The Tornado North American Championships started yesterday (Friday) on Biscayne Bay in Miami. It's a three-day regatta, to conclude Sunday.
25 boats are participating, including a number of boats from other countries. European and Canadian teams like to train and race in South Florida in the winter. There are more than usual this year as everybody tries to get as much water time as possible prior to this summer's Olympics in Athens.
Wind yesterday was 15+ out of the north for the three races, which averaged about 48 minutes each. Racing starts at noon each day and three races are scheduled for each of the three days. Today the wind is supposed to be 10-15 knots out of the north, dropping to 5-10 this afternoon, and switching to the east this evening.
After three races, as far as the U.S. boats, John Lovell/Charlie Ogletree are in 2nd place; Robbie Daniel/Enrique Rodriguez are in 9th.
Full results are at www.tornado.org.
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As soon as the North Americans are over, the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta starts on Monday, and runs Jan. 26-30. Same location, same group of Tornados.
And then the group will dwindle down to just the U.S. boats for the United States Olympic Trials February 12-22, also at the same location on Biscayne Bay, to determine what Tornado team will represent us at the Olympics.
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Rick is PRO for the North Americans, so I am getting some feedback from him about what is going on.
Even though Miami Yacht Club is supposedly hosting it, the Tornado Class is actually running it out of Crandon Park, a marina right on Biscayne Bay, where several of the Tornados are staying because it is right on the water where they are sailing, as opposed to having a long sail, under two or three bridges to get to the Bay from MYC.
Also, there have been grumblings the last few years about Miami Yacht Club becoming less welcoming to the Olympic sailors with their motorhomes, coach boats, etc.
Here is the corrected link
http://www.tornado.org
Tornado Class International
any news on day 2?
Nothing good to say about the second day. The wind died during the first race, and the other two races had to be canceled for lack of wind.
Today looks like good wind, so they should get in the last three races.
Crandon Park, Miami FL
2004 ISAF International Tornado - North American Championship
FINAL RESULTS
Sailed: 7 Discards: 1
Pos Sail No Helm Crew R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 Pts Notes
1 AUT 380 Roman Hagara HansPeter Steinacher 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 12.0
2 USA 808 John Lovell Charlie Ogletree 6 2 2 6 1 10 2 19.0
3 FRA 277 Olivier Backes Laurent Voiron 1 11 5 4 7 3 8 28.0
4 NED 1 Mitch Booth Herbert Dercksen 8 9 1 7 4 12 4 33.0
5 GBR 420 Leigh McMillan Mark Bulkley 5 7 7 5 18 7 6 37.0
6 GER 1090 Roland Gaebler Gunnar Struckmann 4 10 6 11 9 1 13 41.0
7 NZL 87 Aaron McIntosh Mark Kennedy 2 8 10 9 6 16 9 44.0
8 PUR 1 Enrique Figueroa Jorge Hernandez 12 14 14 2 3 13 1 45.0
9 ARG 1 Santiago Lange Carlos Espinola 13 4 11 8 OCS 6 5 47.0
10 SWE 199 Martin Strandberg Kristian Mattson 7 5 4 16 10 8 OCS 50.0
11 GER 1087 Johannes Polgar Carsten Happel 16 3 13 13 5 19 12 62.0
12 USA 804 Robbie Daniel Enrique Rodriguez 11 6 8 15 14 9 DNC 63.0
13 GRE 7 Iordanis Paschalidis Christos Garefis 14 13 9 12 13 4 18 65.0
14 GRE 1 Dimitris Theodorakis Adonis Bougiouris 15 12 12 14 12 5 11 66.0
15 CAN 369 Oskar Johansson John Curtis DNC 16 17 3 16 18 7 77.0
16 GER 1084 Andrew Landenberger Sebastian Moser 17 17 16 19 8 17 14 89.0
17 USA 80 Stan Schreyer Forbes Durdin 9 DNF 18 20 19 15 15 96.0
18 USA 838 Lars Guck Jonathan Farrar 10 DNF OCS 17 15 11 16 97.0
19 USA 818 Doug Camp Howard Cromwell 19 19 19 18 22 23 17 114.0
20 SWE 201 Hans Wallen Peter Lainevool 18 18 15 10 DNC DNC DNC 117.0
21 BRA 37 DNC DNC DNC DNF 11 14 10 119.0
22 CAN 367 Alain Dubuc Eve-Marie L'Abbe 20 21 20 21 23 DNF 20 125.0
23 CAN 1 Eric Holden Mark Coakely DNS 15 DNS DNF 17 20 DNC 136.0
24 USA 836 Gary Chu Guy Selsmeyer DNF 20 DNS DNF 21 21 19 137.0
25 USA 839 Don Thinschmidt Drew Wierda DNC DNC DNC DNF 20 22 21 147.0
26 USA 827 Competitor 27 DNC DNC DNC DNC OCS 24 22 158.0
27 USA 1 Leandro Spina Jaime Livingston DNF DNS DNS DNF DNC DNC DNC 168.0