Doug,
Are you going to Statue of Liberty? My crew wants to do it on a i20 - I told him no, but I could be convinced.

Personally, I think its better to disassemble boats for long trips. Recuced windage, reduced wear on tramps, etc, and the savings on the size of the trailer make tons of sense. I always worried when I saw WF's trailor with boats hanging way off the back. It always took 4 guys to load that trailor, it was a pain in the *ss. Think about a trailer that you can load boats inside, or not have them hanging off the back - and a trailor that doesnt require 4 guys to load it. That gets old quickly.

Plus if you have boats hanging off the back and you get rearended you are screwed.

Bill

Bill - maybe this helps?



or this?

Bill:

Me going is in limbo. Still having problems getting this big check from business dealings. Yea taking apart would be easier. But if you are building a trailer, talk to Marc. Nice photos of NYC.

Doug Snell
Hobie 17
Soon to be Narca A2
www.tcdyc.com

Re: Spring Fever
#69716 - 03/14/06 11:47 AM Edit Reply Quote




Quote:
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I will be there - Just like last year. Sail w/my skipper from Delaware on a 16. C U all there



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Nice Shirt!


TOMMY BAHAMA BABY

Hey

How about some of you I20 boys from up north come down and show us whatchoo got eh?

only a 10 hour drive from DC.

The wind... (lack their of) mud (2 months to get rid of) and format knock attendance down... Its a long way for a party.

Format?

Uh.. How far do you want me to drive to race three boats?

20 hours of driving to be tossed into the open class with the odd Wave? No thanks. No party is that good!

If the format were like the Catfight where you KNEW that all spin boats started and raced each other with lots of class splits below that (depending on turnout) ... Well, then you would be willing to risk the wind issue...

thanks captain happy for raining on the parade.

Perhaps if one person decided to make an event out of it from your area, then it wouldn't be "only against 3 boats". I look at the list of F18 competitors and there are PLENTY travelling up from Florida to come to this "big party".

and btw, we'll probably start with the F18's.

As for wind, Trey's avatar was taken during SF last year. The mud is a non-issue now that the lake is full again. We didn't have a spot of it on our boat last year.

I second that. All of our starts last year were with the F18s, and then they split up the scoring. So, who's your daddy?

Attached pic is from spring fever last year.

That's fine... The scoring is still about 3 boats + ...

For 20 hours of driving, With the level of uncertainity.. Maybe they start you with other spin fleet.. maybe they don't. Maybe I would get scored in the overall spin fleet.. most likely I will be scored in the left over spin boats. Maybe 10 more boats show up... maybe not. It's just not worth it to me.

Mind you... 2 hours of driving... no big deal.

Hey its a great regatta... You asked why I wasn't coming, I don't know about anyone eles's plans.

Well, it's not quite as long a haul for me (from Raleigh, NC), but Spring Fever is still the farthest away regatta I attend. Why?

It's not because of the wind - I don't think Georgia lakes have significantly different wind than North Carolina lakes.

It's not because I'm lacking local racing - my local clubs keep me racing 3 weekends a month.

It's not for a big one-design fleet - CSC averages about 12 Isotopes per race on Kerr Lake and only 4 are currently registered for Spring Fever (all local regulars).

It's not for the party either. I'm not really a party-person and would never travel that far no matter how much free beer was included.

No, I go to Spring Fever so I can sail with lots of other kinds of boats. I know how my skills stack up against the other Isotope skippers. Regattas like CatFest and Spring Fever let me test myself against a much broader group of sailors and boats. I really enjoy mixing it up with a bunch of Hobie 17s and 18s.

I also get the chance to meet folks from other fleets, whom I would otherwise never know (such as the F-18 sailors), and perhaps they'll come sail with us at the Governor's Cup. Maybe, just maybe, some of them will even give some of us rides on an F-18 while we're there (hint hint )

Eric

I didn't.

I said... "why don't you come down and show us what you got"

Way to deliver on groupthink theory...

Also, Eric, the Isotopes are a very insular group. I don't know why you guys only make Spring Fever your only "field trip" outside your club. There are numerous inland lake regattas all over the SE which would LOVE to have the participation of the Isotopes.

Bare what you dare, tommy whiteside memorial, outback cup, hatteras regatta, just to name a few, that are simply great regattas and are perfectly suited to Isotopes.

Spring Fever is by no means the only "field trip" the Isotopes make. We also go to CatFest regularly, and I've been to Tommy Whitesides and the Lake Norman Hospice regatta as well. Back when the Oriental Sailing Social existed, we sailed there, and now go to the Clark Cup in New Bern. On occasion, we've attended Indian Summer on Lake Waccamaw.

I enjoyed the hospitality on Lake Murray at Tommy Whiteside. It was fun (even though we weren't lucky in the wind department that time) and I do want to make it back again. I'd gladly attend that and/or the Outback Cup but I had scheduling conflicts last year and this year. The same goes for the 4th of July Regatta on Lake Norman.

You're right though, the Isotope sailors do tend to stick to themselves. There certainly was no love lost between Frank Meldau and Hobie Alter, lol. The younger crowd, however, do want to sail in a broader community. If you see us all huddled up together at Spring Fever (or CatFest, or somewhere else), don't take that as exclusionary - please just consider us a little bit shy. I'm starting to get to know a few of you, and hope to continue.

Regards,
Eric

Eric:

Don't bother wasting subtlety. . .

Guys Don't waste your breath on Mark, some people don't want to go and just have a good time and enjoy being with other like minded people, wind or no wind, party or no party.
He would rather sit back and complain about being a back of the pack sailor, and how he got a little GA clay on his Tornado.

Mark,

Wait...you're talking about bringing three Tornados and you're miffed that you could possibly end up in open class? Hit the ground and get more boats or join a class that shows up to regattas like this. The Spring Fever format works fine. You're asking a well established F18 and N20 fleet to race door to door with boats that are faster but be "OK" with it! - get an F18 or N20 if you want to race with F18s or N20s or build enough of a Tornado fleet that will show up to make you happy.

Hey Guys, I still come but I'm with Mark on this issue. This regatta used to be run with a few huge handicap starts. I thought that was one of the great unique things about this regatta. You could still break out the one-designs but also score them in the big handicap fleets so you could see where you stood against everybody. It's a lot of work for the scorer but well worth it from the competitors point of view in my mind. I think the regatta attendance would be growing instead of shrinking if they scored everybody in each start as a big handicap fleet so we could see where we stood against each other. You wouldn't have to hand out trophies, it would just be cool to know how you stacked up.

Jamie

"Wait...you're talking about bringing three Tornados and you're miffed that you could possibly end up in open class?"

NO.. I am not miffed... I am just not interested in attending the regatta.

"Hit the ground and get more boats or join a class that shows up to regattas like this. "

I have asked the local I20's about going and you get various combinations of the reasons I stated... Once upon a time the New England boats also drove down and now they don't.

"The Spring Fever format works fine."
OK! Then attendance is not a concern. I must of misunderstood the begining of this thread.

"You're asking a well established F18 and N20 fleet to race door to door with boats that are faster but be "OK" with it! - get an F18 or N20 if you want to race with F18s or N20s or build enough of a Tornado fleet that will show up to make you happy."

I know you read the one design.net forum... They are debating the question is the I20 dead? should I sell my boat now... or loose big bucks if I wait? .... It's never a good thing when that is a reasonable question! So, perhaps one should look for alternatives before you sell a boat that you like.

I look at countries where cat racing is far more popular and see how they are doing things. To me it looks like they run many big races with 30 to 60 boat starts with similar boats and score lots of ways. Texel, Aussi Portsmouth, one design, forumula, whatever. So, no matter what the particular turnout of specific spin boats... F16's, F18's, N20's, T's old designs with spins... you will be racing a reasonable cohort of sailors. That is a sustainable solution... Reading tea leaves to predict how many of my class will show up is not sustainable IMO. They save the one design stuff for their states and nationals.

With respect to " race door to door with boats that are faster but be "OK" with it! " I suspect that the Europeans and Aussie's would just laugh at such BS and tell you to shut up and race.

In the interests of promoting greater inter-cat commraderie, I'll bite my sarcastic tongue for the moment and say,

A simple "its to far" would have sufficed.