Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Screaming Pelican Goes Down Island

Not much 110 news to report. Sorry. It has been a pretty good winter so far for the boys, though. Both Josh and Oakley went to Key West Race Week, both on Swan 42's. Oakley, on Phil Lotz's Arethusa came in second, while Josh on Mark Watson's Tiburon came in fourth. Apparently there was some kind of protest which resulted in Tiburon finishing outside the trophies but I cannot remember the details.

I am recently back from the Pineapple Cup, racing from Ft. Lauderdale to Jamaica on Ron O'Hanley's Cookson 50 Privateer. We had a very wet but great ride. The breeze was pretty far forward most of the time with a lot of jib reaching and lots of water on deck. After turning the corner around Cuba we were able to put the kite up in up in up to 30+ knots of wind when at times we were averaging 20 knots with bursts to 25. Still, plenty of water on deck. (to say the least) We squeaked out a Swan 48 which finished 24 hours after us for the overall win. Almost forgot, linky to video of the finish.

Next week Josh and I are off to St. Martin for the Heineken Regatta. We are both sailing with Privateer. We got second last year and are hoping to take the win this time. Time will tell but I need to start packing for warm weather again.

That's about it on the fleet front. Jeff is making a good attempt as scheduling a party/meeting so we can start talking about fleet racing again and the business of racing 110's. Between skiing and sailing we are making it hard for him but I am sure we will all get together soon enough to come up with everything we need for a successful one-design class in Newport and beyond. My thoughts go out to those of you in the mid-west. Brrrrrr. I'll update after Heineken.

Mark