Key West Race Week - the day before

With the coming of a cold front, the weather in the Keys changed from a sunny Florida dream to a blustery, rainy reality. The boats out practicing today were pushing their limits in gusts up to 29 knots just off of Key West. We caught some shots of a broaching Melges and had to pull an MOB out of the water...that is Allen's second MOB recovery in the last six months.

It's good to be back in this quirky city where we spent three months last year and we've enjoyed catching up with friends from J World, Schooner Bar, Monty's and The Kitehouse over the last few days, as well as meeting many new people.



Still, we're excited to see some local boats from the place we call home. Here's a shot of Indian Harbor Yacht Club's Christopher Dragon having a great time on Key West waters despite the chilly temps.


Mondays' weather is supposed to be as tremendous as today's and we look forward to another great week of beautiful water, fast boats, and great racing. We'll be showing our photos at Schooner Wharf Bar all week.

Ft. Lauderdale to Key West start

Conditions were optimal today a mile off the Ft. Lauderdale coast. With 20 knots from the East, the only imperfect part of the scenario was a variably cloudy sky. When the light did punch through it highligted the spray coming off the boats and it made the cloudy moments worthwhile.

Approximately 50 boats- from R/Ps to trimarans to Bavarias to Js- started the 160-mile race today just outside of the Port Everglades inlet. After he finished photographing, Allen found himself half-way to the Baker's Haulover Inlet in Miami Beach. It's a long trip home in a dinghy in 6 foot seas. I was not surprised to get the call with his coordinates and a request that I find a boat ramp close by, but no luck.

It will be a quick one for the group beam-reaching to the Keys and lets hope the wind stays up for Key West Race Week.

See more dramatic photos here:
http://www.photoboatgallery.com/lightbox/index.php?category=gallery/Ft%20Lauderdale%20to%20Key%20West&start=0

SPYC Multiclass 08 Day 2

Today the St. Petersburg Yacht Club race committee showed me why they have such a good reputation for race management. The course I covered had five different classes on it and they were all racing multi-lap courses, some W/L, some triangle. It made my job tougher because every time one fleet was rounding the windward mark, another fleet was finishing just to windward of it.

The above shot shows A Cat, 505, Contender on the layline.

The RC got in two long races (and 3 for A Cats because they are that fast) despite a long postponement in the AM.

With A Cats and Ultima 20s (and all of the five fleets) meeting in right-of-way situations and a big bang from a collision between an FD and a U20, I barely had time to complain about light breeze. There was a lot going on. I didn't get catch the collision on "film" but maybe it can be seen on Kattack's race tracking at http://www.kattack.com/ . Let's hope the sound was worse than the damage.

See the results at the SPYC website http://www.spyc.org/club/scripts/view/view_clubannouncement.asp?pg=PR&GRP=5564&AID=38838&NS=PR&APP=58

St. Pete YC Multiclass Regatta day 1

The breeze was gusty close to shore today but the Southwesterly dropped to between 5 and 8 knots by the time it reached the race course in Tampa Bay.

Still, the Contender and FD sailors put in an impressively long day with 4 multi-leg races. I survived the slow day in the dinghy by playing with our newest photo/sailing-geek toy- a GPS receiver for our cameras. Today's photos are our first ones tagged with coordinates. Is this a useless gimmick or will we rely on it one day?

See more photos and today's results here: http://www.thephotoboat.com/SPYC_MultiClassRegatta.htm