From what I've seen on other websites
ex http://mobileyachtclub.org
look at lower right...

One can write or get code that will clone the falsebook feed to the regular website, so "you only have to say this once" to quote Michelle Of The Resistance and then everyone gets the news and you don't even have to copy and paste

I'm working on a short list of things that from my perspective need to be improved (constructive criticism) and will send it to the RO. That said, although the race wasn't perfect, the effort of the ROs is the difference between having and event and not having an event.

I'm thankful for their contribution and instead of complaining about what was wrong, will be offering my input and assistance to make next year's race better.

I'm happy they pulled off the race! So hard to do these days.

And SAILORS don't forget, if you're thinking of doing the 2017 version, why not start building your media / PR now? Get stock footage of your team sailing, crew members (sailing, support, etc), cut some sharp interviews, show off your sponsors, etc.

Then when you enter the event, it's just a matter of a few clicks to send lots of footage to whomever is the media coordinator for the 2017 Florida 300 Magnum race.

See, the race is so cool, it even has it's own caliber !!! (3rd from left):

Good luck with that Will. I stopped trying years ago. I'm not sure the RO knows what social media is...

Taking cues from the R2AK is heavily advised IMO, their race is highly publicized, has a long entry list, and they appear to be successful.Their tracker is also much improved IMO, no issues on phones or PC's. Getting their input and how-to's would make a lot of sense for the RO. Not holding my breath however.

I don't think you can compare the budgets of the everglades challenge or the R2AK to the FL300.

From some quick numbers online

Evergaldes Challenge $395 a person, 119 entries = $47,500
R2AK $620 team + $20 a person, 40 teams = > $24,800
FL 300 $395 a team, 15 teams =$5,295

I also ready plenty of feedback online that the fee shouls be lower still....

That says it all right there.

And I disagree that the WaterTribe challenges do better PR...most of that is generated from the sheer number of participants that post stuff. A couple dedicated volunteers keep the Facebook page updated as the race progresses but there's not some big push by race management to drive a huge PR campaign.

yeah, what jake said

bacho,

That's not the total race budget for any of those races, but it does give a pretty stark contrast in the budgets. From a RO standpoint, I bet the Florida 300 is more expensive to run than the other races, as it involves more checkpoints, hence more hotels, with about the same number of people managing the race.

There are a lot of areas of improvement that would benefit this race. Most of the hotels were pretty rough with the exception of one or two, and the hotel on the last night might be one of nastiest places I've ever stayed. We don't need anything fancy but I would think with 20+ rooms on a block rate at each stop we could find better accommodations.

RC needs to get in sync. Questions regarding scoring, redress, and other things seemed to all be answered off the cuff, and no one seemed to know who the right person was to answer. We got beached for 3 hours during a big lightning storm and have video of lightning hitting so close that Jacob felt the shock go up his arm (the same strike that sent the Dutch running and consequently their boat sailing off). Out of curiosity we asked about redress and two days later found out that RC took Tavernier's time (who was towed in with a broken mast), added two hours onto it, and then used that as our time.

Two days later another F18 beached for an hour because a storm brought some big winds. For them RC subtracted the time they said they were beached for from their elapsed time. Redress is a difficult subject in these types of races and I think an electrical storm is different than a windy storm, but either way, if you're going to give it then you should at least have some consistency instead of making stuff up as you go.

I also have a new-found interest for increased safety after this race. I'm not sure what the right solution is, but anything that is better than what we had would be great thing. We had three straight days where we sailed directly into some very nasty weather. Lightning, hail, 30-35knt winds with cloud rotation (we thought a tornado was forming on top of us). It wasn't just a one-off, rouge weather incident--it was three days in a row and there were more moments than I'm comfortable with where I thought we seriously might be in trouble. It made me wonder what happens if the next storm is even bigger. I would just like to see some way where RC can notify sailors to get to shore if they see a massive storm cell coming that is about to wipe everyone out. I remember coming into the beach Friday just after genuine survival mode and hail whipping me across the face for thirty minutes and Chuck jokingly saying "hehaheha just trying keep things interesting for ya!" The Florida 300 race nearly lost Chuck in that moment. The Dutch team also said that after some of the stuff that went down guys from the Netherlands would have been ready to kick Chuck's butt.

We're ready to go for next year, but after the car ride home there was a unanimous agreement that the race needs to focus on overall quality.

Everyone knows this race is under your own decisions, any body who races can decide to come ashore but will fall behind in the race. Your decision! And another thing, everybody had plenty of warning and time to to have their boats measured, but chose to have it done on the Monday before the race.i say it is no fault of the RC. Now they have a year notice to get a certificate. Wonder how many will show up on Monday the day before.
As for the race, a lot of people went home with a lot of stuff! There were more sponsors than we have ever had, and this is all the comments?
Boy , like I said , if you want to add to the race, bring it and come help us make it better, but don't complain. And by the way, wait till you see the video that was captured, it is being edited now, but we don't have the budget to have a team of editors working all the way through the race. Maybe if the entry fee was $1500 we might be able to suit your every whim! Let's see how many meals were covered ? What do you think every cent was spent on? I Think the sailors received more in this race than any race in recent history. Or would you rather have an empty wine bottle with a sticker.!!
Dennis

I agree 100% with your first sentence. Those conditions have been raced through before and will again.
It's great that you guys are focusing on the racers, that's how it should be,but with no usable info during the race you lose any potential racers interest as well as any followers. Post race videos are great when they're a re-cap, but when that's all there is ,you missed the boat. The hype is over ,the viewers/potential racers/entry fees are gone. If it's a promo to get race sponsors, I hope it's not in vain.
" bring it and come help us make it better, but don't complain. " How does that make it any better?
Dennis, feel free to give me a call if you want to discuss this stuff.

This isn't a meant to be a complaint. These are some of the things I think the race would benefit from with improvements. Sunday morning there talks about extending it and going further and further, but I think for now you should focus on building what you have before trying to make this another 500 mile race.

Glad no one was hurt... sad to see that carbon mast snapped....
this is pretty typical late-May weather for us here in fl.... any reason why this even cant be done in april to greatly reduce the risk of extreme weather ???

It is, as many have said before, and adventure race. Like R2K and EC, I don't see a particular reason to grant redress for anything not directly under the PRO's control (like a screw up). The only thing a PRO could do is cancel or postpone a leg if conditions are (1) known with 90% accuracy or better (2) to cause significant attrition or injury.. Like a tropical storm approach or something.

Afternoon T-storms are hit/miss. Yes, some can be severe. It would be awesome to have some sort of warning system so that all sailors would be updated on an impending approach. Weather VHS, some sort of signal sent to Spot trackers...something (not sure what technology is out there) but ultimately it is up to the teams to read conditions and plan accordingly. It ain't all about going fast.

"To finish first, first you must finish" (don't know who to attribute that saying to....). If that means pulling ashore and waiting vs. sailing through in the hopes you don't end up snapping a mast (or worse), I'd wager on the former strategy paying off rather than the latter.

What was the "secret sauce" for the winners? I believe they all had to deal with the same conditions (weather, equipment failures, routing, etc). Was it only that those teams had higher boatspeed? I would doubt that.

But now is the opportunity for both RO and sailors individually to reflect "what would I do next time to make it better (race, team performance, logistics, etc)"?

Put all those thoughts together, weed out the typical whining (unfortunately, not everyone gets a trophy in life) and ideas that aren't feasible (like 24 hour drone coverage), select the top concerns of those that are left and focus on that for improving next edition.

You won't get to all the issues, but continual improvement will go quite far in increasing popularity & participation.

I'd like to offer my very limited abilities if you think it would help... On the other hand, too many chefs spoil the soup...

may be an adventure race but IF it could be run a few weeks earlier it Could be a safer race.

View from the water…

Understandably it does swck to be in the dark about something you have a passion for. And it does seem like a simple thing just to get some basic information out. This bar will always be higher than the resources available. Damon did a great job of getting information out considering everything that goes on during the race. As many of you know the whole week gets to be a continuous event where getting food, sleep and being ready are the priorities. Sometimes it can be even more difficult for the ground crews than the sailors.

If some of you that cannot make it to the race can offer some tech services from home or office I’m sure it would only make things better. For example, during my cold beer reflection period after landing I was able to answer texts from friends. I would be happy to text a short report from our team to someone who could then post it. That would not work for everyone but it’s something. I would also need to be reminded to do that because my next beer and some food are my priority.

Something that needs to be understood, and you guys may not like this, but, the people on this board are not the target audience. You are not potential sponsors and most of you will never enter this race. Don’t get butt hurt, it’s the truth.

Dennis is a businessman, a successful one. His plans involve other business people with resources and an international target audience that will indeed expect more than what we are currently doing. The bar is being raised at a rate to which the resources and personal abilities can tolerate. There are conversations and plans going on behind the scenes that will bear fruit and because he is actually putting forth the effort, he needs your support. The hours and hours of drone video footage is a powerful tool and must be properly edited and presented for full impact. That opportunity is not lost, it’s being focused. So far, many of the comments from this board would damage the event’s reputation rather than foster and promote good will.

If catamaran sailors are to be known and respected as a community of sportsman, start acting like it and get behind those who are trying to create something. It may not be perfect but apparently it’s more than you’ve done lately. Again, don’t get butt hurt, think of this objectively and focus on the bigger picture.

If sponsors do peak at this thread, they need to see people saying, “great race how can I help”. No one will ever be interested in what you did five or ten years ago, but bringing that experience to the table to help other sailors and the event, you’d be a freaking hero.

My heroes are the people who gave their time all week so I could steer my boat for 350 miles through beautiful waters. The crews who did this race for the first time not knowing if they would finish, getting back on the boat after being pummeled by thunderstorms. The Mom who stood on the beach waiting for her husband and thirteen year old son to come in. These people have courage and commitment.

Comments have been made about safety and what the RC should be doing. They did exactly what they should do, set a course and lines to cross. The skipper and his crew are the only ones to decide when to sail based on their experience and skills. The safety gets increased by the sailors sharing their skills with each other. There was not one person on any team that would not be more then happy to explain how they deal with situations on the water. Especially dangerous situations like weather, or shallow water, or equipment failure. The wealth of knowledge on that beach cannot be bought or bargained for, but if you step up and join the fleet they will help you.

It was a great honor for me to have 2 teams tell me that things I said to them in the past helped them decide to enter the race. Before and during the race our team offered assistance, advise and support whenever it was asked for or needed. As a result we made new friends, friends made under those circumstances are high value.

The Florida 300 will run again next year, it will be bigger and better and the teams will be faster. The 3 MYC youth teams will probably return, they seemed to get bit with the bug and they’re very good at it. There will be more European teams that may need some ground crew help and local knowledge. Get involved, put your hard earned experience to use and help create something for our sport. It won’t be easy and it won’t be perfect, but it will be ours.

“Do something, lead, follow, or get out of the way”.

Dick Macdonald
Cirrus F18
Turtle Mojo

Well said.

+1

That's my skipper b!tches! Who apparently is a fan of Patton, which explain a lot. That is all.

Dennis you, your dad, Chuck, Lisa, Chucks wife (I was never introduced) worked their butts off for us and I for one am grateful, thank you! And thank you for having the backbone to use SCHRS in my opinion the pros clearly out weighed the cons!

That would be Judy, the half that makes Chuck tolerable.
Lets hear some more about the SCHRS pros and cons. I'm glad to see this start happening. Your buddy Mark Schneider tried using it a few years back in the Cheaapeake , and IIRC it worked well.