My son, Derek, and I went down to Upper Keys Sailing Club in Key Largo to race Buccaneer 18s in the Dead Dogs & Tin Whistles regatta.
We had 12 Buccaneers and three Mutineers.
The host club ran great races and threw great parties all weekend. The more one design sailing I do the more I like the sailing club ethos over the whole Yacht Club thing. They seem to be more friendly, down to earth and also less expensive.
We won this event last year with me driving, this year it was Derek’s turn to steer and we were fortunate enough to win it again.
Friday’s event was a fun around the island race, about 6 miles round trip. Derek got his first great start (he was 7 for 7 on the starting line for the weekend), we had a mediocre short beat to round the weather mark in 4th. On the long downwind out to the island we stayed low and fast and rounded the first peninsula in the lead and were able to control the fleet on the beat back to the beach winning by about a minute to win the coveted Capt. Morgan trophy.
Saturday morning was warm and sunny w/ winds in the 15-22 knot range. The first race began with a perfect boat end start and we sailing well but couldn’t match boat speed w/ Rick Scarborough . We ended up right on his heels for second with Justin Hull breathing down out necks.
Race #2 started well and we were right behind Scarborough on the downwind leg. We both gybed at the same time and got caught by the lee in the same puff & both capsized. We were able to right the boat and finish albeit in last place. The good news is only seven boats finished.
The third race was another handful with plenty of breeze. We were quite slow with a boat full of water but sailed most of the race in 3rd place. One of the boats ahead of us got cold feet and didn’t fly his spinnaker and Jimmy Yurko was first across the line only to find out he was OCS at the start. We were happy to accept this charity and rack up our first win of the regatta to find ourselves in first place at the end of the day.
Race #4 on Sunday was the same conditions with slightly less breeze. We lead start to finish with Ronnie Ashmore’s hot yellow boat keeping us honest all the way around the course.
Derek sailed another nice one in the fifth race with some lead changes, but ended up with a bullet barley ahead of Patrick Hopp.
The final race was going well with Jimmy Yurko & Scarborough overlapped with us most of the way. We managed to tear the spinnaker on the first take down then blow it out completely on the second run to finish in third place. We were quite happy to learn this would be the last race of the day.
Much thanks to Jeannette Hughes and the whole gang from Upper Keys Sailing Club for a wonderful regatta. Looking forward to next year.
