Matt had a good day !

ahhahaha My scoring chart is FAMOUS! Robbie and Matt were so far ahead of everyone, it was so cool to see those two go at it. There starts were picture perfect as well!

Watching these guys sail is as exciting as actually sailing.

Congrats Matt.

I like the t-shirt. It looks that i have seen that before.

Had a good 2 weeks actually.

This weekend was a very good time and the events happenig at Gulfport are getting to be pretty exciting. 6 A's, 4- F16s and an F18 with the drivers the likes of Robie Danniels, Gordon Isco etc. make the drive over worth it. The conditions were perfect for 1 up and experimenting with different settings. The wind was varying quite a bit, but the shifts were fairly long so you got a chance to see how things were working, but still had to pay very close attention to where the wind was. It was tactical from the standpoint of working the course. I was able to stay pretty close to Robbie up wind, and the addition of the spin enabled me to make some large gains down wind. In the lighter wind going to weather I was able to keep almost equal boat speed. As soon as the A was trapped though, he was able to eak out a little more speed and a little more height both. This was likely as much a factor of the driver as the boat, but all around the course we were very close all day.

Last weekend was the Space Coast Kelly River Regatta. We got in 7 races and were able to have the start arranged so all the spin boats were together. 4- I20s, 4- f18s and 8- F16s. The cool things was that all the F16 teams (except tback) were couples. Ben Moon, one of the top US A cat drivers, borrowed a Blade and teamed up with his girl friend who had never been on a trapeeze before and was very hard to keep ahead of.

Conditions started out fairly light in the 6-8 range for the first race and built to a steady 15 or so by mid afternoon. Nice double trap with full on cunningham, coupled with some powered up downwinds. Sunday follwed the same pattern. Gina and I managed to be first across the line in 2 of the races against all the spin boats and were a pretty close second to the Jasons on their Cap in the rest. Boat speed comparisons across the range was very close. Any mistakes crew wise and we were not able to make up and we made a few in the heavier winds (not setting cleats, dropping sheets etc. ) Loui ran starts as soon as all the baots crossed the line and managed to schedule the last race with just enough time for everyone who wanted to sail under the causway to get as close a veiw as possible on the water for the space shuttle launch. This was good advertisement for cat sailing (even though one of the 18's managed to flip right in the middle of everyone)as we had all the boats under sail snaking through the 500 or so power boats all out to watch the launch with us. All in all an awsome weekend.

2 weeks to Daytona and hopefully we can have some more great conditions and competition.

Matt

Hi Matt,

Nice report! If I read it, I want to get onto the water immediately.

Gill

[quoteLoui ran starts as soon as all the baots crossed the line and managed to schedule the last race with just enough time for everyone who wanted to sail under the causway to get as close a veiw as possible on the water for the space shuttle launch. This was good advertisement for cat sailing (even though one of the 18's managed to flip right in the middle of everyone)as we had all the boats under sail snaking through the 500 or so power boats all out to watch the launch with us.

Agreed...fun snaking between all the big power boats [anchored to watch the launch]; we gave them something to look at before the launch.

Sailed right up next to the Coast Guard vessels [preventing people from going farther] ... came into irons for about 90 seconds before the Shuttle went up ... then repeated the snaking manuever back to Kelly Park.

So you guys manouvres your boats to such a location as the maximally obstruct the view of all other by your sails !

You guys must have made some friends there ! <img src=

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Wouter

WOW !

That must have been fun.

And a good promo activity.

It is good to see the fleets being grouped into one larger fleet and run off everyone against everyone. Good to see the F16 sailors not pressing for a seperate start as I believe is common in the states when you have 5 boats or more of one make. Especically when you say :

Will the full results be put online somewhere ? If so do you know where ?

Wouter

So you guys manouvres your boats to such a location as the maximally obstruct the view of all other by your sails

I was on shore, but I doubt the view was obstructed much. The closest you can get is 8 miles.

I couldn't find any times comparing the different boats.

Tim Bohan and Tina Pastoor sailed Blade 702 on Saturday (not me). Tina and I sailed on Sunday.

http://home.comcast.net/~smalldog266/smalldog266/KPRR_results.htm

We did get yelled at by one drunk woman, but I did not pay much attention to her as she was looking very hard in the wrong dirrection for the launch anyway.

Dingram claims that there were times taken for the spin boats by Tami, so he could send them in, but I have only seen the order of finish results posted by boat type.

M

Manouvered our boats such that the sail was in direct line with the launch (thereby minimizing) the obstruction. <img src=

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Wouter, you are correct, I got yelled at by several powerboaters about blocking their view, so I sailed to a spot where I was clear of them. Matt and a few others pulled up on a small island beach, I was going to do the same but by the time I was about to go there, the shuttle was going up. Very cool to see it up close. It took what seemed like 10 seconds or more for the sound of it to reach us, I didn't think we were that far away, maybe only about 5-6 miles?

I been able to see it all the way from my house, both at night and day, and I live a good 100 miles southwest.

Anyone has pics ?

Brian Karr and Tammy took several pictures, you might try to find him at http://www.1design.net and see if he as any posted there.

They were trying to time the races such that they could gather every one on the water and frame a shot of all the boats with the background being the shuttle launch.

By the end of 5 races quite a few people were dead tired and heading in, Karl was getting rescued and the plan fell apart, so most of us left on the water headed to the other side of the causeway. They did hand out pictures at awards ot everyone with a number masts lined up with the shuttle contrail that was pretty cool. I do know if this was digital, but should be with the other pics Brian has in his collection.

Something is afoot! Why would anyone who is virulently opposed to Portsmouth racing care?

I'm guessing they want the F16 rating lowered even further... <img src=

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Hi Matt,

great report, good to hear some on water action, outside of OZ. <img src=

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