2016 Midwinters at St.Andrews Bay Yacht Club, Panama City, FL - Day 1 of racing

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2016MWD11  2016MWD12

Sunday night, we had the skiipers meeting followed by a really good welcome party with great food and great people!  We started the day Monday with the a really nice opening cermony, including the raising of the American Flag by club officers, accompanied by bagpipes playing.  This was followed by a welcome from the club officers.  The wind did not look too promising first thing in the morning but it looked like the sea breezw came in just before it was time for us to go out around 11:00.

We had a great sail out to the race course, with a nice easy 8-10 MPH wind on a beautiful sunny day on the 70's.  We thought we would start the race in those condiftions but about 12:25, just before the scheduled start, the real sea breee came in and shifted the line 40-50 degrees.  Up went the postpone fflag and the Race Committee went to work moving the course around to match the wind.

2016MWD13 2016MWD14The first W-L 4-leg race brought us about 10 MPH wind, and the boats that went right made out pretty well, beating out most of the boats that went left.  By  the second W-L 4-leg race the wind had picked up a bit and we were taking a little spray over the bow.  Going right this time proved to be not the best way and the boats that went left made out better.  The Race Committee decided to do a third race to be sure we can get in as many as possible in case the weather doesn't cooperate on the other days.  We did one more W-L 4-leg race, and this time it was about the same for those who went left or right.

We had a noce easy downwind sail intot he club followed by the traditional keg and a chalk talk given by the experts,  We'll do it all again tomorrow!