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Sundays Soling racing was quite interesting with the starting line heavily port tack favored. Often a few boats would run the line on starboard. In the past this would result in a bunch of port tack boats crunching the right-of –way starboard boat. But for the most part there were very few fouls of that type. Positive sign of the attention to the rules we have all tried to master.
This Sunday coming we will get a chance to waddle off some of the good-food-created-pounds from our Thanksgiving dinners while sailing our model yachts. Again we will include the DF-95 at the 1:15 time slot while the Micro’s sail. I’ll get the EC-12 Valentines regatta NOR and entry stuff posted next week. We need a Race Director for that regatta and the all the usual things that go into running our regatta. Feb 9 &10 2019 is really not that far away. Please let me and the club know what you can do. By George Balaschak
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It was the first scored race day of the Winter Series with the temperature in the mid-high eighties. I believe 11 Soling’s sailed. Half of the EC-12 fleet had sailed in the National Championship regatta in Punta Gorda so the big boats did not sail on Lake Catherine. Micro Magic’s began their series with 4 boats. It was interesting to see how closely matched the boats and skippers were. After splitting tacks to the first mark three boats would round within a boat length or so of each other. The lead would change often with boats close together for the entire race. This happened more than once.
Most of the Dragons must have stayed in their caves, but it was a good day for sailing the DF-95. Terry sent a well thought out summary of the Dragon Flite 95 to all of our members and it will be added to the website. Great to hear that Doug Bowe is ordering one. There was quite a few positive comments about the DF-95 at PG. Naples fleet is now 45 DF-95 boats. Soling 1 Meter National Championship for 2019 will be held Feb 22-24 hosted by the Suncoast Model Sailing Club in Punta Gorda. Registration is now open: http://www.suncoastmodelsailingclub.net/calendar.html The Gator Regatta for EC-12 is Dec 1 & 2 in the Villages. The Soling rudder and keel thickness minimums, and flangeless deck beam measurements were voted on by class members and approved. They will be upheld for National and Regional regattas. I suggest that we as a club bring any boat that does not meet the new rule into compliance by Jan 15 2019 in order to eligible to compete in our series. Chris has the official measuring device. Thanks to Chris working with the city of Palm Beach Gardens, a restroom is planned for Lake Catherine. This will be a relief for many. Tom asked about our thoughts on throw outs in scoring. In a Regatta of 10 to 20 races it is typical to have one throw out for every 6 or 8 races. In our season of racing over 100 races take place. The effect on our overall standings of a few races where we have something bad happen is minimal. We qualify those skippers who participate in 50% of the races as eligible for the trophies. Jean asked if there had been any thought of changing the Soling sailing time. Not at this moment. Perhaps we should have a weekday official competition for a sort of new / learning Soling group. I will make a new stand for the second start clock. George George Balaschak, Commodore PBGMYS This past Saturday several of us sailed at Okeeheelee Park to publicize our sailing club. Brent, Doc, Bill, Al, Earnan & I sailed for a couple of hours, actually about half of the time an interested passerby was at the control of our sailboat. A lot of smiling guys and gals experiencing this for the first time. We had Soling 1M’s, Ec-12’s, a Micro Magic and a Dragon Flite 95. Bill suggested that Saturday at Lake Catherine has quite a few people around and perhaps we should do a demo day at our pond some Saturday.
Our second Sunday of the break between Summer and Winter race series sailed the Dragon Flite 95 on a trial basis. The weed situation was quite mild and was not a deterrent to enjoying sailing this popular newcomer to the AMYA. Quite a good change from the miserable weed situation of last week. I propose we do some unofficial racing to see if we should establish a fleet. Saturdays have been suggested and weekdays are a possibility. The problem with weekdays is that it shuts out the skippers that are not retired. Please let me know your thoughts on this and we will pick a time and a day. It has been pointed out that Wednesdays several of our skippers compete at King’s Point. Wednesdays are also our club casual sailing day. We should probably figure on a 9:30 or 10 am time slot. The EC-12 National Championship regatta takes place in Punta Gorda this week with Doc, Jon, Earnan, and I participating. Three full days of completion and 36 boats entered. George George Balaschak, Commodore PBGMYS |