Footy racing in S Daytona, Florida

We are planning fleet racing on the South Daytona RC Model Yacht Club pond at 10am on Sunday July !st, for the Footy Firecracker Challenge. All Footy’s are welcome, and an internet course will be available for those looking to post an early time for the Looking Glass Trophy. For further info contact Paul Taylor at muddauber22000@yahoo.com or visit the Club website at www.orgsites.com/fl/sdmyc .

This country is too darned big! 18 hour drive would you guess? We will be doing it in October though for certain.

I certainly hope you have a good turn out… lots of photos please.

Graham

Its actually 20 1/4 - butr stop whinging. That’s no more than here to Budapest.

Maybe we should try to find a Footy race venue halfway, where would that be ? The high lakes in western N. Carolina maybe. Any footy sailors there? How about a fall national meet ‘in the middle’. I’m up for it. And ifyoure coming down here in October we’ll put something together then as well. Paul

Well, it’s not the NC mountains but I’d love to host a regatta this fall. I’ve been talking with other club members about Footy racing and it’s starting to pick up speed. I guess a kick in the pants is all I needed to get me going.

Is Raleigh within range? We have 5 Footy skippers, a nice lake with easy access to the water, and decent winds most days. Oct or Nov is possible, we sail year round, although it can be chilly at times. I’ll start a new thread tomorrow after sailing and talking some more to my club.

Good luck in South Daytona, I’d go but my travel plans this year are taking me in different directions.

would work for me. I was cruising through the Frappr map this morning and thought of you. I’ll follow to the new thread, Paul

Hello Paul… I will be at Ormond Beach close to Daytona from 6th to the 13th Oct. Arriving later on the 6th so Sunday 7th would be ideal. Or just an evening sail with your club there would be most enjoyable.

Graham

Graham, would be delighted to see you and get our boats on the water, I’ll discuss the idea with the guys on sunday.7th October is one of the tentative dates for the Raleigh event, so I’ve just voted for a 14th October date up there. As soon as that settles we’ll make a firm commitment to get together during your visit. Maybe we should try to persuade Angus to come to the US for 10 days and sail on both ponds. Paul

Regatta day dawned, hot and windless, by the scheduled 10am start time it was 90 deg F + with calm conditions on the pond. It was clear that deploying an internet course would be a problem, so a couple of additional marks were layed to supplement the fixed marks, and we waited for the wind. By 10.45 a fitful shifty 2 knot breeze had picked up and 6 Footy’s ventured on to the water. Four Kittiwakes, one sporting an ominous looking big, black colored light air rig, and two home designed boats one of which had an untried tall square top IACC style mainsail. Despite the light air, racing commenced, mostly led by Phil Ehlinger’s big rig Kittiwake but contested by Bob Brown and Chris Coxe with standard rig Kittiwakes. Peter O’Brien’s Kittiwake was generally close behind, though occasionally harassed by Paul Taylor’s untuned Webfoot which showed bursts of speed when he could stay out of the holes and headers. Warren Bayreuther sailed only one race before pulling his boat out due to the light conditions. It was clear that the regular local sailors, who had sailed their boats enough to tune them and knew the ponds wind pattern, would be hard to beat. After the first flight of races dehydration was beginning to set in, so a halt was called after 6 scored races, though free sailing continued with the couple of remaining Footy’s joined by an eclectic collection of boats including a J class. Photographs will follow when I can persuade my computer to upload them but meanwhile check out the picture on our Club website at www.orgsites.com/fl/sdmyc Paul

It seems as though our Footy regatta efforts are plagued with poor sailing conditions. I guess the only way to solve that problem is to organize more of them!

Thanks for your efforts there, Paul. The initiative is much appreciated.

Bill H