Tommy Whiteside - Columbia, SC - May 21-22

Can you post a lil more info please. Like a NOR, website and such.

Robi,

It's sponsored by SEACATS. I checked their site (www.seacats.org), but there's no NOR. This was more of a "mark your calendars" thing than anything else. Will keep an eye out an post as I find stuff.

Cary - any additional insight?

Jeff.

Actually I spoke to another Fleet member tonight, He sails a Super20, can never find Crew and is extremely interested in the Blade 16, for all the aparent crew & Platform versatility options. He's gotta sell his two cats, but hey isn't that the story for all of us when we upgrade.
CARY

ROBI:
www.seacats.org
INFO and NOR is on there.
I'll make you a deal, if you bring your Blade up here, I'll personally pay your entry fee. Will even put you up in the guestroom if you don't want to camp out.
Even buy you a Free Beer, maybe 7 or eight.
Fun racing starts Friday afternoon, real racing Saturday and Sunday. We race in a 3 mile wide basin just in front of the dam at Columbia Sail Club. Fantastic Live Band, Camping and Electricity onsite, Hot Showers, EXCELLENT facility. Close to my house too.
Would love to have you.
CARY

http://www.seacats.org/NORTWM2005.htm

Hey guys, NOR is there now, love to have you! We are expecting a big turnout this year as our lake is back up to full pond after being down 15ft for dam construction for 2 years. Lots of F18's, and misc fleets, F16's need to make a class here!

David Mosley
www.seacats.org

Ill just have to BITE! Please dont twist my arm! I am going to start checking my schedule. I apreciate the offer Cary.

Even Better Reason for you to come, Jeff. Looks like Robi will be there, you'll have at least 2 F-16's on the Start. I'll work on who we'll start you with tonight at Fleet, and run it by the F-18 Fleet this weekend.
CARY

Thanks for the help, Cary...Glad to see that we're getting at least one F16 up.

If the F18 fleet is cool with us being in on their start, that would be my preference. Robi, you willing to forgoe trophies etc. to have a bigger start and see how the little boats do against the f18s?

Thanks,
Jeff.

In all sincerely I am not going for trophies. I am more looking foward to a sweet weekend of awesome sailing.

So in other words, I dont mind ANY trophies. I forgo all trophies attempts.

Robi...for clarification..

We could definitely sail a portsmouth fleet and be in contention for trophies, etc.

Alternatively, if the F18 fleet is agreeable, we MIGHT be able to start with them and see how we do against them boat for boat.

Last year, I raced slow portsmouth and got waxed on corrected time....after passing boats that were supposedly faster and started 5 minutes ahead of me. I'd rather start with a bunch of boats that are about the same speed and not have to do any math to figure out how bad I got whipped.

Sounds good Jeff, if you want to start with the F18's I will be there with you.

Hopefully they wont be SKEERD!

It is a slim possibility that I could make it as well. I believe the Atlantic 1000 ends on the 20th (Friday) and it appears to only be a 6 hour drive or so from the Outer Banks to Columbia.

Problem is Mary is taking the Taipan 4.9 behind her car and I am taking 3 Waves behind my RV. Oh never mind.., it is way too complicated. <img src=

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In other words, it is possible.

By the way, I taught a seminar there a few years ago and found it to be a really nice club.
Rick

Rick,

I hope you can make it up.

Robi - there was a bit of discussion earlier re: legality of the "hooter" sail. Any issues with racing against Rick straight up if he uses the hooter? I'm good with it.

Jeff.

Also...I got a good chuckle out of Atlantic 1000, Waves and T4.9s in the same discussion.

I'll ask the Question, to my SEACATS Fleet tonight, as well as the F-18 Fleet I will be racing with this weekend.
There is no need to forgoe Trophies just cause you start with the F-18's. We try to recognize every class that has any sort of decent Turnout. I think If we can Get the Two Taipans and the Blade together that's pretty significant. As to Rick, We better watch out for him, although he rates our club and facilities as being nice, we don't sail from there anymore, SEACATS have been since been adopted by a much more active SailClub with a much nicer facility.
Mebbe I should send Rick a map!
(It's actually on the http://www.columbiasailingclub.org/ [color] Website)
CARY

No problem from me.

He's gonna need the extra humpf! lol

Don't even worry about it, guys. Rick won't be at the regatta. I'm trailering the Taipan to Ohio at the beginning of May.

Pretty please, Mary...can Rick come out and play?

In all seriousness, you and Rick have been rather vocal about the F16 group not getting off the ground....rightly so. A few folks have been working hard to try to get the F16 off the ground. Robi has cajoling folks into action and Cary has almost negotiated a deal to allow the F16s to run with the F18s at TW. I'd like to take the optimistic view that a good result with the two fleets at TW may provide a good springboard for growing.

Any effort that you and Rick can make to attend the regatta will be greatly appreciated.

Well Stated Jeff.
The big point is we can't show the world that the F-16 class exists without boats showing up at events.
Sorry about the LAWN ART post it was meant as a tongue in cheek Challenge to get the F-16's out and sail.
Just for Clarification, we have yet to get approval from the F-18 participants about this, but we do not expect any problems. We know all the F-18 fleet well, We anticipate they will take this as a challenge and opportunity for comparison of boat performance. We also assume this will either validate the F-16 claims of similar performance to the F-18 Class boats or invalidate them. We hope to set a precedent for future cooperation between the classes at local events, at least in terms of being able to share the same courses. There is no reason we have anticipated that the F-18 sailors would not agree, but we will respectfully honor their preferences.
Team SEACATS www.teamseacats.com will be sailing with almost all the TW F-18 Participants tommorrow, and should have an answer then.
Cary

Cary,

I understand we still have one hurdle to cross with approval of the fleet. Based on the notes from Les on the main forum, I'll remain optimistic that they will approve.

I hope that I am not going to be the yardstick for validating claims of relative speed between the F16s and the F18s for two reasons....

1) Although Amy and I have a lot of racing experience between us, none (well...one, we did TW last year) is in catamarans...so we're on the very steep part of the learning curve on getting the boat up to speed, tacking/gybing angles, etc.

2) The boat is not fully race prepared. It's been a play boat for me for the last 2 years. The sails are three years old and not of the latest shapes.

Our plan for this year is to race the cat more this year. Then at the end of the year, make the call whether to stick with F16 or get an F18. If we go with F16, new sails and a lot of winter prep are in store for the boat.

In any event, with the prospect of level racing in May, we'll be out practicing and trying to figure this cat thing out....just don't call us the F16 benchmark...if you want that, hire one of the Aussies!

PS....Cary...thanks for all the effort in getting the F18/F16 playing together in Columbia.

Cary,

Can you give me a location of lake Marray as in so and so much miles of Columba in that direction. I can't find the place in any map of South Carolina.

I think we really must know what travel distance we talk about when we start hunting the Florida sailors to come out.

Many thanks to the F18 sailors for seeing things that way. Besides as soon as we start blowing the doors of you guys you can always kick us out again !

But that won't happy too soon as some very good sailors are on F18's now and it will be quite a challenge to F16 sailors to just wack then on elapsed time.

With this in mind I want to react on the next statement :

All in good fun I'm sure but we mustn't put Jeff and Robi under so much pressure. Jeff admitted himself that he has some ways to go and Robi is to receive his Blade this weekend and than has to work out optimial trim and tuning as well as hone his and his crews skills before Tommy Whiteside ?

It is too much to ask of them to sail the boat to its full performance on such backgrounds.

Besides we have had several first-in-wins events already with F16's on top. Surely not everything hangs on Tommy Whiteside to "fix things for once and for all" ?

Otherwise we are better off hiring an Aussie team for the event. As Jeff said.

On the other hand if we can get Jennifer or Matt out to that event. (Please don't be offended Chuck and Seth)

That would be very nice. Let us all sharpen our teeth on eachother. I'm absolutely confident that in time all F16 sailors will proof their speed after being able to train a few times in such events.

And we will respect those.

Thanks for your efforts Cary. I just hope that South Carolina isn't too far away to get the Florida F16's to come out and play at 21 and 22 may.

Wouter

Follow this link...

http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?e... ;country=us&new=1&name=&qty=

The club is near the intersection of highway 6 and 60...zoom out to see relationship to Columbia proper.

Here's one fly in the ointment on a combined F16/F18 class. If both fleets are small (less than 5 boats each) probably not a problem, but if either fleet has 10 boats of their own, do not be offended if they don't want you in their way at the start or mark roundings. Many is the time I have been "trapped" in a bad possition at the start, by a boat I was not racing against! Then there are the mark roundings, port/starborad crossings, etc...all of which can be fouled by having another boat, not in your class, in your way. If that boat is your direct competition, well, that's racing. But if that boat is from another class entirely and is costing you time or worse, it is not good to have them in your way.

The best case would be to have so many of both clases that each gets it's own start and the two never interfere with each other but that may be a way off yet.

Here's a thought...start the F18's then start the F16's one minute behind them. That should give the F18's time to clear the line but not so far ahead that the F16's can't catch up. In the end, you simply subtract 1 minute from the F16 finish times to see how comparable the speed is.

Tim,

You're exactly right. We are certainly asking for the F18 fleet to extend some niceness to us. They are certainly not obligated to do it.

However, I hope that they will enjoy the competition of an additional few boats on the start and at the marks.

Outside of at the start, I'm not sure that the issues that arise would be any different than having multiple fleets/starts on the same course. On the J/24 at Chicago NOOD, we were leading the race and regatta....we rounded the top mark with a back marker from the Melges fleet....they were inside us, took forever to get the chute up, then went reaching into oblivion. With the sym chute, we wanted to drop dead down....competitor rounded well behind us and went straight to the finish. Doh. Just changes the game I guess.

In any event, I hope the F18s will let us play with them at the smaller regattas. It's hard for me to get excited about handicap racing or racing against one or two other boats....but that's just me.

Jeff.

Sorry to inform you Sir, but that isnt happening. Tramp never arrived at Vector Works Inc, snuffer hoop is delayed, and a few other issues with rudder hardware.

Where are they getting their tramps from? It would be nice if it was Sunrise, right there in Florida.

WOUTER:
Distances Vary. We're 5 hours from Jax, 11 hours from Key Largo. Try searching on zipcode 29063 on mapquest, or follow the links off out website.
Check your spelling: Lake Murray, SC
It's just a fun race Wouter. The F-16 world won't end if they lose.
I'm sailing a new F-18, I KNOW I'll be at the back of the pack for awhile.
Bonding and camaradarie is the key. Getting them together is key to future opportunities to not have turf wars around the marks. The F-18 group is a buncha hardcore racers, also a bunch of serious guys who grew up through the ranks, and are serious about promoting 1-Design as it still exists. Nobody can beat Nigel Pitt, he could beat me on a Hobie 16 when I'm sailing Inter-20. Yet the idea is to promote Catracing. We are all for that. I don't think the Numbers of F-16's we may get are Threatening to the F-18 class. Some may see this as a bother, some may see it as an opportunity to share. We'll see how it all turns out. It's our event, but we asked the F-18's first, 3 of our Team Seacats sailors are F-18 owners, with a strong committment to the F-18 cause. However, we've all sailed other boats and understand the frustration of a growing class.
I'm pretty sure it will be as much fun and low pressure as any Catamaran race is or can be.
We'll take care of the negotiations and details, We don't need to dissect this on the Forum. We have a vested interest in this too, with a vision of the F-16 class as the next strong one-design class on the horizon, thanks to the efforts of Vectorworks and Matt.
Gone Sailing, it's blowing 15-40.
Can you say WooHoo!!!!
See ya Monday,
CARY

No worries Mate.
If I were the Yardstick for Catspeed, The world would not think Catamarans were nearly so fast. I lost a race last year on a Nacra 5.8 to a 80 pound 14 year old girl on a Raider! Of course she's the champion,and the wind was about two miles an hour. (Cats just just don't sail DDW.)