I raced with Paul and Rachael Gillette on their Beneteau 36.7 ‘Atlantic Union’. For them, it was another chance to sail with good friends and begin the shake down for the race to Mexico in May.

With the wind right out of the east we started at the mouth of Bayou Chico with a 1.5 mile beat towards the middle of the three-mile bridge. We had a fair start, stayed to the right of the fleet and rounded second behind ‘Kali’ a BH 36 that owes us tons of time, but, just ahead of ‘Finesse’ the Evelyn 32 that was killing us on time.

The next leg was a 2.5 mile jib reach across the bay to Santa Rosa Island to bouy #145. Positions started to settle down to where the ratings  should be with ‘Annimal’ the Wilderness 40 blowing by us and ‘Forreunner’ the J/105 catching right up to us and ‘Kali’ stretching out in front. We clearly had out hands full with this race on corrected time at this point, but it got better.

The next leg was a 1.5 mile dead downwind leg running right along the island; always a pretty patch of water on Pensacola Bay. We set the smallest chute and stayed in control nicely. ’Kali’ & ‘Annimal’ were short-handed and  didn’t set spinnakers, ‘Forerunner’ had their spinnaker all tangled up. This was all good for us, but ‘Finesse’ set when we did and sailed down the leg with us boat for boat. They were going to be hard to beat.

The leg took us past buoy #20 all the way to #18. ’Kali’ and ’Annimal’ were in the lead and mistakenly rounded the first mark and started upwind with prematurely. We began to second guess ourselves, dropped the spinnaker and just before we followed them off in the wrong direction we realized we were only half way down the leg. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to repack and set the spinnaker so we poled out the jib and finished the leg watching ‘Finesse’ sail by with their spinnaker still set and big smiles on their faces. ‘Kalie’ and ‘Annimal’ figured out the course and decided to follow the fleet to the correct mark.  This was an old lesson re-learned. When there’s an argument about where we are going, the GPS is alway right, especially if Rachael was the one who input the data. 

Next leg was a beat  back up to 145 with everyone still flying blades. ‘Finese’ tacked first to get inshore of us along the island and when we crossed 5 minutes later they were still ahead. They are a slower boat, so we now realized that  inshore was favored. Once we got inside of them we opened up quickly.  ‘Animmal’ passed us on sheer boat speed but we were still second boat around.

The next last led was an uneventful 2.5 mile jib reach back to the finish. with ‘Forunner’ comming on strong like they always do on jib reaches and ‘Finesse’ holding on better than we cared for.

We ended up first in Class A but third in fleet behind ‘Finnesse’ and ‘Forunner’.

Lessons learned on board  ’Atlantic Union’:
1) Put the boat speed impeller in before the start, not half way up the first beat.
2) The boat needs a padeye on the rail for jib reaching with the blade.
3) Trust Rachael & her GPS!
4) Play the right side when beating along Santa Rosa Island on an East breeze.

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.

ONE DESIGN

Buccaneer 18

                1^st & 2^nd at Midwinters

                3^rd & 5^th at Nationals

                1^st AYC  Birthday Regatta

                1^st San Diego NOOD

                1^st WCSC Hospice Regatta

 MC Scow

                1^st  SE Regionals

                2^nd Nationals

                1^st Lake Winnebago Regatta

 Mutineer 15

                1^st, 2^nd, 4^th & 5^th* Nationals

                1^st TSC Mayors Cub

 2^nd TSC Governors cup

                2^nd SE Championships

                1^st Alabama State series

 Elliott 770

                2^nd & 3^rd*St. Pete NOOD

                1^st & 2^nd * Nationals

 Flying Scot

                1^st  GYA Junior Lipton

                1^st California Districts

                2^nd  GWB regatta at Eustis Sailing Club

                3^rd Meigs regatta

 Corsair 24

                1^st St Pete NOOD

                1^st Nationals

 Tanzer 16

                1^st, 2^nd 3^rd   Lake Townsend Mayors Cup

                1^st, 2^nd 3^rd              Governors Cup  

                1^st, 2^nd 3^rd   Atlantic Districts

                1^st, 2^nd 3^rd   Nationals

 Fish Class

                1^st, 2^ndWorlds

                1^st, 2^nd 3^rd Hankins Regatta

                1^st 2^nd 3^rd Spring Regatta

*Partial inventory

************************************************************************

 PHRF

Key West Race Week        2^nd PHRF Class E  S2 9.1 ‘Lightning Rod’

Pensacola Bay Maxine Series   1^st  Beneteau 36.7 ‘Atlantic Union’

Dauphin Island Warm-Up                           1^st Elliott 770  ‘Rodent’

Dauphin Island Race                                      1^st Elliott 770  ‘Rodent’

 Pamlico Sailing Club Fall Series                1^st J/30 ‘Rocket J

 Fort Walton YC Bowlegs Regatta             1^st Elliott 770  ‘Rodent’

Mobile Yacht Club Oilfield Race               1^st class A Evelyn 32 mobile

GORC Biloxi Mississippi                               1^st J/90 ‘Hot Toddy’

 Lost Bay Regatta

                Spinaker Fleet

                                2^nd Class B          Elliott770 ‘Rodent’

                                1^st Class C            Santana 3030 ‘Jake Steed’

                                1^st Class D           S2 7.9 ‘Kaotic’

                Non-spinaker Fleet

                             1st Overall       Beneteau 36.7 ‘Atlantic Union’       

                                1^st Class A           Beneteau 36.7 ‘Atlantic Union’  

                                1^st Class B            J/30 ‘Cannon Ball’

                                2^nd Class B          C&C 35 ‘Rokadobi’

                                1^st Class D           Tartan 34 ‘Gypsy Wind’

                                1^st Class E            Pearson 26 ‘Kokomo’

                                1^st Class F         Catalina 22 ‘Horse w/ No Name’

 1064 Regatta Atlanta     1^st Columbia 32    ‘Resurgence’

Dogwood Regatta Atlanta           1^st  Spin A Pinnacle 30 ‘Rum Runner’

                                              1^st PHRF Spin C      J/24 ‘Dixi Chick’

Wednesday Night (First half) 1^st PHRF C Columbia 32 ‘Resurgence’

                            (2^nd Half)  1^st Spin C Pinnacle 30 ‘Rum Runner’

Reggae Regatta Atlanta PHRF(low)
                                                         1st Columbia  32 ‘Resurgence’
                                                         2nd Pinnacle 30 ‘Rum Runner’

                                                 Non-Spin  1st Hunter 30 ‘Strega’