From:
JMcKnight76@aol.comSubject: CABB-Fowey
To:
JMcKnight76@aol.com Thirty-Sixth Annual
Fowey Light Distance Race
Miami, Florida
October 30, 2004
10:30 AM
Next Saturday, October 30, will be the annual Fowey Light Distance Race. This is always a fun adventure. The race has only one turning mark, the Fowey Lighthouse. The historic lighthouse is about 10 miles southeast of Cape Florida. It sits at the edge of the Gulf Stream. Please make sure your boat is in top shape for this one since we will be in the ocean. The crew meeting will be at 10:30 AM at the Rickenbacker Beach. Bring a timing device to record your own elapsed time for the race. Don't miss this classic beach cat distance race; it comes around just once a year.
Key Biscayne Double Distance Race
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Nothing happened! It was a perfect day. I have nothing to report. Well, you know me better than that. It seems I can always find something to write about a race day. Fortunately, there were no great calamities to report. We did have some very enjoyable racing. My purpose in reporting on the CABB events is not so much to allow you to vicariously sail the race, but to encourage you to dust off your boat and join us the next time out.
The weather was perfect for the annual Key Biscayne Double Distance Race. We had winds of 5 to 13 knots out of the north. The first cool front of the year came through the morning of the race. When I stepped outside that morning to get the newspaper, I actually thought about putting on some long pants because it was a bit cool. I think the high for the day eventually got up into the lower 80's. Most of the sailors did put on some sort of foul weather gear, but some didn't bother. This was one of those shoulder days where you could go either way.
We had 10 speedy, spiffy cats show up to challenge the competition and have good times. Wilder Robles brought his H-16 down to the beach but did not race because his crew cancelled out at the last minute. We had two other H-16s that did race. It was good to see Carlos Beckmann and Karime Zamora out with their H-16. It has been a while. Eric Arborgast was out again with his late model ARC 21. This time out, he brought a ringer for a crew. It was none other than world class boat designer, builder, and sailor, Bill Roberts. If you want to learn to sail your new boat, what better way than invite the man who designed and built it to sail with you. It must have helped; they finished 2 in the first race and 4 in the second race. Bill was more than willing to pass along some words of wisdom about boat design and sailing techniques. If you listen carefully to what he has to say, you can become a better sailor. He knows a lot. It was great to have Bill join us for a CABB race. Hopefully, we will see more of Bill at future events.
My boat has been down for repairs since July. My glass man is very good, but he is also very slow because he has so much work on other boats. He also has the excuse that he is 84 years old and works 7 days a week. When he comes over, which isn't too often, he loves to reminisce about his days in the Navy during WWII. He was at the landing on Normandy! Good stories! So I try to cut him some slack. He is supposed to finish the bottom job this week. But the reason I bring this up is to say that I have had the opportunity to sail with other boat owners while my boat has been down. Before the race, I e-mailed Bert Pascual to ask him if I could sail with him on his H-20 for the race. He was happy to have me crew for him. I was happy to get to sail in the race. I was able to give Bert some tips on rigging and sailing the H-20. I skippered the first race and Bert skippered the second race. It all worked out quite well. We discovered that we are neighbors, living only a few blocks apart. I hope Bert can make it out for future CABB events.
We had two father and son teams and one father and daughter teams participating. Jay and Hared Sonnenklar were out with their Inter 20. Boy are they fast, they won both races. We also had Dan Lozano sailing with his son Brandon on their H-20. Brandon is a pilot studying aviation at Miami-Dade Junior College. And we also had the father/daughter team of Dave and Andrea Tardif. They have been showing up for every race with their new H-16. We need some of the other H-16 owners to come out and give them some head to head competition. Mike Powers was out with his Stiletto 23. Mike has become a very consistent competitor in the CABB races, as well. He also brought a ringer with him this time. He had to Miami Yacht Club Regatta Chairman, Ken Benton, with him. Ken is a very active sailor and campaigns a Hobie 33. Yes, that is a mono-hull, but at least it is a fast mono-hull made by a catamaran company. They really had that Stiletto scooting.
The remaining boat out for the races was Marc Newlyn's Nacra 6.0. Jim Barrett was crewing with Marc. These guys are always fast. They finished 3 and 2 respectively for the two races. Marc was presented with the lamp trophy from the June, Around the Key Race at this crew meeting.
The first race started with a downwind, off shore breeze just south of the Rickenbacker. The course had no turning marks. You simply kept Key Biscayne on your left. The spinnaker boats really enjoyed the long run down to Cape Florida. Well, we all enjoyed it, but I think their grins were a bit bigger. At Cape Florida, we passed the historic lighthouse and began a bear up the ocean side of Key Biscayne. This was a very fast race. The first three boats finished in under an hour. What a great ride it was in the ocean!
We landed on the beach just north of Bill Baggs State Park. Much to my delight, we were not met this time by the ATV mounted State Park Police or radio toting Condo Cops. Maybe they finally realize we are the ultimate environmentalist. Our boats are aesthetic. We don't make any noise. We don't smell up the air. We use only the wind. We take only pictures, and we leave only footprints in the sand. We relaxed on the beach, ate lunch, and chatted about the first race.
After lunch we did a Le Mans start for the return race of this double hitter day. We started with a short downwind leg back to Cape Florida. I love this race; nobody can miss any marks, because there aren't any. We had one mishap just after the start, when team Tardif stuffed their H-16 in a puff and went over. They righted it quickly and were back in the chase. The three spinnaker boats jumped into an early lead as would be expected. Burt and I were running a close fourth. It appeared that the spin boats were over-standing the lay-line to round the cape. I talked Burt into short tacking inside the leaders. I thought initially that we had cleverly pulled off a coup and jumped into first place. Unfortunately we slipped into the wind shadow of the trees and lighthouse on the cape. We had no wind while the boats just off shore kept some breeze and were able to pass us back up. Very frustrating! The remainder of the race was a long beat up the bay in shifty single and double trap breeze.
What a day for a race! October is undoubtedly my favorite month to sail. It is not too humid, the temperatures are moderate, and there is usually a nice breeze. This year's Key Biscayne Double Distance Race was just about perfect. Those who attended had a good time. Following is a list of the participants with the results. The results are deceiving because this day everyone was a winner.
Crew Boat Rating R1 R2
Jay Sonnenklar Inter 20 59.2 1 1
Jared Sonnenklar
Eric Arbogast ARC-21 61.5 2 4
Bill Roberts
Marc Newlyn Nacra 6.0 60.3 3 2
Jim Barrett
Bert Pascual Hobie 20 64.9 4 5
John McKnight
Mike Powers Stiletto 23 65.0 5 3
Ken Benton
Dave Tardif Hobie 16 76.1 6 7
Andrea Tardif
L.S. Cooper Prindle 18 74.9 7 6
Sam Feldman
Dan Lozano Hobie 20 64.9 8 8
Brandon Lozano
Carlos Beckman Hobie 16 76.1 no times
Karime Zamora
Change: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world" -Mahatma Gandhi
See you next Saturday.
John McKnight
305 251-7600
