If Barb Short was able to post a reply tonight,(on another thread) I'm expecting you competitors to start posting reports! How'd the set up/registration go today? Who sailed down? What do you think of the venue? I'll be looking for lots of news when I get home tomorrow night... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thank you for beating me to it. I was about to start a thread for Tradewinds reports, so we can use this one <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.

First of all, I have attached an aerial photo of Founders Park, the regatta site. The beach is halfway down on the left side of the photo. This is a 55-acre property, with baseball fields, soccer fields, basketball court, skateboard park, huge swimming pool that is used for training by northern colleges that come down here for about a month in the winter. Tennis courts, kids playgrounds, golf driving range, bocci ball court, jogging path, dog park. You name it, they have it.

I'll just kind of do a blog-style thing on what has happened so far.

I guess you already know that Mike Easton and Tripp Bird brought a Formula 18 down from Massachusetts and broke their mast in a pitchpole while sailing on Blackwater Sound a day or so ago. They were not able to get another mast, so they have both chartered Hobie Waves for the regatta. This brings the Hobie Wave fleet up to 14 at this point, which will probably be the biggest fleet.

With the 20-knot winds expected, I hope Mike and Tripp will have some fun on the Waves, even though they are very disappointed at not being able to sail their boat in the F18 Midwinters.

35 boats registered today, and we are expecting as many as another 30 to register tomorrow morning from 8-10 a.m.

Barb and I were both at registration, and a number of people commented on how wonderful the facilities are at Founders Park. They said it is a lot better than Gilbert's. Duh! The only thing lacking is a tiki bar, but people are coping with having to hike over to the beer pavilion in order to imbibe -- or at least do it very discreetly, if they do it at the beach.

The sailors discovered that there actually IS a way to get to the beach with mast up -- just have to roll over a little hill and a little valley. So everybody is getting onto the beach with no problems.

The weather has been absolutely beautiful -- sunny, warm, and windy. Several boats were out sailing today.

Is it possible that we will be able to have TWO good days of racing at Tradewinds this year?

Everybody LOVES the T-shirts -- long-sleeved, white, with the "I'd rather be sailing" picture on the back. But we should have ordered more smalls. Lots of women sailing here this year, which is wonderful. It is starting to look like the old days.

If I sail, maybe Barb will have some way of posting to this thread occasionally on Saturday to update you on what is going on. She will be doing the scoring from the regatta headquarters, which is our motorhome, parked over by the beach.

By the way, skippers meeting is at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, and first flag is at noon.

Okay, I am attaching the map layout of the park here, so you can kind of try to match that up with the aerial view and get an idea of what is going on and where people are and, most important, where the beer pavilion is. Just for future reference, in case you come to Tradewinds next year. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

We sailed down on a Capricorn from the Carribean Club with 2 other Capricorns. We decided to sail without the jib as it seemed pretty gusty. We also opted to stay together and not race. We got out a little distance and the 3 of us put up the spinnakers for a pretty wild ride until the first mangroves. The mangroves were a nice break from the wind. Then after leaving the mangroves we hit more wind. It was all managable though and we had the spinnaker up most of the way. We didn't tack at all in the whole sail (around 20 miles), only 3 or 4 jibes. At lower speeds we looked at the GPS and saw speeds of 18-21. I am sure we hit around 25 at points. I'm guessing the windspeed was sustained in the low 20's and gusting to around 30.
This was my first semi-distance sail in the keys and we found out quickly how to sail over the reefs and sandbars <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Awesome sail though, it was really cool flying along with the other boats in clear blue water with the spinnakers up.
And I think I am also in love with the Capricorn... apparently I had a huge smile on my face as we ripped through the water.
Can't wait til racing tomorrow!

Oh and the set up area was great.... plenty of sandy beach for all the boats, easy access to get the boats to the beach, and plenty of parking lot to rig in. Great regatta site!

Yawn! So it's 8:20am here at the registration table. All's quiet as a handful of boats are rigging and setting up. More trickling in as the morning progresses.

It's breezy, sunny, and warm. A great regatta morning.

Mary, Have I told you lately that I love you? Todd, Whose boat was it that you sailed on? Have people up in our neck of the woods gotten Caps? Thanks for the wonderful report of your sail down! Exactly what I was hoping to get! Barb, What a lovely thing to read with my coffee. Thanks to you all! I'll be checking back tonight...

65 boats registered. Tie for the biggest fleet: 16 Hobie 16s and 16 Hobie Waves.

Skipper's meeting is over. Marks are set. Let the racing begin!

First start at noon. A list of the competitors is coming to http://www.the-helm.com -- you may have to check back later.

Most of the boats made it off the beach to the first start. Eric Arbogast and the ARC 21 has an issue and is still on the beach. There's a Hobie 20 almost ready to push off. And Mark Herendeen has probably headed out by now on his A-Cat.

I'm going to be relocating in a few minutes and getting ready to score the first race.

Just heard on the radio that Robbie Daniel retired during the first race to head to the beach with an equipment problem.

Oh, and a Hobie 16 just dismasted.

The RC hasn't called in race 1 results yet, but the F18s just came into my view as they head to the windward mark.

I haven't double-checked my entries yet, but I figured somebody would want to know how things are going.

Hobie 16 - it's tight! Ken Hilk and Beverly Griffo are in front by one point, but then it's Kevin Stittle and Gabby Hilk, and down by only one more point is Michael Siau and Jake

Hobie Wave - Stan Woodruff and Michael Easton are tied for first

Formula 16 - Matt & Gina McDonald

Formula 18 - Olli and Kelly Jason

Low Portsmouth - Wick & Wick Smith on NI20

High Portsmouth - Stephen Acquart on his H17

Just heard from Dinner Trey and Alan.

They said that they are having a rough time racing but are in good spirits. Flipped 4 times for various reasons. Also had to deal with a tramp that kept unlacing itself.

Alan only had great things to say about the venue. Absolutely beautiful they say. I'm so jealous that I'm not there.

With 3 races today, the preliminary results will be posted soon at http://www.the-helm.com

You may have to check back at that site in awhile, they'll get there.

Got the nicest feedback from the park director today. With a big grin he wanted to know how soon we'd have another regatta. He was out and about all over the property, wheeling around checking out the sights and made a point of watching the first start.

And the community people who were around the park today caught on to the festive atmosphere and enjoyed watching and gawking and asking questions.

The park staff are intrigued by the regatta since they are experiencing an event like this at the park for the first time.

Everybody is playing nice with everybody else and it's a wonderful thing.

Wahoo! How nice to come home to this! Way to go Mike S. and Jake! So funny to find myself rooting for too many teams...Low P: Arbo, Trey and Alan, and Sarah and Jaime, F18 I'm rooting for 7 out of 11 teams! I must be crazy! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Got to root for Sandra and Chris, Todd and Sean, and of course the anchorman at the helm with Jake Kohl...Someone ask Sean if he has my PFD from Island Hop. I thought I loaned it to his crew, and can't find it since. Knowing me, I may have left it on the beach, or the roof of the car <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> Seriously though, Barb it sounds absolutely fantastic! I'm dreaming of sailing in this event sometime... Thanks gang!

To satisfy the inquiring minds who want to know, there are five starts, and in this order: Formula 18, Portsmouth (all the portsmouth boats, both high and low, started together and raced the same course), Formula 16, Hobie 16, Waves.
There are two courses, the outside course, which was sailed by F18, F16 and Portsmouth, and the shorter, inside course, which was sailed by the Hobie 16's and Waves.

There is a 3-minute start sequence, so it takes 15 minutes to get all the starts off. (Well, actually, from the first actual start to the last start is 12 minutes.)

Alan posted a small story up at velocitysailing.com along with a small googlevideo of them practicing on friday.