Regattas
J24 Worlds 2009-Day 1
Barbados Flag
Today is the first Day of the J24 Worlds 2009 in Annapolis, MD. It’s a typical Annapolis spring day with winds at 080 from 10-15 knots, temperatures in the low 60’s and spitting rain. The fleet is headed out near Thomas Point for the racing. We are working with Team Barbados and are watching and supporting them from a Protector 22 all week. Barbados has two teams here for the event and this is the first year their country has qualified for the Worlds. Both teams are sponsored by Mt. Gay Rum, Cinnamon 88 and the The Four Seasons. Hawkeye is being skippered by Robert Povey and Maximum is skippered by Colin Symes. The teams are not quite used to the weather here and we had to find them some more long underwear to go with all of their new SLAM gear. Should be some good racing today with 82 boats registered and great conditions. We’ll be updating on Twitter throughout the regatta.
The Annapolis NOOD Report
Daniel & Ed in Annapolis
This year we had a special guest join us for the Annapolis NOOD. Ed’s oldest nephew, Daniel, age 9, came to Annapolis with Grandpa to sail with his uncle on Michael Gavin’s Etchells. He must have been good luck because they won a race and also finished 2nd in another race! This was Daniel’s first time on a keel boat and he did a great job. Hopefully we will have him come sail again and in the future the other nephews and niece as they get a little bit older.
Becky ended up sailing Melges 24’s with Pieter Tiesler on Bliksem. Pieter currently owns a Melges 32 and chartered the M24 to try it out. He and the team definitely had fun and we hope to see them in the Melges 24 class again soon!
Sail22 Heads to Charleston
Quantum Racing
I am heading down from Annapolis to Charleston with the Sail22 box trailer to get ready for Charleston Race Week. They have a record turn out this year with over 180 boats registered. I have a few boat projects on some Melges 24’s when I first get there. Then practice on Thursday and racing through the weekend. Check back here for photos. Becky is flying in to Charleston tonight from St. Pete where she competed in the Rolex Women’s Match Racing Regatta. Check out the regatta website here. And give us a call to see where we are set up and swing by if you need anything or just to say Hi! and have a beer on us. You can check out the new Velocitek Speedpuck, Dubarry Newports or some of the Melges gucci parts we are working on.
Tobago Carnival Regatta
A Festival of Wind
We just left Tobago from what has to be one of the best events that I have ever been to. The first year this event has been held in Pigeon Point but the 10th year for the regatta. This year they changed the dates due to the creation of the Southern Caribbean Circuit which also included Carriacou and Grenada. We attended Grenada but missed Carriacou because of Key West Race Week. But having this event on the beach at Pigeon Point made the event great with the addition of kiteboarding, windsurfing and the Bum boats pictured above. The sailing side of the event included Cruising boats, Racer/Cruisers with a few raceboats added in, a maxi class, J24’s and Melges 24’s. I was racing on a Melges 24 named Synergy and Becky was on a Racer/Cruiser named Wayward. We had to play musical crew with our team as one of our guys had to fly back to Trinidad to be with his mother who was in the hospital. Luckily we were able to get him for the last day where we needed to get two good races in to secure 2nd place which we did. Becky’s team had a tougher event and finished 5th but her boat won the Southern Caribbean Circuit overall and the $10,000 cash prize. A J24 was second and took home $3,000. We have uploaded a bunch of photos on the our Flickr accounts. You can click on them here.
Trip to Trinidad and Tobago
View in Trinidad
It’s hard to believe that I actually thought about not making this trip down to Trinidad. Luckily flights were reasonable and other opportunities arose. Becky lucked out too as her ticket was even cheaper. And it wasn’t until this morning that I was able to add Tobago to the title as we were offered Peter’s place there for a couple of nights. So two tickets to Tobago and tomorrow night we are off. But not until we go to the Zen Christmas party tonight. Supposedly nicer than the places in South Beach. And did I mention that this little island nation has a lot going on. The downtown is very much a big city as there are large office buildings and rush hour is a true traffic jam as I found out after arriving here at 5pm.
The people here are great and the opportunities keep coming up. I will be updating the website soon as we now will be working with the new Southern Caribbean Circuit which includes regattas in Carriacou, Grenada and Tobago. Unfortunately we will not be able to attend Carricou this season but will definitely make the trip in 2010.
But before I forget. The real reason we came down here was to check on the R/P 44 Storm. This is the race boat that I raced on last season in St. Maarten, BVI and Antigua. This year I will add Grenada which I missed last year. The boat looks great as the guys here at Peake Yacht Services have rebuilt almost everything and put new non-skid on and new clearcoat on the spars. I brought down and built new spin sheets and main halyard. The meeting with Jerome about the Southern Caribbean Circuit was planned as well.
