Seth Stern and his crew on a Tai Pan 4.9 finished the Macho Man race (my GPS said 68 miles with all the tacking) down Tampa bay, under the big bridge, then up the Clearwater coast to Dunedin, with a west wind and plenty of chop. I think they finished about 90 minutes behind the first I20 but ahead of the only Tiger in the race,being sailed by a couple of chicks, and not far behind a Nacra 6.0 with spinnaker.

It was light air at the 0800 start with a spinnaker reach heading south and west to the bridge, then about 12 knots of west wind for the long beat north up the coast in the Gulf. I was on an Inter 20 thinking I was glad I was not on a 16 foot boat in that chop!

So, who is Most Macho? The big dogs that stomped everyone on their I20, (the first 4 boats to finish we I20's) the Chicks on the Tiger or Seth on the Taipan?

This is not a corrected time race, strickly first to finish. There was a Super Cat 20 that started but dropped out, never heard why. Dave Ingram and Jim Novak kicked everyone's butt on the first I20. Of course they cheated (if you aint cheatin', you ain't tryin') and cut through the restricted zone by Mac Dill airforce base... While the boat nazi's chased the rest of us out, they escaped to the bridge un-molested. JC showed us how to do a pirouette on an Inter 20 with spinnaker up, when he ran aground, he did not flip though, which was truly amazing.

Seth, tell us what it was like on the Tai Pan.

Seth also had his spinaker halyard break, rendering it unusable for part of the race. The lack of halyard also caused the spin to come out of the bottom of the snuffer tube, acting like a big sea anchor. I think he would have finished 20-30 minutes quicker if those things didn't happen. Dave Ingram & Jim Novak placed first at 7 hrs 18 minutes and I think Seth & Mike were about an hour behind that.

Who was Seth's crew ?



With respect to the spi coming out of the snuffer. All new snuffer socks have a piece of mesh at the bottom end with a eye placed in it to allow the retrieval line to come out. It is actually an easy do-it-yourself fix. Most socks don't close of the end entirely but leave one side unstiched so you can reach in their with your hand if anything ever jams up.

Wouter

We there 7 or more boats participating ? (I count 4 I-20's, 1 Tiger, 1 Supercat, 1 Taipan F16 in the pictures)




Seth and crew ; here still with a spinnaker.




Here the fleet on the water; teh Supercat is just outside of the picture to the right (as could be seen in the follow-up pic)




And here you can see Seth and Crew come in without, indeed, the spi halyard hanging in front og he jib





Hey Seth ! You should really drop your pole lower. See Paul Kilkenny's post earlier this week.


Wouter

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Actually Seth Stern and his crew Michael Coffman did quite well.

Lance Hallmark reported in this thread that "Seth also had his spinaker halyard break, rendering it unusable for part of the race. The lack of halyard also caused the spin to come out of the bottom of the snuffer tube, acting like a big sea anchor. I think he would have finished 20-30 minutes quicker if those things didn't happen."

On handicap (see table)





Seth and Mike finished up in the middle of the 7 boat spi fleet with only 20 footers except one F18. If they had indeed sailed 25 minutes and 10 seconds faster; and therefor finished within 8 hours 2 minutes and 28 seconds, then they would have tied for 1st place. That doesn't appear to be beyond reality. I don't know how much they were hampered by not having the spi but considering they travelled 68 miles it would stand to reason that some significant spi legs would have been present allow to recover 25 min in a 8 hour race. It would be equal to gaining just over 3 min per hour bouy racing.

I hope both Seth and Mike enjoy themselfs despite the little halyard setback

Also Lance is more right then Tim. Seth and Mike finished 1 hour and 10 minutes behind the first finisher and not 1 and a halve hours.

Wouter

Good to see M Coffman back on a Taipan...He took me for my first sail on one.

Wouter, I didn't have a stop watch and was busy taking apart a boat when Seth came in, I was guessing on the time, no disrespect intended.

The point I was trying to make is that Seth and Crew may be more macho, having completed the race, which was 2/3 upwind going north, into some bad chop and a south bound 2kt. tide, on a 16' boat, and this was before I knew anything about his spin halyard. It was a light air spin reach at the start (see photos) but turned into a very long beat after the bridge. I don't know when his halyard broke so I don't know how much time he may have lost. I put the info up here so you could crunch the numbers and see how he might have corrected out.

Still, he beat the Tiger straight up and the Tiger didn't break it's halyard...and it wasn't that windy all day. (max of 12 maybe?)

Matt will be doing the Mug race on the Blade May 8, should be a good showing for the Blade. I wish he would do it solo because it's usually a light air race. A Cats usually finish close to the Inter 20's.

Tim,

No worries !

No disrespect taken. That is why I wrote that lance was more right than you as the true time between the boats was a little more than an hour and less than one and a halve hours.



How big was the chop ? If the chop is relatively small enough (below the deck) than the ride could actually have been quite relaxed.





The final result does point in the direction that it didn't hold them back to much. But Only Michael or Seth can clearify this for us.





Well, I'm not to sure wether light winds would hamper Matt and Gina much. We have had pretty light winds for the last 3 sunday of the Spring Cup and honestly the A-cats were not in front. Only expection was the very first race were both A's sped around the course. In the other races they were much further back. Last sunday the A's were actually around us most of the time. There ae only 2 A's competing in the Spring Cup so we can only guess how much sailor skill is determining the outcome. Still, I don't feel the A's are beating F16's with any significant margin. Going on some of the Aussie experiences it looks like the F16's are pretty comfortable around A's. Sure the A's are killers upwind but they give it all away and more on the downwinds. It has to be really light winds for the A's to be outright winners again. So light in fact that the spi will not fill or stay filled. And this is pretty light, as in glassy waters light winds. It pretty much concides with the transition between laminair winds to turbulent winds. As soon as you feel a light breeze on your checks you will be sailing in turbulent winds and then the F16's will stay with the big boys. If you only feel a very slight sighing of wind on your checks than you are in laminair winds and here taller masts have just so much more power because their tips are in the higher regions with higher windspeeds. Although having said this last sunday both Bart and I did a smart thing in such winds. Our spi wouldn't stay filled so we retrieved it thinking that a flapping and collapsing spi actually hurting flow and boatspeed. After we retrieved the spi we lay down on the hulls and far forward and kept the boat really calm. Then slowly but surely we cut through a 10 boat fleet that was in front of us and finished ahead. In these very very light winds a spi doesn't work and smooth/calm sailing does really work. A-cats forte but maybe not the I-20's forte ?

Anyway : another race day for the Aussies and Dutch sailors this sunday and for you Florida guys in two weeks time.

good luck to all

Wouter

Wouter, the Mug race is a 38+ mile distance race on a 2 mile wide river, usually a reach, usually light air to start with about a 10 kt. seabreeze filling in after 2pm. Matt has said Gina can't crew, I would sail it alone and avoid the time penalty of jib and crew but that's up to him, he has another crew lined up.

I'll be crewing on an I 20 so I will get to see him unless he smokes us all, which could happen! They do a reverse corrected time start, where they do the math the night before and then give you an exact (to the second) start time based on your P number. That way, it's the first boat to finish that wins.

Will there be any other F16's/Tai Pan's there?

I wont be there with my Blade. I am dropping my boat off tomorow for some repairs.

I got run out of the restricted area right along with everyone else. There were at least 3 boats chasing us out. Nobody spent very much time in the restricted area.

Cheating! Geesh!

The F16 and F18 teams are the most macho!

Who is more Macho ?

My vote goes to Gary Maskiel and his F16 1-up.


Why ?

-1- He pulls the kite in anything.

-2- He does so on a boat that has a short stern necessitating short tillers. Talk about sensitive steering !

-3- F16's are so light that if you are slow in the lulls your behind with hit the water when you pull the lee hull almost out of the water. Heavy buggers like the F18's don't really have that problem.

-4- He took a few swims till someone pointed out to him that he should depower his mainsail when flying his spi (kite). But none deterred him and now he wins many races.

-5- He got right back on "the horse" after he broke off her nose. And is not holding back in high winds


I say 10 out of 10 points for both spirit and persistance.

My vote for "Ultimo Macho" goes to Gary Maskiel. And I dream to follow his example.

Wouter

Those I-20's ran a very good race. Anybody suggesting that cutting through a restricted area caused them to perform well makes too much out of a very small advantage if there was any.

Wouter