US Winter Series, Islamorada, Florida.
Whilst much of the Northern Hemisphere sits by the fire with the central heating turned up, we must all spare a thought for those in sunnier climes. Bill Vinning has a quick report from Coconut Grove, Islamorada, Florida.
As we sit in the Tiki Hut bar at the Islander resort, wind out of the south at a solid 40, with thunder and raining, I am reminded of why I love to sail Acats at the Islander. Over 4 days of hard racing in 14-22knots, we had exactly zero protests. We had 3-4 races per day, under almost ideal conditions. The race committee was excellent. The races were all in mostly either big breeze, or building breeze. Thursday we had some big waves, and some epic hangovers, but no one complained. We had some kelp plants in the shallows on the way to the race course, but after we figured out that we needed to be cautious of the weed on the way to the race course, every one survived the trip out to the deeper water.
A couple boats had the new Bach Wilson "aero" sealed tramps, and two boats had deck sweeper mains.
Ken Marshak proved that he is a top competitor with the overall win. Other notables include Luke Ramsay, a Canadian Olympic contender taking two bullets on Thursday with a borrowed Exploder. Jeff Meyers, OH Rodgers and Mike Krantz were fast all week. Dustin figured out that if he hikes hard, he is unstoppable upwind on his new (to him) DNA. Ben Hall showed up mid week and gave the top guys some competition. Matt Keenan showed up mid week too, but didn't get the memo that 3 martini's are 1 too many..
Temps in Atlanta on Tuesday were 24 degrees, and I noticed that IN, OH and NY under blizzard conditions while we suffered through 75-80 degree temps all week.
If you decided to not attend because of the forecast, you need to remember that the forecast in the Keys is ALWAYS wrong.
See you next year.
(Please remember these tempretures are in fahrenheit, as the new World has yet to embrace the celcius scale. Ed)
Photos John Shiefer
