Gulfport Florida Regatta

Thanks Gordon,

We did this last year and had great time. Great place great people. I highly recommend it.

Matt

I wont be able to do it this year.

Everyone,
This is a great event. With Vectorworks so close to Gulfport and trying to get the F16 class moving, this is a must regatta.
As usual, I would figure we will see Matt, Chuck, and Myself. Usually if Rick White can make it, he does. This year Jennifer will be sailing on her A-Cat.
There are a bunch of F16's out there that don't sail and just talk. Time to shut up and show up. If you are interested in an F16 come out to the event and try one out, would will be hooked.

I can honestly say I am very disappointed for the reason that only the few above show. I am looking to this regatta as a make or break regatta for myself. This will make the decision of moving to the F18. I will however keep my F16 for local Gulfport races.

If it wasn't for Matt, this class would be close to dead in in Florida.

Seth for the people that you mentioned here and in your other reply as in Show up or shut up, or a disappointment this or that. I think its best for you know some simple facts before talking.

This year was a really shitty one for myself. I sailed my boat THREE times. Go figure. The main reason was my health.

I put myself in the spot, because as MYSELF, I am sure others had what can be considered more important than any race.

I know for a fact, I sure did.

Maybe we can have a small person to person conversation, I will be more than glad to let you in on my details.

Something cannot die if it has not yet been alive. That means there is still hope. Thanks to Vector Works, we now have a third boat builder for small cats in the United States.

So far no catalyst-type people have stepped forward to get F-16 fleets going in the United States. This is a very big country, and fleets have to be developed at the grass-roots level -- just like Hobie did it. And, heck, just like we did it with the Shark catamarans back in the early 1960's.

You don't have a racing class if you have one boat in Denver and another in Los Angeles and another in Seattle, and New England and Ohio and Florida, etc. You gotta get some regular, local F16 fleet racing going SOMEWHERE.

Place your bets!

Our problems out here in California is three fold:

1. Sailing in general is not popular compared to bass fishing, wakeboarding, jet skis, etc.

2. The Hobie edict has further fragmented the already small group of racing cat sailors.

3. Lack of boats for purchase--especially less expensive used ones--and the lack of any dealer make it hard to get or try an F16.

Fortunately, the F16 boats are fabulous, and the concepts undergirding the class are sound. Hopefully the grass roots will grow. Vectorworks--in their bold and exciting bid for the Alter Cup--will certainly help with class exposure and boat availability.

GYC F16 regatta info.....

The Notice Of Race (NOR) can be found at
www.gulfportyachtclub.com

You can find out who is pre-registered at
Pre-Registration Webpage

So far there are two F16HP registered sailing 1-up. Someone is borrowing my Taipan 4.9 and will be sailing F16HP 2-up. I'll be sailing my A-Cat.

Jennifer

I just read up on the Race notifications and it appears that there is a change from last years events :

It appears that this year doublehanded F16's will be allowed to attend as well. In seem to remember that in the past it was only singlehanded F16's.

With this in mind I understand Jennifers post to mean that 3 F16 crews have registered; 2 solo sailors and one doublehanded crew as of yet. Chuck and Seth are going solo; the doublehander crew is unknown to me.

Mighty cool that Jennifer is lending her Taipan out. Best of luck in the A-cat fleet, Jennifer !

This event is on 1st an 2nd april 2006 so in about 5 weeks time. So if you are interested then start planning !

Wouter

I am thinking about skipping Spring Fever and attending. Not sure if I'll be 1-up or 2-up. I'll also have to get confirmation on the delivery date from Vectorworks .

Im debating to charter my boat to the right sailor.

Still thinking about it, seing how I will not be able to participate in this event.

Looks like we are going to have somewhere between 6 to 8 F16's and possibly more. I have just got confirmation that Hollis Caffe is attending with his Taipan. That is 6 that I know are coming.
Should make a great event.

Seth

I'd like to come up and spectate, doesn't seem likely I'll have a boat by then.

Have Matt deliver your boat at this event ?

I see he has registered himself (2-up)

Wouter

If I were you then I would consider talking Seth into taking you on as a crew.

As I told Bruce Barr last time; you can learn so much on how to sail an F16 right by sailing for a short time with someone who knows the boat and rig well. Even 60 min of sailing will jump start you to the equivalence of several months fiddling about yourself. Consider the jump start after doing a full race weekend ?

Currently Seth is listed as being 1-up; However I don't know whether that is by preference or necessity.

Wouter

This makes :

Chuck Harnden
Matt/Gina McDonald
Seth Stern
Hollis Caffee

As 4 names (crews) out of 6 confirmations.

When looking at these names I say :"already enough skill to keep everybody on their toes"

It is looking good !

Wouter

I wonder if a G cat will be there?

From what I heard the G-cat will in Gulfport. I am not going to say who may be sailing it because I don't have confirmation of that yet. If it is who I think the competition level will be raised pretty high. Also Jennifer I believe will be letting Gordon Isco skipper her Taipan with Mike Hagan crewing. Mike Hagan was the Taipan national champion a few years ago.

As for me, I should be sailing with Kelly Gray. We will be sailing this weekend down in Gulfport getting ready for the season. Gulfport's racing season starts next weekend.

Seth

With this new info we have :

-1- Chuck Harnden (1-up)
-2- Matt / Gina McDonald (2-up)
-3- Seth Stern / Kelly Gray (2-up)
-4- Hollis Caffee (1-up)
-5- Gordon Isco / Mike Hagan (2-up)
-6- Mystery crew on the G-cat F16 (probably 2-up)

Wouter

I'm 240 lbs!

240 lbs = 109 kg

Seriously ? If so, then you can forget about the A-cats altogether. I have to check but I seem to remember that the commercially available A-cats are only supplied with a warrenty up to 100 kg (220 lbs) crew weight. The hull designs are all pretty much optimized around 75 - 80 kg (165 - 175 lbs) crewweights. The F16's are of course designed around a much higher average crew weight as they are also used as doublehanders. It is always better to sail a boat underweight then overweight. In addition all the components on the F16 are designed to take much higher loads for the same reason; something your 240 lbs will almost excert on the boat by singlehanding alone. (pardon my frankness)

If you wanted to have a competitive singlehander A-cat then you will have to order a custom made A-cat, with most likely custom made hulls, and that will be very expensive.

In the past discussions I always assumed that the choice for the F16 or A-cat pretty much would be determined with what you wanted to do with it, but now I feel perfectly save to say that you have only one true option. The F16. I'm quite sure that you will get better performance out of that F16 then any commercially A-cat.

Pete when ordering that Blade (finalizing) make sure that you give the builder this body weight info and your dominant usage of the boat and have him foward this to the sailmaker who then can cut a mainsail to suit your weight. You'll will need that in order to get the best performance out of the boat.

Are you intending to mostly do singlehanding ; as in 85 % of the time ? If so then order a fully optimized singlehander cut mainsail.

If you plan to doublehand frequently as well then you will have to decide on the compromise design crewweight or order 2 seperate mainsails. If you will be doublehanding mostly with your kids then the standard Blade mainsail may well be a rather good compromise. You can easily make a 140 kg optimized standard mainsail work for your 109 kg solo weight and I don't expect your kids to be above 42 kg's yet and you can make the 140 kg standard sail work for 160 combined weight.

Lets discuss this Before you put in the final order; at time time you can tell adapt the order to suit your usage best without making extra costs.

Wouter

Seth, can you paint me a picture of where the GPYC is? I heard it's just over the Skyway bridge, (north side) but then is it east or west of the bridge? I saw the directions on the GPYC site, didn't say which side of the bridge it was, I'm trying to get a Google Map print out of it. Is it near the Gulfport Municipal Beach? Thanks.

Can anyone supply some links to beachfront hotels that are close? There are too many options for someone that does not know the area. I am going to pitch this as a mini-family vacation. It is a 10-11 hour drive for me.

Wouter:

Relax! I decided against the A cat some days ago. Getting back into beach cats was my wife's idea! She INSISTS that I do this for my health! I bounced around at 200-210 for years. Only ballooned up after parking the Hobie-17.

In fact, I'm DOWN to 240 in anticipation of the new boat. Over the next 12 months, I'm confident of weight loss of 1-3 lbs. per month. So, by the time I learn the boat, I'll be at least as competitive as I ever was.

btw- your right about the weight/warranty issue. Your numbers may be a little off, but not much.

Pete it is just awesome that another Floridian decided to go with a F16 boat. In our case the Blade.

You will have tons of fun.

Has anyone tried the stock sail? I believe it's dacron. The reason for asking, is that I might save a little money now, and get an optimized Pentex(?) sail after I get my weight down?

Whatch y'all think!

I think there is a Blade in VA with dacron sails.

If you are considering an upgrade later down the road, I dont see anything wrong with getting the DACRON to save some $$$. Once you learn the boat good and you drop some lbs then definatley get the pentax. OR who knows, maybe by then there may be a better material.

Sorry, I just wrote down the first thoughts that went through my head.

I can see the value of such an approach.

Wouter