2025 February Coffee Talk with Commodore
February ‘Coffee w/ Commodore JW’ spotlight, Bill Holstein. First sail: Prindle 16 Catamaran (’83), U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Marine officer (’85), ASA Keel Boat sailing instructor (2010), SORC Miami to Cuba race (2017)– “Sailing is always a great escape!”
2024 February 16-18 – Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series St Petersburg, Florida
Intense racing and close standings set the stage for an exciting regatta in St. Pete! With the northeasterly wind kicking up a significant sea state on the second day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series St. Petersburg, teams endured physically demanding upwind legs and exhilarating downwind sailing — especially on the long 18 mile long distance race. What a ride! Congrats to Steve Hayden and Angie Rimes Hayden on SHARKRIDER for winning their race!
This is such a fun regatta on and off the water! Put this on your regatta schedule for next year and be prepared for some Mt. Gay RUM drinks and a fabulous time!
TEAM LMSA: Rich Gailey Gabriel Caldwell Andy Forrest, Max Perez, Derek McColl, Maximilian Neidhardt and Jim White on HOT STUFF.
Larry Harrington Nancy Harrington, Allister James, Jose Acunna,
and Olivier Fleury on CRAIC’N.
Results: https://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=16265
St. Petersburg Yacht ClubSailing World Regatta Series
September 30, 2023 – Crescent City Yacht Club – Bear Island.
The weather didn’t look very promising with a few “frontal boundaries” looming. Meteorologist Mike Loughlin was doing weather analysis and expecting the worst. The 12 mile distance race around Bear Island on Crescent Lake was being revived after a multi year hiatus, but the pouring rain was discouraging to all but the optimistic folks at the Crescent City Yacht Club. The start was postponed for an hour to wait for a break between rain lines. RC is always right and the race started a little after 12 in light shifty breezes. Only 4 boats were left to sail after some sailors thought better of sailing in a likely squall. We got lucky though and were rewarded with some great sailing in all types of wind and no rain at all. It turns out that reading the SIs and attending the skipper’s meeting are valuable. Gene on C-22 Game Over missed a good chance at the monohull trophy by sailing the wrong course. Show Me with Mike and Commodore Jim aboard took advantage of the miscue and got the prize. Ed Sims from.Ocala pushed us to the very end as usual. John and Alan on John’s new Nacra were the show stoppers though and took line honors and the overall Trophy, a golden Goat Skull on a beautiful wooden plaque. Winning by about 27 minutes. Congrats to LMSA for a 1,2 finish. Hospitality for the gathering at the famous 3 Bananas was outstanding as usual, what a perfect venue, on and off the water.
Thanks to Mike, Pete and all the great folks at Crescent City for another memorable Regatta, We’ll be back next year.
Andy
September 1, 2023.A recap of the Halifax Yacht Club Starlight Regatta, by Andy Forrest.
Our crew for Craic’n consisted of Nancy, Larry, Jose, Allister and me.
There were perfect sailing conditions at the race start. 10 to 12 knots out of the east. Nine boats were registered for the 6pm start. The race started at the NSB sea buoy passed near the Main Street Pier in Daytona then to the St. Augustine inlet sea buoy. Roughly 55 nm. The race was divided into 2 segments, the start to the Main Street Pier was the first, then up to the finish at St. Augustine. Each segment counted as an individual race. The sea state was interesting due to the recent hurricanes. We had steady 5 foot rollers from the ENE with occasional larger ones. The point of sail changed very little during our 9.5 hour sail. A deep beam reach for the “Sprint” to the first mark, 10 nm or so, and a close reach for the duration. The wind kicked up to 20 or so for a few hours after sunset. We took turns at the helm and on the rail during this long drag race. The longer boats pulled steadily away from us due to their higher hull speeds, we had to hope our higher rating would be enough to score well. No tacks or jibes during the race were needed, so we settled in for a long test of endurance. We had a few rudder kick up problems, due to a run in with the channel bottom during the motor out to the race course. These caused some tense moments as we hove to and Larry hung off the transom to relower the rudder. The rail crew got frequent salt water dousings as the rollers crashed into the hull. A long wet ride up front. The full moon rose and finally broke through the clouds to give a beautiful sky and light to see. As we approached the inlet for the finish, we struggled to find the sea buoy. There are many lights on the shore and the GPS mark is a rough estimate because they move it as the sands shift. Finally at 3:25am we found it and recorded our finish time. This is a keep your own time race like our Wednesday races. The post race sail down the inlet was by far the most exciting event of the entire regatta. Under main only we sailed dead downwind amid frequent 10 foot plus following rollers. Several startling jibes in the troughs and a near broach woke us up fully. Larry skillfully brought us through the danger and we docked at about 5am. Tired but no injuries to the boat or crew. Nancy and Larry attended the presentation at the St. Augustine Yacht Club on Saturday evening where results were announced for a Performance Class 3rd for the “Sprint” and 5th for the long haul race.
I would like to mention that Nancy and Larry prepped the boat perfectly for this night race. We had proper jack lines, harnessed pfds with strobes,whistles and tethers. They bought a lifesling and had an EPIRB aboard. Strict life safety practices were observed, which made the crew feel very secure. Thanks for a great ride.
The Meehan Cup Regatta, September 3, 2023
by Nancy Harrington
Larry and I stayed on until Sunday for the Meehan Cup Regatta, sponsored by the St. Augustine Yacht Club. Guest crew were my sister Marianne and her husband Matt, as our regular crew went home for their well earned rest. Due to continued rough conditions out the inlet, the race was held on the river. It was a windward-leeward course with 4 laps for the performance class. It was a beautiful day with shifty 10-15 mph winds. Despite our exhaustion after Friday’s all night race, we managed a 2nd place finish behind Rockstar, a local SAYC boat!
Overall, we had a great weekend sailing in the HRYC Starlight Regatta and the SAYC Meehan Memorial Cup Regatta. Thanks are in order to our great crew of Allister, Jose & Andy who persevered through a long and wet night during the Starlight Regatta and our novice guest crew of Marianne & Matt for the Meehan Cup Regatta!!
Nancy
August 30, 2023 – Recap of the 2023 Corsair Nationals Team LMSA onboard Knot Yet Owner & Skipper Alan Moore Andy Forrest in the pit and Jim Goempel bow.
LMSA brings Two National Championships back home to Lake Monroe Sailing Association, winning the PHRF high class and the overall combined high & low PHRF classes.
The racing started on Friday with a 22 mile distance race down
Buzzard’s Bay in 10 to 12 knots of breeze.. One start for all even though
the fleets were divided by PHRF range. 13 boats in the high class, including
Knot Yet, and 9 boats in the fast boat class. Just for excitement, an F-37
skewered the course board of the RC boat at the start, no serious injuries
but the F-37 lost 2 feet of her bowsprit for the duration. This first race
turned out to be pivotal to our team. It provided us with boat to boat
comparisons with our expected rivals. We had many close crosses and lee bow
situations. We learned that we had a slight edge in pointing ability and
upwind speed as we sailed that 2.5 hour beat to the first turning mark. We
got dialed in on sail trim and crew work. The last half of the race was
downwind so we tuned in with the kite. By that point we had built a lead
against our fleet so we didn’t get the boat to boat comparisons downwind.
We finished well ahead of our fleet and only 2 of the fast fleet beat us.
Day 2 had 3 buoy races scheduled in 20-25 knots of wind. Most boats reefed
or doubled, we thought we could carry full sail. We didn’t want to
sacrifice downwind speed. Our PHRF gives time to all of the fleet. The
first race we sailed well but lost by a few seconds to our rival, Triumph, a
well respected crew from Rochester N.Y. The second race was our best,
crossing the line first by almost a leg. Boat parts had been breaking in
the fleet and several boats had retired due to the upper 20’s gusts. We
were sailing up to 19 knots downwind during the first 2 races. The 3rd race
we worked ourselves into a comfortable lead when our kite decapitated 4 feet
down. It shrimped, went under the boat and fouled both the centerboard and
the rudder. We had no helm and started drifting. 20 minutes or so later
after cutting sheets and stabbing the sail with knives to clear the water
bubble we dragged the sail aboard and continued on with main and jib. A 9th
place finish was our reward. Alan had a spare fortunately so Sunday we
could proceed. The next race activated a throwout, some quick math still
gave us a 1 point lead over our rival Triumph who had a main halyard failure
in race 2 and took a 14 point DNF.
Day 3 was a polar opposite with light shifty winds in a strong current part
of the bay. We managed to collect all our errors into a single race and
finished 6th while the 2 boats behind us in the regatta came in 1st and 2nd.
Quick math dropped us to 3rd place in the standings. That was a gut punch,
and with the wind dropping below the required 5 knots to race and only 40
minutes left in the allowed time window, things looked bad. Finally the wind
reached the limit and the RC started race 6, a short single lapper. Jim
pulled a great move at the start, we ducked 2 boats at the start line with
20 seconds left and came up to the line in clean air with speed as the horn
sounded. We looked to our right to see Triumph 1 boat length to windward
and abeam. Alan kept the bow down and the boat moving. As she had done
all regatta, Knot Yet started to slowly come up in front of Triumph and that
lee bow forced them to tack away. We covered and got to the windward
layline 3 lengths ahead. We rounded the offset, set the kite and started the
last leg of the regatta. We looked back and saw Triumph with her kite stuck
in the spreader. We got to the finish, turned around to see 4 boats
between us and the 2 boats we had to beat. That was it, we needed help and
got it.
Just a note to all, I learned how important boat prep is for an event like
this. Alan always keeps his boats in meticulous condition and I think that
was the difference. Centerboard, rudder, sails all in top shape gave us the
edge in speed and pointing we needed. Thanks for the ride Alan.
Andy
New for 2020, a series of interviews with LMSA members. Check back often to learn about your fellow sailors!
