure they didn't know who I was and assumed we were just in the way. The key here is ASSUME. Also not being a member of the club its not open for me to go hang out and do all of the above.

This was a regatta organized (loose term) by the local town as part of a bigger party. The club handled the race. Thats how I got in, it was open to anyone, I just happened to be the only one outside of the club that showed up. They didn't spend a lot of time organizing, there was NEVER a NOR or RRS issued. I found out what time the skippers meeting and race time about 1/2 hour before it happened. By the time I got to the club they had already started the meeting then by the time I got back to the boat then sailed to the start line (<6 miles) I missed the first race. That should have been a sign to just go home... but NOOOOOO. I had to give it a shot.

Hind sight is great but at the time, well.

I just wish the other boat would have handled the situation a little different. BTW, who won? To this day, a week later, they don't know. They didn't even ask for handicaps before the race. Like I said, it was supposed to be a fun race, or so I thought.

Thanks for the comment. There is definitely things that can be done different IF I race there again.

Clayton