I finally finished the map of Founders Park, and it is attached. Use your magnifier tool to read it, or print it out.

The maps and the schedule of events will be given to you by the gatehouse tender when you arrive. If he doesn't, ask him for it.

You will receive sailing instructions and all other information in the regatta booklet when you register.
REMEMBER, you have to register and pay -- preregistration does not count.

Registration will be 1700-1900 on Friday evening and 0800-1000 on Saturday morning.

Registration will be in the Administration Building -- see map. You will make out your checks to "Village of Islamorada". They do take some credit cards -- Visa and Mastercard for sure.

When you arrive, take the drive to the beach and get further instructions from Chip, Barb, Mary, or whoever is over by the regatta headquarters (motorhome), indicated on map.

WARNING!! Do NOT raise your mast with your boat on the trailer, because then you will not be able to get your boat to the beach. You will have to put your boat on the beach with mast down and raise the mast after you are on the beach. (There are power lines at one end of the beach and tree branches at the other end.)

If you are ONLY able to raise your mast if it is on the trailer, there are alternative places on the property to launch, and you can sail your boat around to the beach. Ask us when you get there.

Tom,
Sean and I are here already. We got here yesterday around 4ish. Had a blast last night, found some good eats at a place called Bentley's a few miles down the road. Helped that there was a bar and I drank waaayy more than I should have, probably a direct result of the hot bartender.
Our plan is to hang out relax til Olli gets here with our boat Wednesday. I guess Olli and Robbie are bringing several boats down around noon. My other friends Mike and Tripp are planning on getting here Wednesday too with their F18. So we should have plenty of boats out to practice.
I'll give you a call later on today.
See ya soon!

I hope you guys are not planning to take your boats to Founders Park until Friday.

Pics or it never happened :P

Mary... nope we are planning on the Carribean Club.
We walked around founders park yesterday. Great looking place. Don't worry, we really won't sail there til friday.

So are you guys setting up at Carribean club and sailing to founders on friday? I ask becuase I would like to do that. Just wouldnt want to do it alone.

Just a couple more brief updates:

BEER:
You cannot drink beer anywhere on the property except at the "beer pavilion," which is designated as such on the map I attached earlier. That is where the keg will be for the Saturday night beer party, but you can drink your own beer in that pavilion, too, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You can take your cooler to the pavilion, or whatever. There is some car parking very close to that pavilion.

PARK FACILITIES:
During the official regatta days you can use pretty much all of the park facilities free, except for the swimming pool and the skateboard park. There is some sort of daily fee for those. But the tennis courts, playgrounds, basketball court, jogging trail, beach, etc. are free to use.

Whoops, one more update:

Chip and Barb still have some Hobie Waves available to charter at $175 for the weekend, if you decide at the last minute to fly down and join the fun. Currently expecting at least 12 Waves.

AND ANOTHER UPDATE:
If you do not have a boat with you when you go through the gate, the gatekeeper won't know you are there for the regatta, so be sure to tell him (or her). Otherwise, they might try to charge you $10 to go into the park. Regatta participants will have free entry to the park during the event. At registration you will be given a pass for your dashboard.

Also, remember to ask for your regatta handout at the gate.

Bump

Whoa... WT*?

What do you mean? WT* about what?

More importantly, who's going to provide all the live-bloggy-goodness and live online updates those of us not in attendance will require to remain sane through it all?

Barb and Chip Short are absolute gurus at internet. And Barb will be doing the scoring. We will be calling in reports to her all day, so maybe she can post something on the Forum on what is happening.
Haven't really thought about it, but will ask.
Rick

we'll have some at www.teamseacats.com. I have the distinct delectation of sailing on the front of an F18 with the freshly re-skippertised John Williams (just add water).

Hmm, I seem to remember some questionable pictures of John and Jake when they sailed together last year...need I say more? Brian Karr will be there this year to get the inside scoop on what really goes on behind RV doors...
www.velocitysailing.com will also have updates with pictures as well.
We are leaving Raleigh, NC tomorrow afternoon and heading south on I95, with a possible layover in Jacksonville, and arriving in Islamorada sometime on Friday. See you there!

Rockledge Engineering (Brian Karr and Chuck Harnden) will be there with on-board cameras. Frustrated with a tame Tybee, there is rumour that there may be some hot F16-on-F18 action, as Brian has expressed a desire to be in the running for an Oscar.

I can only assume, if Brian intends to catch The Chuck in frame, he will need a rear-facing camera system. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

oh yes he did say that!

Nice. Yes, THE Chuck and I are going to be trying out new cams which, hoping they work well enough, are available for all at a very reasonable price. Less than $200 to get up and running with a waterprrof mini-cam.

I have been working the past month to allow everyone to upload videos directly to the Adventure Online TV video network. So, in theory, after every regatta, we could have a bunch of videos and perspectives from different boats to watch. Im going to be setting up an instruction page that will explain everything, where to buy the cam, how to get started, upload, etc. etc.

I will be uploading videos during the weekend from the new cams, so watch the video player here on catsailor for them.

Stay tuned...
Brian

I'm bringing a rake...

RIght now there are 3 capricorns, 1 tiger and 1 Nacra F18 at the carribean club.
It took a little while to iron things out, the lady didn't really understand what our deal was.
So it ended up costing us $20 a day/night plus a $10 fee everytime we launch. We paid $60 (for today, Thursday, and Friday). We told them we weren't sure when we are going to be sailing as the forcast might be unsailable tomorrow. They also made up pay for Friday even if we sail to Founders Park at 7 or 8AM.
We told them we'd have 5 boats there. If anyone else wants to come down I guess your on your own to talk to them. There is plenty of room though.
Just so anyone that plans on comin down knows.
We are planning on making the 17 mile sail into a sort of distance race. We'll have 4-6 F18s most likely.