Fireball and Friends Midwinters
on Monday March 29, 2010 08:09AM
The annual Fireball & Friends Regatta was held at the Davis Island Yacht Club, Tampa, Fl March 12-14. Classes in attendance included Fireball, Interlake, Front Runner, Windmill, and A Cat classes. The Front Runner class fielded a fleet of 10 boats to make the 14th annual trek to DIYC one of largest fleets at this much long standing mid-winter regatta. Fueled by the thought of sunny Florida skies, warm weather and cold beer the participants made arrangements, fixed trailers and boats to make the journey. Watching the wavering forecast with eager enthusiasm and overcoming several flat tires on the 12 hour trip, the group was welcomed by torrential rain, tornado watches and sustained winds of 25 knots. The poor weather persisted for the first 2 days, someone commented during the delay that a rum front is coming some else commented at least it is warm. Fortunately the rum front did not cause much damage as the tornados. On the third day 9 of the 10 registered Front Runner crews rigged their boats and prepared to get in a day of racing. After leaving the safety of the DIYC harbor 4 of the skippers opted to spare their crew and rigs and immediately returned to port. The remaining 5 started the first race in a sustained 20 knot breeze with gusts to 30 knots, in the end 3 boats where able to finish 3 races. The final day of the event proved to be the most productive with cooperative weather, crew and race committee, the entire fleet was able to get in 4 races in sunny conditions. On the last day wind started out of the west at 12 knots building to 18 knots by the 4th race.
As this was the first trip for many of the participants, I solicited their feedback and offer this collection of 10 very insightful observations:
View the Results here