Florida 300 Distance Race – Starts May 17 with 5 days of racing ending on Saturday, May 22, 2016. Party to Follow!

Early Registration Ends March 1, 2016 

This year's Florida 300 is going to be the best ever with an extra day of racing and the finish line at Daytona Beach. Lots of details to come, but we already have more sponsorship in hand than ever before and a big beach party at the Ocean Deck near the finish line on Sunday following the race.

Many of you have read about events like the Worrell 1000, Tybee 500, Great Texas, or the Hogs Breath. These challenges give a beachcat sailor a chance to do something few accomplish by pushing themselves and their boat to sail hundreds of miles with a bunch of like minded (crazy) sailors.

 If you have the boat, and basic skills like surf launching and landing, why not give yourself this opportunity? If you are ever going to do a major distance race the Florida 300 stands out as a “doable” event. Five days of racing with reasonable leg lengths from 60 to 80 miles and each finish line is right in front of your hotel! Couldn’t be better, so come along and join us for the 2016 Florida 300 and save $55 by getting your registration in by March 1st.

To get your early registration in or ask any questions please contact any of the Sail Series Promotions board member on the Contact the Florida300.com organizers.

Or REGISTER NOW FOR THE 2016 FLORIDA 300

Billy Besson and Marie Riou from France Win 2016 Nacra 17 Worlds

The Unbeatable Billy Besson and Marie Riou chose to sail the final race of the series even though their point spread was enough to call it a week! Billy and Marie are definitely please with their performance and with the event as a whole. They feel the race committee, and all of the organizers were great on the support and thank them for helping put on a successful World Championship. The pair took a 2nd place finish to add to their already extremely low score. When asked how he felt about his days finish Billy replied,

"It was a little bit complicated near the harbor because the wind is going to be shifty with the buildings. We finished two, which is not so bad, but when we are competing, we like to win every time." Never settling for second best apparently.

Interestingly enough, competing on just another race course away from the Nacra 17 fleet, the 49er skiffs also had their 2016 World Championship. They too had a World Champion announced. Peter Burling and Blair Tuke also took home their fourth World Championship title. Billy notes,

"We were in competition to see who could get the four World titles, haha."  Well Billy, it seems you both take home the win!

Still sitting in second, taking their first ever silver medal at a World Championships is Danish team of  Allan Norregaard and Annette Viborg Andreasen. Allan gave us a quote before going out as he was all smiles and completely relieved. Today Allan and Annette found out they are the Nacra 17 duo going to represent Denmark in the Rio Olympic Games, this August. Three regattas were used in the Denmark national selections: 2015 Europeans in Barcelona, 2016 Miami World Cup, and this final 2016 World Championships. The second boat in contention Lin Ea Cenholt Christiansen and Christian Peter Lübeck fought hard to stay near their compatriots, but after the final points/protests, they were unable to beat out Allan and Annette.

"It's a big relief to be over that trial, and now we are surprisingly in such a good position, which we didn't know because we were defending our trial, it's really surprising for us that we would end up so high on the scores, so it's really just a bonus for us now to go out there and fight for a medal," said Allan. "It turned out as good as it could for us, cannot complain!"

Allan and Anette finished just two places in front of the Italian to give them just a five point lead ahead of Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri of Italy. The strong Italian team pushed their way back on the podium managing a third place finish, bumping their overall place into third.
 
The Danish team of Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank came to shore with low hanging heads. The pair competed very strongly throughout each day, and were very much looking forward to ending this 2016 World Championship with some silverware.
 
The final medal race took a turn for the worse for these two Austrians. The boat was focused very much on their competitors around them that they weren't focusing on the shifty conditions that only progressed as the race went on.

"It was nice to see that we can fight for a medal, and looking at the 2015 Worlds, they were not like this, so that was quite great. Even with the medal race, we are proud we had come so far,"  Tanja admits.
 
This pair will be have their chance in the coming months to take on their competitors once again before the ultimate athletic event in Rio.
 
Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin came back from a bit of a dip in scores to steadily finish in fifth overall.  The pair took a bit of a risky move going into the first upwind leg and had to fight back to keep a near top position.

"We still were able to pull off a fifth off at the Worlds which is a great achievement, especially after coming off a silver in Miami, so its a great way to finish off our US tour,"

Jason Waterhouse feels he and Lisa will be able to keep this momentum going into the rest of their season continues.

"Now, back home for a bit of rest, and then back at it training in Sydney harbor!"
 
The sailors all enjoyed their time in Clearwater, and with the trying and variable conditions, they all felt this venue definitely helped to showcase the extreme talent amongst the fleet.

END of regatta reports, we call it a wrap here at CLEARWATER Florida. Thanks for receiving and posting.

Kind regards,

NACRA 17 Class association.

More Information
For more information, high res photos and interviews please contact Gunnar Larsen at gunnar@nacrasailing.com or at +31 (0)6 533 55 806

Photo credits: Laurens Morel

by: Katy Nastro

The fleet was sent out just before noon in a varying 8-12knot breeze, and was back to the beach by 4:30pm. The fast and furious French team of Billy Besson and Marie Riou had a consistent performance throughout the four races that were held. Both of them felt satisfied, and pleasantly happy with the point spread they are currently sitting in. As it stands the French pair sit in first by a staggering 53 points [pending other changes in scores from other teams sitting behind them.

The long day in the Floridian sun didn't seem to phase the three time Nacra 17 World Champion, Billy Besson who came out to win the first race of the day. Marie notes, "We are really happy with our performance thus far, especially after three long days." Their worst performance of the day was an 11th in the second race in which they had a situation with the Swiss team costing them quite a few places after rectifying their mistake. "We lost a lot of places after the first upwind in that race, but we came back and back, ending eleventh, so to us it wasn't really a bad race." The pair is confident they will be able to tackle any other type of condition Clearwater will throw at them over the course of the final two days.

The closest boat currently chasing after the French team is the venerable Italian team Vittorio Bisssaro and Silvia Sicouri. The former World Cup champions haven't had the most impressive scores on the board, but they have kept a consistency needed to take control of second place. Interestingly though, Vittorio and Silvia found they may have had a collision with an unidentified object while out on the race course. No marker or mammal was seen by either of the sailors, but they went from about 20 knots to a dead stop, costing them a 2nd, dropping back 6 places to 8th for the second race of the day.

"I don't know what happened, we just hit something under the water. We asked around and they suggested it might have been a turtle, or something like that," a shocked Vittorio said while meticulously checking over his hulls.

Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin, who recently took second on the podium during the 2015 Worlds in Arhus, Denmark, are tentatively sitting in third, but very likely will jump ahead of Bissaro/Sicouri due to a scoring error by the Race Committee. The OCS they bare on results is being protested by Waterhouse/Darmanin with video footage of their boat going back to amend their early intentions. Really consistent top ten finishes during the first three races, with two of their scores being back to back bullets. They did, however, feel a bit of pain on the final race of the day falling way back into 22nd after a layline error pushed by Waterhouse.

"We just sort of got a bit complacent, and we prioritized the left lane as it was really important for the whole day up until the last race. We had a good start, but I just made an error on the layline and it was really expensive obviously. Like yeah, not a good way to end the day but it will probably be our throw out, for sure," said Jason with upbeat demeanor, and even laughed when he heard his finish was a 22nd. "Wasn't as bad as I thought, I guess! We were lookin' really bad there for awhile."

Jason's upbeat attitude even applies to the regatta as a whole, where some might be in opposition regarding conditions, Jason feels Clearwater is a wonderful place due to its ability to challenge sailors with all conditions. "Big waves, big chop, lots of different sea state, it's been a really good regatta to find out who the best sailor is."

Just six points behind the young Australian team is former Tornado veteran Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank of Austria. Zajac noted how much of a drag race the first leg always felt like and kept this in mind when preparing to start. Getting off the line cleanly and making gains downwind in the slight swell we saw today was how Zajac and Frank managed to stay more times than not with the top pack. The former Tornado sailor is looking forward to his debut in the Nacra 17 with his female counterpart Tanja. Two years ago this team was hardly ever seen far from the top five, yet with mounting double digit finishes, they are trying to get their groove back.
This past 2016 World Cup, the pair took home a 7th, and now sitting comfortably in fourth, they may have found the secret sauce.

"For us its important to find out the good material to stay competitive with the good guys, and yeah, we are happy where we are and hope to get a little bit better so we can be on/near the podium come August." Thomas is looking forward to competing with a female counterpart in the Rio 2016 games, in which this will be the maiden voyage for the Nacra class. "It's a more modern class, new vs. old school comparing the tornado and Nacra. And, the biggest difference would probably be - you sail with a girl!"

Rounding out the top five is Allan Norregaard and Annette Viborg Andreasen of Denmark. The long, sun filled day didn't seem to bother either these stable minded sailors as they sailed their own races, and were able to keep top ten after their initial eleventh to begin the day's set.

This 2016 World Championship for the Nacra class is operating on all cylinders and the sailors couldn't be keener to take on the varying conditions that come their way. Three races scheduled for tomorrow to end the qualifying round, and before we know it, Sunday's medal race will be upon us.

More Information
For more information, high resolution photos and interviews please contact Gunnar Larsen at gunnar@nacrasailing.com or at +31 (0)6 533 55 806

Photo credits: Laurens Morel

Exciting conditions bring out the best in top sailors at the Nacra 17 Worlds.

Allan Norregaard and Anette Viborg Andreasen rocketed up to second place overall in the Nacra 17 World Championships, the Danish duo showing a rare mastery of the demanding conditions on the turbulent waters of Clearwater Beach, Florida.

The top two French teams managed to put the stress of a measurement protest behind them last night when the French were accused of having illegally adjusted the daggerboard cases that hold the curved foils that help lift the boat out of the water at high speed. Small changes in the angle of attack of these foils can make a big difference to performance, so this part of the boat is millimetre-critical. To the relief of the two French teams, the International Jury found in their favour and they bounced back with an impressive performance on the water.
 
Vaireaux seemed unfazed by the protest, speaking after racing today. "It was OK, it can happen, we do a mechanical sport. It is part of the game and we know we did nothing wrong, so it was good to come back [with a good performance today]. Billy and Marie are three-time World Champions, so everyone is looking at them, and we train together with them. People are asking questions, but we didn't do anything wrong. It's the game, it's sailing, we have to go through that."
 
Even in the bright Florida sunshine, sailors were shivering as they came ashore. "I only brought my summer wetsuit," smiled Vaireaux, trying to warm up in the afternoon sunshine. "But today's conditions were good for us, we like the big waves and big wind. It was really shifty during the races but we made good decisions. Upwind it was about choosing your moment to tack in the wind shifts."
 
Other sailors that showed bursts of pace in the big breeze included the Italians, Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri, who won the last race of the day, and Tom Phipps and Nicola Boniface from Great Britain who won the second race of the day, even if they didn't know it at the time. "It was very close at the finish, and we thought the Argentineans crossed the line before us," said Boniface, grinning after her first ever race win in a World Championship. "Always good to win a race, makes you smile!" The winning strategy was simple enough. "We went fast in the right direction and protected on the other boats. Today was quite a lot about boatspeed, if you went fast and got around the course safely you were going to do pretty well."
 

The Argentineans they just pipped to the post were Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli. Lange, sitting in 15^th overall, was not happy with his day, although at least the 54-year-old Olympic medallist has secured his place at Rio 2016 where he will represent Argentina for the sixth time at an Olympic Games. "Today's conditions were very difficult for us, we are not well practised and we suffered with lack of speed and a couple of mistakes. But it's good to be here, and with my sons here as well." His sons, Yago and Klaus Lange, are racing at the 49er World Championship also taking place in Clearwater, and they too have qualified to represent Argentina at Rio 2016.
 
After four big races, the fleet is looking forward to some recuperation time this evening, to warm up and to refuel. "We've burned more calories than we can consume," said Germany's top Nacra 17 sailor, Paul Kohlhoff. "Today was really challenging, very big waves, but tomorrow looks like it's going to be much lighter winds."

More Information

For more information, high resolution photos and interviews please contact Gunnar Larsen at gunnar@nacrasailing.com or at +31 (0)6 533 55 806

Photo credits: Laurens Morel

2015 Key Largo Steeplechase… check it out.

If you have ever had an interest or curiosity in the Key Largo Steeplechase, you should look at the race again, this year. The 2015 Steeplechase is scheduled for December 12th and 13th and will be the new format we ran last year. This new course is the result of the sailors’ initiative and everyone agreed the changes worked well.

Instead of rigging and launching from Gilbert’s, the boats are rigged at the Islander Resort in Islamorada. The start is from the beach at the Islander. As the host of Tradewinds, The Florida 300 and many other great regattas, the Islander is perfect for sailing beachcats. Many thanks to Dennis Greene and Water Sports, our contact onsite.

The Islander has been upgraded and is now a Guy Harvey Outpost. The rooms, bar, restaurant and pool area make it great for evening socials and really nice for ground crews. One year at Tradewinds we even had a camp fire.

Saturday morning is the start, and the longer of the 2 days. We sail north east to Angelfish Creek. Navigation is pretty simple but a GPS is standard equipment. Through Angelfish Creek and down through Card Sound, under the bridge and across Barnes Sound. Card Sound bridge offers great photo opportunity and many crews meet there to check on their teams. Jewfish Creek slows things down where some teams paddle and some show skills that only the Steeplechase can teach. Past Gilbert’s and down Blackwater Sound, through Dusenbury Creek and into Tarpon Basin. Grouper Creek opens up into Buttonwood Sound and the final drag race into the Upper Keys Sailing Club. 

Sail Series Promotions is fully committed to the Florida 300 for 2016. We are excited to announce the date for the 3rd running of the Florida 300. The event date is set for May 17-21, 2016 with a course predicted to be similar to the first year.

We wanted to get the date out in advance of upcoming national races so sailors can start planning for next year. We sent out a survey to previous competitors last month and had good response with all responders either committing to next year or definite maybe's for the 2016 event.

Various course ideas have been considered including the feedback received in our survey. Although we have not been able to finalize the course, we did not want to delay posting our race dates.

We are actively looking for sponsorship for next year and need your help. The more sponsorship involvement we secure, the better the event we can put on. Please feel free to email info@sailseries.com or contact Craig Van Eaton at 561.881.1226.

Register early, reserve your room early, SAVE MONEY!
Early registration is encouraged and maybe accomplished by registering before September 30th, 2015. You may register online or by mailing in the entry form which can be found online at www.SailSeries.com/hiramshaul.  Entry fees may be paid on the day of racing, but if not registered early, the fee will increase to $90.

2015 Florida 300 Presented by Waves Surf Shop, Race Recap by Damon Linkous from TheBeachcats.com

The second running of the Florida 300 is concluded and the teams and support staff are either back home or on to their next adventure. For most of the 300+ miles of coastal racing, with surf starts and landings, the teams experienced excellent conditions for their powerful beachcats. No long distance beachcat race is without it's challenges and problems and this Florida 300 was no exception. There were gear failures such as teams Cat In The Hat and SSS Racing who both broke shrouds while racing, and boats capsizing in the rough surf including Team Lupe Tortilla capsizing and de-masting their new Flying Phantom foiling cat arriving at Vero Beach. See more below.

First, the winning team on corrected time for both the overall and open class win was team Key Sailing with Kirk Newkirk and Tom Whitehurst sailing a Nacra 20 Carbon. Kirk and Tom were defending their win from last year and promised to return. Team Royal Yellow with Steve Lohmeyer and Jay Sonnenklar won the I20 fleet and came in second overall. The Foiling Fleet was won by Team Rocket with John Casey, and Colin Page sailing the awesome Nacra 20 FCS

Complete Final Results for the 2015 Florida 300 Here

There are many stories from the beach over a four day endurance race like this but the big intrigues from this race was how the new foiling designes would handle launching and retrieving through the surf, and how fast would they really be over long distance compared to the non-foiling beachcats.

The second question had an interesting direct comparison available for reference since the Nacra 20 FCS sailed by Team Rocket and the Nacra 20 Carbon sailed by Key Sailing are virtually the same boat with the exception of the foils. Both boats share the same hulls and rig on a 20ft. x 10.5ft platform, so the speed increase provided by the ability to foil could be observed. The foiling FCS was first to finish every leg beating the non-foiling Nacra 20 Carbon by an average of around 30 minutes despite the foilers starting 5 to 10 minutes later. The shear speed was observed on the water with more than one team commenting on the amazing site of the foiling boats blazing past despite some rough conditions in the open Atlantic.

Some questions still remain about the viability of racing these beasts "off the beach" because after the first two legs of low surf conditions, Vero Beach produced large steep difficult surf. The problem for the foiling boats was the need to turn into the surf and get beach wheels under them before being pulled onto the beach. When the surf was low this was still diffucult as anyone who has stood in even knee-high surf knows how hard it is to maintain your position against the incoming waves. Holding onto a large beachcat and getting the beach wheels underneath while in the surf takes a lot of effort and coordination. It also means that the crew of the arriving foiler must perform a 180 degree turn as close the beach as possible so that the ground crew is in shallow enough water to maintain control.

At Vero Beach we got to see what can happen when the turn is completed a little to far from the beach. When Team Lupe Tortilla turned they ended up with the boat just out of reach of the waiting ground crew, this caused them to miss the opportunity to pull the boat back before the next large wave hit the Flying Phantom while boards and rudders were already pulled up. When the wave hit the boat was turned and immediately flipped first on it's side and then completely inverted, breaking the mast in several pieces in the process.

See Pictures of The Surf Capsize Here

Other teams had hardships along the way and overcame them, Team Cat In The Hat was demasted during the 3rd leg when a shroud broke but with the help of Team Key Sailing was able to re-rig the boat and complete the final leg. There were bruises, cuts, scrapes, sunburns and "saddle sores" from long hours in the trapeze but thankfully no serious injuries and no boats lost, even the Flying Phantom will be back foiling soon since the main damage was the broken mast and they do have a replacement available.

That's it for the 2015 edition of the Florida 300 for now.

Discuss the race or ask questions at.
http://www.thebeachcats.com/forums/viewforum/forum/9

See all the pictures from the race at
http://www.thebeachcats.com/pictures?g2_itemId=109100

Florida 300 Website
http://florida300.com/florida300

Visit the Florida 300 on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/sailseries?ref=hl

2015 Florida 300 Presented by Waves Surf Shop, Report by TheBeachcats.com

It's been quite a journey working my way up the South Florida coast from Islamorada to now waking up at Vero Beach, Florida. The first two days were picture postcard "chamber of commerce" days and day 3 was much the same except for the small detail of much more wind and a storm cell that crossed the race path. The winds were mostly steady 17 to 20 but some isolated thunderstorms caused much higher winds and challenging conditions along the leg.

The Flying Phantom is out of the race after having an unsuccessful beach landing at the Vero Beach finish. John Tomko, skipper of Lupe Tortilla and many times winner of the Great Texas 300 and other endurance races, successfully rounded up into the heavy surf and was just moments away from landing safely as all the ground crews rushed to grab the boat. Unfortunately they were in just a bit too deep water for the help to get hold of the boat so they had to stay in the surf backing in "one wave too many" and that wave flipped the boat over in the surf snapping the mast. All the ground help wrestled the turtled Flying Phantom onto the beach, it's high tech foils and t-rudders sticking up in the air.

It took some hard work in the surf to get enough of the mast, sails, and rigging cut away from the boat so it could be dragged/carried out of the water. I've got a bunch of pictures in the Florida 300 photo albums showing the sequence. It's a shame photos can't show the height and steepness of the surf very well. We had been standing on the beach all day watching it build. Every third or fourth set of waves piled up into a steep 6-8 foot wall/roller and that's the kind that got them.

Pictures from the crash and the aftermath and all the other landings and events of the day are in the "Day 3" album in TheBeachcats.com photo albums.

2015 Florida 300 Photo Albums

The other drama of the day that was happening at the same time was that team Cat In The Hat with Larry Ferber and Jackson Smith de masted about 7 miles short of the finish when they broke a shroud. Luckily for them they weren't injured in the resulting mess and were able to make it to shore. Jackson was able to text the ground crew that they were alright and drifting towards shore, and the Kattack locator gave their position. Ground crew and volunteer helpers were able to locate them and retrieve the boat and the Key Sailing team provided parts and assistance repairing the boat. I wouldn't be surprised to see Cat In The Hat back on the line this morning.

Other than the problems found by Cat In The Hat and Lupe Tortilla all the other teams arrived safe and unbroken performing excellent surf landings. The most impressive sailing feet I witnessed was the incredible surf landing of team Rocket on their 20 foot foiling beachcat Nacra 20 FCS. With the large foils under the boat that cannot be pulled completely out like the non-foilers the boat needed to make a 180 degree turn into the surf right at the shoreline. Turning two far out by even a short distance would leave them exposed to the tall breaking waves and waiting too long would put them onto the beach. The skipper John Casey was able to execute a perfect turn as close to the shore as it was possible to float the boat, putting them in reach of the multiple ground crew that got the beach wheels under and pulled the boat up to safety with no damage.

Key Sailing leads the race after three legs with a 37 minute corrected time margin over the open class but only a 5 minute margin for overall victory lending some extra drama to the final leg from Vero Beach to Cocoa Beach. Be sure to watch live and track the race, links are at the end of this report.

There were many stories of pitch-poles and and very difficult conditions all along the course. Tom Whitehurst, crew for the leading team Key Sailing had a trap wire break and almost got separated from the boat but was able to hold on and get back on board with help from Kirk Newkirk. Before their bad luck at the finish team Lupe Tortilla told me that had pitchpoled the Flying Phantom at speed while on foils sending it flipping forward so hard that the mast hit the water ahead of the boat. It's a testament to the toughness of both the crew and the boat that they were able to continue to the finish after that.

Today the Florida 300 teams are joined by additional competitors racing the one-leg from Vero Beach to Cocoa Beach for the Dogfight. There are a mix of Hobie 16's and G-Cats with the notable entry of Hans Geissler, creator/builder of the G-Cats sailing the leg on his personal G-Cat 5.0 with squaretop.

Report by Damon Linkous of TheBeachcats.com

Track the race
http://florida300.com/tracking

Live video/audio feed from the starts and finishes.
http://florida300.com/live

Discuss the race at
http://www.thebeachcats.com/forums/viewforum/forum/9