Thought you Footy skippers in the northern cold climates might appreciate a quick heads up on the event in Orlando this weeked.
Twenty-two boats are competing at the first ever USA Footy National Championship Regatta being held at www.sundaysloopers.com in Orlando, Florida. Boats from as far north as New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Virginia, Massachusetts and Carolina showed up for the event which also included skippers from a number of Florida clubs.
Winds started out light from the SSW in the morning during practice and for the first few races. As the day progressed, winds shifted to the SE and ESE and increased to an estimated 10 mph with mini-gusts hitting the pond occasionally. Skippers had to select one large sail for the two day event. It appeared that a few may have selected sails to large to handle the gusts as there were the typical out of control submarine events. Late in the day, one boat switched to the maximum 1 foot sail rig with a very interesting sail called a Hoyt rig (http://www.garryhoyt.com/id24.html) and was looking good right up to the starting line when a collision caused the rudder to fail.
The first raced started out great for Tanglewood MYC skippers as I think I recall the following:
Bob Fritze finished 1st sailing a TWMYC designed “Jim-Bob”
Jim Child finished 2nd sailing a TWMYC designed "JIm-Bob’
John Egizi finished 3rd sailing his custom designed double-ender.
The day ended with all TWMYC skippers in the top 10 spots and each winning 1 or more races…
Ten races were completed on opening day with the following un-official results. Each skipper gets 1 throwout after 8 races and another throwout if another 8 races are completed, so stay tune for final results after Sunday races.
Scott Spacie
Walter House
Jim Child - TWMYC
Adrian Sullivan
John Egizi - TWMYC
Frank Thorley - TWMYC
Graham McAllister
Jim Linville
Ed Rohrer
Bob Fritze - TWMYC
George Georgiandis
T-12. John Amoroso
T-12. Charlie Mann
Bill Hagerup
T-15. Paul Taylor
T-16 Bill Nielsen
Bernie Ceilley
Charles Samaha
Mark Smith
Darrell Krasoski
Ken Barfield
The Orlando MYC organizer, Darrell Krasoski, is putting on a well organized and fun event. Thank you Darrell.
Frank. Thank you very much for the very prompt reporting. It is an example to us all. Of course we will try to do better at Euro GP, but this will be a hard trick to match!
If you have any opportunity, please do put the word about on Flavio’s Coppa d’Italia international team prize at Euro GP. We really would love to see a number of American teams!
The guy who picked too big a sail was me never did like an underpowered boat! I’m sailing a very heavy version of Cobra3, so I thought it might be able to handle more sail. It did well in the morning (had a first, even) but continually stuck in irons in the afternoon. Being the stubborn person I am, I tried to remedy the problem fooling with rig position and leech tension when I should have just put the little rig on. I would not have done great with the 12 inch rig, but I would have done better than I did with the big one.
One of these days I’ll remember that regattas are for racing, not for testing new ideas!
The really good news for me, though, is that Scott is sailing a normal-weight version of Cobra3, picked a bit smaller sail, and is doing an outstanding job with it.
More sailing today…I’m hoping for a bit less wind
Bill H
p.s. Tomo…the waitresses are really cute…I will say no more.
Most of the un-official Footy NCR Final results are shown below: If you have additions or changes or comments , please post them here. Our host Darrell from www.sundaysloopers.com will be uploading all the data to their website, so look for it there.
Scott Spacie
Walter House
Jim Linville
Jim Child - TWMYC
Graham McAllister
6 John Egizi - TWMYC
Adrian Sullivan
Frank Thorley - TWMYC
Ed Rohrer
Bob Fritze - TWMYC
11 Paul Taylor
12 John Amormoso
13 Butc h Bragg
14 Bill Hagerup
15 George Georgiandis
16 Charlie Mann
17 Charles Samaha
18 John Amoroso
19 Bill Nielsen
Thanks to Frank and all for the postings, it’s after 7PM and we’re just getting back from closing up after the regatta.
First of all, thank you to all who attended the regatta. It was a pleasure to have you here in Orlando and the folks at Kirkin & Kegler really appreciated the lightening of the beer kegs over the weekend. And a wink from Miss Footy 2009.
We have about a million pics, stats etc to comb through over the next few days, but, between the posts from the participants and our upcoming race report we will have a lot of detail on the event available.
Yes, we had a great weekend of racing, but I’m sure that, as importantly, the folks who attended, met with as great a good group of sportsmen as there is and will remember the friendships as much as the racing.
Miss Footy 2009? Not FF in heels, I hope :lol: :sly:
I hope you pick some good photos; not like the ones I saw on the Picassa web, from the FootyUSA link. How many photos of Footies on the same tack can you stand? Out of the 200- something pictures, there were only about 6 that were notable. At least they were taken with a camera and not a phone.:verymad: There should be 1 or 2 of each entry before the race, and a some GOOD ones from the water (zoomed in) and anything exciting that happens.
Congratulations on running such a successful inaugural championship event.
It sounds as though everyone enjoyed the experience, which makes for great memories and a commitment to do it again next year.
The overall feeling of any regatta is a result of so many factors, not the least being the attitude of the competitors toward each other.
Let us hope that the FOOTY class continues to foster the spirit of support and fellowship which, so far, has been the culture of these early regattas.
If it would be possible in the final report of the regatta, to list, along with the results, the sail number worn and the design of each boat, it makes it so much more interesting to view the photo`s and put all the details together.
I know there is a large group of enthusiasts just like me, who devour every detail and marvel at the clever engineering and imagination put into these tiny craft.
Once again, well done to all the administrators, officials and supporters, on running this event. :zbeer:
A postscript to my original post, which is done intentionally.
Thanks to Bill Hagerup, for his leap of faith in agreeing to have this very new club host this regatta. His advice and confidence made things easier to make the event go well.
Secondly, the sage advice of many seasoned AMYA veterans in attendance, was greatly appreciated.
Thirdly, following the guidelines of the AMYA format made planning and ultimately running the regatta less stressful overall and quite painless for administration and participation than it may have been otherwise.
As stated before, there is a great deal in stats to follow after I get a little sleep.
Thanks again
Darrell
Flavio (ITA) asked a question and below are my email comments to him… It would be good to hear comments from others on lessons learned. In addition to Scott’s larger Mc-Rig, a TW “Jim-Bob” with smaller Mc-Rig and shorter keel tied for 3rd. I believe 2nd place was a smaller main & jib rig and the other 3rd was similar to Scotts.
Good thumbs were also a key factor as I know my hitting marks & other problems didn"t help.
An all boats last sail and group photos were also taken, so keep checking.There were a large variety of boats, but Scott dominated with a Hagerup Cobra 3 & med-large Mc-Rig.
Google Maps this address for a view of the pond and building.
12850 Waterford Lakes Pkwy
Orlando FL 32801
It is the right or East most pond. The bar is in the SE corner of the building. I wonder if the old Red Brit double decker bus is visible. It sets just to the right of the Pub by 50 Footys strung out in a line.
