Rick is up at the Card Sound Bridge to get pictures. He just called and said first boat came under the bridge at 9:53 a.m. It was Bret Moss and John Casey on a Marstrom 20. Three more boats in sight. A bunch of other sailors are also on the bridge who decided not to race, because the wind is too much -- right now 20 and gusting higher. Was from east-northeast but now is shifting more to east and maybe east-southeast. Nobody using spinnakers.

The race started at 8:00 a.m. up in Miami offshore from the Rickenbacker Causeway, and the finish line is down just before the entrance to Jewfish Creek where it enters Key Largo.

Winds are expected to pick up even higher a little later in the day.

Here's a radar wx link for you, looks like some rainshowers coming in from the east.

http://www2.tbo.com/weather/local/interactive-radar/

New report from Rick at the bridge:
2nd boat through the bridge was a Hobie 16 piloted by Mark Jones at 10:06 a.m. Rick figures if he maintains his distance behind the Marstrom, the Hobie 16 may win the race overall on corrected time. This could be a FIRST in the annals of this race.
3rd under the bridge was an Inter 20, Jay and Jarerd Sonenklar, at 10:09 a.m.
4th was a Stiletto with Kenny Pierce at 10:14 a.m.
Followed by five Corsair trimarans in this order by sail number:
94,119, 2119, 212, 037. All between 10:19 and 10:32.
Nothing more on the horizon right now, and Rick says it is cold up on that bridge and he is leaving.

Lots of people opted not to sail because of the winds, including Bill and Eric Roberts, Jamie Livingston, and John McKnight, just to name a few.

I was on corsair 037 and that was one heck of a ride! Anyone that finished won in their own right today.

Joe

Joe, was that a Corsair 750? And what was the fastest speed you saw on the GPS?

Yea Tim, that was a dash. I didn't even turn the gps on because I was so busy but I suspect we hit 20 when we popped the screecher in little card sound.

Rock it Jonsey getting it done old school! Team Moss owned this one h16s RULE!

On board video courtesy of Jay Sonnenklar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8-4...wl7N7OJI1nQ&index=1&feature=plcp

A Hobie 16 in the lead? Where are all those "Hobie Slug" commenters, NOW??? Hmmm..., all I hear is dead silence!

Short Story:
http://www.catsailor.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=247043#Post247043

Good on ya!

Nice write up, thanks!

Dave

Great write up! Im sure there will be many more stories to come in the next few days.

Joe

"Lots of people opted not to sail because of the winds, including Bill and Eric Roberts, Jamie Livingston, and John McKnight, just to name a few."

When these guys are staying on the beach, its little wonder a H16 won, and they worked very hard for it. Just looking at the main sail trim on Jay's N20 has me cringing, those are damn GNARLY conditions.

even more interesting is JC got that M20 across the course without breaking anything. Outstanding.

Well, there were two people on that ride and some might even say that the carbon fiber wonder boy is a competent driver. JC and Bret clearly know where the line is with the M-20. They chose to sit on the deck in a conservative mode after the start while their fellow M-20 team were both double trapped and as they began to roll Bret and JC had a violent pitch pole breaking their stick and taking them out of the race. Kudo's boys for proper race prep and using your heads, what is it they say sometimes... slow down to win?

Now about your DPN number...:-)

The other m-20 went full turtle about 10 minutes into the race.