Looks like a long, slow race today -- winds ranging from 1 to 9 mph out of the southwest (offshore wind and close on the nose). No spinnakers today unless the forecast is totally wrong.

Rick is sailing on a Reynolds 33, and they will probably stay to the right side of the course.

The race starts at 8:00 a.m., and the projected wind looks like maybe 2-3 mph at that time.

I hope the beach cats left Rickenbacker Causeway early, or they will not make it to the starting line in time for the start. Not that it will matter if nobody is going anywhere.

So, how did it go? I went to the beach in Stuart, there was wind out of the west, about 18 at 3pm. Did anyone finish in time? Any beach cats? Thanks. Tim

I sailed on a new Reynolds 33 outfitted with Calvert Sails.

I was very surprised at the speed the Reynolds 33 had. We ended up the second boat to cross the line in 5 hours 7 seconds and just behind Bill Roberts.
The boat is obviously quite a beast in light winds. It has a 48' mast and carries two Hooters and a spinnaker. And the boat is only 14' wide. In those light winds we were flying a hull most of the way down to Key Largo.
Pretty impressive.
Near the end of the race the wind had picked up to around 10 and we were down to just main and jib. Any more wind and we would have had to reef it.
I guess Reynolds also has a 16' wide version, which would make more sense. Although in the light air with the 14' and flying a hull early makes for pretty darned good speed.
The rigging on the boat was really simple and easy to use -- very well laid out.
On the wildlife viewing we saw some dolphin mating. Wow that was quite a site.., looked like a couple of wrestlers going at.., flipping over and over. That was right there in the shallows next to the long channel going into Card Sound.
We saw way behind us some boats that opted for Midnight Pass, but looked like a dumb move. The wind filled in right on the nose and there was no advantage. The wind never did fill in from the west as forecasted while we were sailing.., we did get a slight starboard lift going to the finish line.
The closest boat behind us was an RC27 and he was about 1/3 of the way from the bridge. After that we saw no boats. So, good chance we won, although we owed almost 2 hours to Andy Roedig on an F24. With that handicap he probably might have won, but we should have at least taken 2nd place.
On the boat was Dave Calvert, Mark Lipkus and myself. Mark is working with the new dealer in South Florida, Steve Bohlmann of ASAP Multihulls and is the one showing the boat.
And it certainly made a good showing on its first event in the area.
Rick

John McKnight has asked race participants for their personal reports, so I'm sure the collection will get onto this forum eventually.

Just one clarification on Rick's brief report. It sounded to me like he was saying they were using two Hooters and a spinnaker all at the same time. He just meant those were the sail options they had on the boat with them. They initially used the small Hooter, main and jib. When the wind died, they took down the small Hooter and put up the big one. When the wind started picking up again, they took down the big one and put up the small one again. At one point they took down the jib and sailed main and Hooter. When the wind picked up some more, they took down the Hooter entirely and sailed main and jib. (They were never able to use the spinnaker, of course.)

Wow, a big cat sounds like a lot more work than a little one.

I saw a couple of Reynolds 33s while at the Alter Cup in CA last week. The videos and pictures do not do them justice. They look so small in the online media. In real life, flying a hull in 10, reality sets in and they are quite a big bad-butt cat!

I'm interested to know if anyone had trouble getting through the Card Sound Bridge with the wind blowing dead on the nose the way it was. I was all lined up to go through, and about30 yds. from the bridge the cleat on my traveller let go, and as I turned around to try to manually close the cleat, the grommet where the sheets attatch to the jib ripped out and my jib went flying like a flag in the wind! I had my crew hang onto the jib, but I could not get across the bridge. I would get right under the bridge, point into the wind, lose power, and then drift right back. It was incredibly frustrating. We finally pulled out there at the little beach next to the bridge. It was very disappointing.

A fun ride when the wind was blowing though.

If you were there after 2:30 the wind were'nt no 10mph in Card and Barnes sound.I too, did not realize the current strength between the pilings at Card sound bridge but fortunately had enough power to slip through diagonally and just kissing the piling on the leeward stern and and grazing my crew on the trap to windward. I was very happy. Indecisive decision making of which gap to take can make this a hair raising event.I could imagine getting the boat pinned on the Card sound side in the wind and current and then sinking the damn boat.And then get eaten by the "SEA IT" that Craig and JC hit in the moonlight sailing late friday evening. P.S I saw the Dolphins too but they were sharing a cigarette by the time we got there. Peace n Plenty'

I want to hear more about the "SEA IT."

It's too strange an experiance for me to tell alone get Craig van Eaton on the Supercat 20 to fill this in .Personally I think it was a giant............! (class)"SEA IT" (Phylum)"WHAT T'HELL" (Family)WHATCHA MA CALL IT" (order)"THING A MA JIG"............Rick said he finished the race in 10mph winds on the R33 is what I read at the top. DUUUUUNT DUUUUNT, DUUUUUNT DUUUNT, DNNANUHHH! Aaaaaaa IT'S got my rudder........................

What a race, everything from no wind to light wind to bunches of wind! And, of course, the weather channel missed the direction again.
We finished at 2:10 pm, in the back of the first pack o` boats. I saw the R33 and the RC's flying hulls in the light pressure, very cool.
After the start the wind was light but steady and we had excellent boat speed, we were passing boats (except for Terry Green, he was kicking are butt)one after the next. When the wind died, we went to hoist the hooter and the halyard let go....? Now what? The wind filled in a little so we decided to ignore the problem for the time being. Tom was thinking he could shimmy up the mast, I told him he was F,, ing nuts. we sailed on in the light air and tryed to stay focused on the H21 in front of us, we had to try to beat him, we owed him time.
Now it gets fun. The wind died. Two lobster pots passed us! We decided to flip the boat to get the halyard back up to the top. The water felt pretty good as I slipped into the bay and the boat slowly came over. This is the first time I have ever capsized in NO WIND! We got it all rigged again and righted the boat with no problems at all.
Now we hoist the hooter and even in the light wind we started moving very nicely. The wind never clocked around as predicted, as a matter of fact it went back to ESE and stayed light and steady, we flew the hooter all the way past the Arsnickers until the angle got lost and the wind started to build beyond Hooterville. After that we had a cat fight with Herendeen, he eventually got us as we got over powered in Barnes Sound. (Nice work Mark, we had your a** in the light stuff)and that is all I have to say about that.

Pics of the flip procedure to come.

Eric Arbogast and Tom Wilson
ARC 21
Breakin' Wind IV
CABB
MYC
NAMSA

Sounds like you all tons of fun

I could NOT be there

Well, Bob Grubb called me and told me I need to post the story...

Rob, my teammate, was in the hospital and I had to rig the boat myself and did not finish till around sunset. After rigging I went to the club to have a well deserved drink and ran into JC. I told him I was getting ready to head to Rickenbacker and asked if he wanted to do the sail with me. "Hell Yeah" was the reply.

We took off in the full moon and good tunes playing with the Miami skyline off to our starboard. It was unbelievable.

When we approached downtown, there were disco boats cruising the bay and we went along the shore and tacked about 15 feet from one of the disco boats that was docked at the sea wall. They had some pretty puzzled guy's looking at us, then their **** in a bit of disbelief as to what they were looking at. There was also a latin girl doing some really suggestive dancing as she was checking us out.

We tacked out to the port and we were pretty close to a HUGE tanker before we realized it was moving. It was being towed by a tug boat.

We did another tack and were in the middle of the bay when we heard huge amounts of water swirling and splashing on our starboard side. I kept looking to see if the "SEA IT" broke the surface but nothing did. Then we heard it again at the back of the boat and it hit the rudder and went to the port side and another huge swirl like it was turning circles checking us out. It still did not break the surface. We got close to the side of the boat but not too
close if you know what I mean. Visions of the catamaran scene from Jaws was in the back of my mind.

The only explaination that makes sense is that we woke a sleeping Crocadile and it came around the boat to check us out. From the amount of water that it was moving around, I would say it was at least 12' long. We were both looking for dorsal fins but did not see any.

Night sailing has always been my favorite. It was an awesome sail and I plan on doing it again next year. Who else is in?

I will post the race story tomorrow...

Crocodiles like to do other things at night, eating come's to mind .Anyhow with the chica gyrating on the fantail of the disco boat that scientificaly confirms it was a 12' "Lounge Lizard".....

Bob, I will agree with your scientific explaination. It sure scared the sh;; out of us. I made sure not to get too close to the edge of the boat until he disappeared. I already had a shark come up at me when I was in a harness.