The last week in March, four boats from FBYC (plus Ron Thompson from Yorktown and Hans Noordanus from Manassas - frequent visitors at FBYC) made their way south for a week of racing Flying Scots. First stop was the Sarasota Sailing Squadron and the Tune-Up Regatta which is held the weekend before the Mid-Winters. Traditionally, this event has been held at Davis Island Yacht Club and though Sarasota is only 30 miles farther south, the change in venue is dramatic...think Caribbean - white sand, clear turquoise water. The Race Committee ran a six race one, throw series over two days for thirty Flying Scots.

The Fleet was evenly divided between Florida boats and Snowbirds (this is stop 5 of the Florida District six event series). The weather forecast all week for the weekend was for wind-on. This was very bad news for the Three FBYC teams entered as they were very light in all up weight. The solution was for the Wake Team (using Travis Weisleder's boat) to split-up (thereby NOT using Travis Weisleder's boat). Sharon sailed with Heidi/Len Guenther and John sailed with Amy/Mike Miller. This proved to be very fortuitous as the weatherman was spot-on. Saturday it blew 10 -15 knots and Sunday it was 15 - 20 (with the normal carnage - capsizes and a dismasting).The locals complained of this being a unusual wind direction and strength...whatever. It did make for challenging sailing with six different boats winning a race (The Miller's turn was race number 4). In the end consistent sailing with no alphabet soup finishes (OCS, DNF, DSQ, ZPF etc.) paid off. Jim Egan, last years overall Florida Circuit winner, was first. Amy/Mike Miller were second, and Jordan Smith (formerly of Annapolis - now Panama City) third.

From Sarasota, it was on to St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg Yacht Club. Sharon Wake flew home, Travis Weisleder flew in and Sharon and Rick Bauer blew in Sunday afternoon. All FBYC boats sailed in the Championship Fleet which had thirty one boats (attendance was off though as there were only seven boats in the challenger fleet). This year's schedule of racing was changed from racing Monday through Thursday to Tuesday through Friday. The week went by very fast and the constant as the week whizzed by was wind-on. In general, the daily pattern was to start in breeze which would moderate to little or no wind and then the sea breeze would come in hard. Again the experts on local weather said this was a very unusual pattern but it made for pretty good racing (o.k. there were a couple of drift-fests, but the pain of these were quickly forgotten).

The most memorable races were the first and last for entirely different reasons. The first day first race was delayed by the race committee because of high wind (hey - not all bad, we WERE in Florida). After a couple of hours the RC relented and sent the fleet out in a 12 - 15 knot breeze which moderated as the day progressed. Fifteen minutes before the first gun the Weisleder/Wake team had finished checking the boards going upwind and turned downwind to do a quick up/down with the spinnaker to make sure it was packed with no twists. As turned out twists were the least of their worries. When the spinnaker launched, it came out but all that went up was the halyard (sans spinnaker-note to Travis: don't let the old guy tie the spin halyard on or at least get him remedial knot tying during junior week!) So what to do-what to do ....five miles from the nearest dock...could shimmy the mast but there was a 2-3 foot sea running - 190 pounds up the mast - not good. Solution: cruise over to Greg Fisher in the Top Gun Video boat and make an unusual request. After dropping sails please take the main halyard and help pull the boat over (Uh-that would be an INTENTIONAL capsize). Travis went for the skyed halyard, John went for the centerboard. Halyard retrieved, boat righted, first gun goes off, Travis swimming after a boat rapidly moving away with Wake trying to figure out how slow said boat down( for those of you with any doubt ask Travis for a testimonial of the value of a factory installed ladder). It took a couple of minutes to sort the mess, raise sails, and head to start line. They got to the line (kind of) in time for a third or fourth row start, flop immediately to port and popped out with fairly clear air. Not a great way to start but definitely memorable!

The last day the forecast was for big air. As the fleet went out the breeze was not on and was in fact dying. The Race Committee started the five leg windward /leeward race in 4-6 knots of breeze that was showing signs of dying further. At the top mark the Miller team correctly went hard right and rounded third, the Weisleder/Wake team worked the left and rounded twelfth with the boat they were tied with on points(Jeff/Amy Linton -they won the NAC's at FBYC in '07) going into the race, seven boats ahead. After the downwind leg, a strong wind line came down the race course from the right. The breeze steadily built and by the time the leaders turned the corner again it was full on planing conditions downhill. At the drop marks (they used gates), the wind was now blowing a steady 22 with puffs to 28. The game had now changed from racing to survival with heavier teams and teams three-up surviving better than light teams. The Lintons proved they can sail in anything finished 6th and Weisleder/Wake ran out of race course trying to catch the Lintons finished 7th, with the Millers (weighing 275 lbs all up soaking wet and they were soaking wet ) 8th. What actually made the race memorable was post-race trip back into the sailing center. It was a very, very fast broad reach (think all out planing at power boat speeds), which was the perfect finish to the week.

Off the water, Greg Fisher did pre and post race "Top Gun" debriefs again this year. It is always fun to hear the different approaches the race leaders have to race management. The Fleet 103 tradition of hitting the Tapas Bar was maintained (although the tradition of the downstairs for after-dinner sangria was not...dunno may have to do with wind-on all week). For those that bagged going (and you know who you are) you missed a good time. For those of you who have not gone and/or are contemplating going there's always next year and it really is worth going.