Millennium Cup
December 16, 2006
Miami, Florida
By: John McKnight

Fluky, fluky, fluky, that's what the conditions were like for this year's Millennium Cup Race. The forecast was for light wind and light rain in the morning followed by clearing skies and a wind of 10 to 15 in the afternoon. That never happened. We had light and variable winds all day and a few drizzles. I think the winds hit just about every point of the compass at sometime during the race. We started out with a nice 7 or 8 knots out of the east, and then it died and started shifting all over the map. Hey, it's December, we should be glad we could even go out sailing. The water gets very hard this time of year up north.

Five boats showed up for the races. We had three Hobie 20s, a Hobie 16, and a Tornado. Newcomer, Ken Reid, was out for his first CABB race on his newly acquired Hobie 20. He has been working on the boat for the past month. He has it all tricked out and tuned up now. I have been out sailing with him twice for shakedowns and training sessions. He is excited about the boat and is looking forward to participating in future CABB events. Ken has an extensive sailing resume including, beach cats many years ago, big racing cats, and monos more recently. This is the first beach cat he has owned. Rafael Quesada was out with his Hobie 20 with crew Oscar Garcia. Oriol Cruzeta was with me on my Hobie 20. Dave Tardif was with his son, Dan, who is home from college for the holidays. A Tornado, sailed by John Esquivel and Mike Siau, rounded out the competitors. Mike was fresh off a second place finish in the harrowing Steeplechase race the previous weekend.

I called for a relatively short triangular course in Biscayne Bay because of the light wind. The course was only about 5 miles in length. We had planned on doing a second race around the course if the winds picked up later in the day. After leaving the start line, near the causeway, we proceeded southwest to the Dinner Key Channel marker #1. From there, the course was east across the bay to the "Danger Shoal" marker just off West Point on Key Biscayne. From there it was a straight shot back to the finish line. We did our usual timed start just off the beach. John Esquivel was late to the start by about one minute because he had to sail over from the Olympic Training Center. He was able to pop his chute right away and quickly caught and passed all the sloop rigged boats. He was first around both marks. Because the winds were fluky, there were several position changes during the race. This made it very interesting. The conditions made it imperative to concentrate on the wind indicators and telltales. There were huge shifts. You would be going upwind one minute and suddenly you were going downwind the next without changing heading. This made for some very challenging sailing. There were huge wind holes at times. You could be sitting virtually still and have a boat sail right around you 50 yards away. Now that can be frustrating, unless you are the boat with the wind. That is what I like about sailing, it is never constant and always a challenge to adjust to the varying elements. As we neared the end of the race, I looked over my shoulder, and there was Dave on his Hobie 16 right on my stern. The last time I noticed him, he had been a mile back. Where did he come from? I told myself that he must have skipped the last mark, but that was not the case. He had caught us all.

John and Mike, on the Tornado, were the first to finish, but they corrected out in second place. Dave and Dan Tardif, on their Hobie 16, took first place on corrected time. Oriol and I came in third followed by the other two Hobie 20s. Despite the less than optimum conditions, everyone seemed to enjoy the fluky day of racing. Hey, the worst day of sailing is better than the best day at the office, as they say. At least we got out and enjoyed some wind, water, and good company. It sure beat sitting at home snoozing through golf on the telly. Not that there is anything wrong with golf, I like that too. See you next month for the New Year's Day Race.



Ken Reid also wrote his account of the race. His narrative follows:

Hi Group,
The Millennium cup was the first shakedown race for my, new-to-me, used
H-20. I raced with Claudia Schmid as my crew. The day started with some light
misting and little wind. John M. had a meeting and we set our watches. At the start, I tacked around a little too slowly and missed my chance to force John M. off the
start line (almost). I think this really cracked him up. As we all (3) H-20s and a H16 headed to the first Mark off Dinner Key, John reminded
me to stay weight forward, and we caught the day's only puff to move a
hundred yards up. The Rafael Quesada, on the other H20, and I sailed somewhat together to the mark. We were all over taken by John Esquivel on his Tornado who pleasantly sailed up from behind to ask for race directions. After going around the mark, quite a bit ahead the now fourth placed H-20, we tacked to the second mark off
Key Biscayne shoals. When we traded our first tacks he was way ahead (ouch). The wind really started to shift from NNE to E to SE to S to SW
to eventually NE. During these shifts I made every possible wrong
choice I could, who knew. I now found myself tacking to the second mark
as all the boats passed me by (having already rounded) including Dave on the
H-16. When I finally did make the mark, I was miles behind. The wind was
hardly moving as Claudia and I sat near the crossbar played the sails
and with one rudder up, sailed a strait course to the to the beach
finish. After a while it became clear that the Tornado had finished,
but the other boats where in there own private hole down near the
bridge. We just ghosted along to finish third just seconds behind John
M (almost again). Never give up. That was it for racing, so we all had a
well deserved lunch and departed. A good time was had by all, and some
well needed light wind training for me.
Lets get 5 H-20s on the line for Tradewinds so we can have a class.
Regards to all
Happy holidays
Ken Reid


John McKnight
Commodore, Catamaran Association of Biscayne Bay (CABB)