Weather has been great for the first three days, today could get dicey but we might get lucky.

Race news is at
https://www.sailseriespromotions.com/
Results
https://www.sailseriespromotions.com/races/florida-300/2017-florida-300-results/

I've been "Going Live" on Facebook on the Catsailor Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/catamaransailor/

The beach start is scheduled for 10am Eastern Daylight time each day.

Great stuff, thanks Damon!

Mike

Just out of curiosity.
In one of your vids there is a man of the beachcrew approaching the camaraman (you Damon? ) and ordaining him to leave the area marked by the flags.

Are those beaches in Florida not public area? What right has the man to act like this?

I'm not sure of the specific time you mention but there are a couple of things in play. While the beaches in Florida are generally public to the high tide line there are a LOT of local exceptions and unfortunately more all the time.

For the Florida 300 we have to obtain beach permits for every beach from the local authorities. This doesn't give us exclusive rights to the beach at all and in the videos you see people all over the place most are local tourist.

The only time someone might get yelled at is to warn them that if they don't move over a little they could be injured by a catamaran making a beach landing.

Since I mostly went live when boats were either starting or finishing, that's probably what you saw.

I was the guy holding the phone and talking and if the guy yelling had on a yellow shirt it was probably our Beach Master, Chuck Bargeron.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Damon,

That is still about the same as here in Holland.

I witnessed a lot of occasions where organization people in red or yellow shirts got carried away a bit by their enthousiasm.
So, your vid that I saw, proofed me that this phenomenon is obviously all over the world.

Interesting....

Give someone a yellow T-shirt and they think they rule the world....

If it was Chuck his "enthusiasm" isn't limited to errant tourists it can and is directed at competitors as well. I've said on at least on occasion "I'm very aware of the urgency, either help or STFU!" Still friends.

Congrats Todd and Dalton!!!

Yellow shirts bother you? You should see what we do with yellow flags, lol...

Mike

I had a similar situation down in that area a few years ago when my kids tried to go surfing. The guard told us that if we wanted to surf we had to move about 100 yards down the beach to be outside of the flags. It wasn't a safety thing because there were people in the water outside the flags as well. I guess maybe the guard was afraid my kids were newbie kooks who would run over waders in the surf. What they didn't realize is I'm the kook in our family and I wasn't surfing.

It is a pretty standard practice for lifeguards (and the district they work for) to not allow surfers, boats, and other non swimming activities within the "flags". the flags typically indicate the zone/area where lifeguards "patrol" and have responsibility.

So what's the point of having "Lifeguards" in an area where nobody is allowed in the water?

Why not instead have a "Launching/Landing zone" with Lifeguards to keep the little kids out?

The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the red zone.

There are people allowed in this area, swimmers (and splashers, and ankle-dippers)
the point is to staff lifeguards in specific areas so swimmers can have supervision

Areas outside of this "swim area" are for "others" - surfers, skimboarders, windsurfers, etc. where a guard/township is not responsible (or liable) for your safety

I think it makes 100% sense to separate these groups or there would certainly be surfers going over and into swimmers



can't patrol everywhere (without lots more expense): not enough resources to have lifeguards watching swimmers, and other guards patrolling launch areas to ensure no one launches (sans board)

Hey: i don't make the rules. If i did: only beach catamarans would be allowed in the water - and swedish bikini teams

wow, really? These guys?

close
( but no cigar)
this link - beutiful swedish women

not this link - meninspeedos.com

or around here:

fat old rich guys in speedos and their hot trophy wives. com