Flying Scot Midwinters 2009

Tuesday 24 March

Wind 15-8 mph from the East, temperature 80.

Day One of the 2009 Flying Scot Midwinters in St. Petersburg, Florida.

A strong high front over the Carolinas gave us an unexpected Easterly breeze for our 11:00 starting signal and a well set line allowed the fleet to get off the start cleanly. A first beat of 1.9miles saw us battling to get through the waves on starboard tack, this was especially true for the lighter crews. This beat saw the usual suspects rounding ahead of the main body of the fleet. Almost all jibed immediately at the offset mark to take advantage of the port tack which offered exciting surfing conditions. There was an obvious advantage in jibing as soon as possible on this downwind run. Conditions remained pretty stable throughout this first race. The top 10 in the Champions Fleet were as follows:
1. GYA 318 Cordero
2. 5761 Terhune
3. 5871 Carpenter
4. 5509 Warner
5. 5341 Weisleder
6. 5671 Goldman
7. 5744 Noordanus
8. 2333 Tyrrell
9. 5055 Guenther
10. 5535 Cooke

The second race began with similar conditions to the first, but these soon gave way to lighter winds and a slack current. The infamous “St Pete Swiss” soon kicked in as holes developed in a seemingly random pattern on the race course.

1. 5761 Terhune
2. 4925 Linton
3. 5622 Malmgren
4. 5341 Weisleder
5. GYA318 Cordero
6. 680 Miller
7. 5671 Goldman
8. 5055 Guenther
9. 5744 Noordanus
10. 3683 Williams

Both courses were W5 (3 upwind, 2 downwind legs)



Here is a graph of the days wind but the readings here are on the low side compared to actual conditions.

Hans