Aquarius Sail Owners

OK, so I just finished sailing the "Around the Island Race" in Ft Walton Beach, Fl on our RC27. We just completed getting a new sail inventory so it was a great chance to test the waters. (by the way we backed into winning this one, but that is another long story) My point for posting this has to do with my observations and general shop talk over the weekend. This regatta used to be very popular with 100 boats. This past weekend we had 6 boats start. About that many bailed out before the race due to storm conditions at the start of the race. However, my sense of the sailors that were around that weekend was that everyone is getting too old to race small multihulls for great distances or almost any distance for that matter. It was apparent though that those same tired sailors would have joined my in a heart beat if they could race on a big cat that could handle the distance in more comfort and speed.

I thought I would toss out an idea..maybe it is just a question??? Is there any merit to having this group designating certain distance races or regattas around the country as S, A, R (Supercat, Arc, Rc) focused events?

As an example there are 4 events in Florida that seem to attract some sampling of either supercats, Arc's or RCs

Namely

Miami to Key Largo 50 mile race
Mug Race (Palatka to Jacksonville) 50 mile race
Around the Island (Ft Walton - Pensacola) 100 mile race
Buzzelli Regatta ( Sarasota) 30 mile race plus weekend triangles

There maybe races in other States that are of similar nature and attraction for these multihulls that would merit consideration by all, to make a concerted effort to attend.

Multihull participation at many events have fallen considerably. Basically a lot of the various cats out on the market are just not that fun to sail on a distance race like the S, A, and R's. Add in the lack of a class and now there is almost no interest in doing 50 miles on say a Hobie 16 etc.

My thought is if "we" started showing up in small numbers by doing a little coordination, we might start looking like the only game in town. This might spur new interest in getting a lot of these great boats out of moth balls.

Word on the street is that somewhere in New England they are trying to get a Marstrom 32 class going. While I do not have the where with all to shell out $250,000 for one of those boats, it makes refurbishing an ARC, supercat or RC 27/30 a real deal. (I might also mention- I think the RC30 would give one of those boats a real run for their money)

So anyone have any thoughts as to whether this is worth further discussion??

Thanks,
Rich Brew
RC27

I think it would be pretty cool to go to a regatta where there were some of our boats. We did Sail the Bay in Virginia Beach back in May and there were 3 SC's there, 2 15's and the 17 I brought. I think there are some other races up in that area that some SC's show up at. We have an '89 19XL right now and would bring it to a regatta in the Southeast for sure if I new there would be other SC's there.

I assume you were maybe talking more about the bigger boats 22 and up though. Hopefully one day ill get that ARC 22 I want and can join you!

Mac

Hi Mac,

I was including all of the Supercats. I think all of the supercats are more comfortable on any race. Comfort meaning more stable and resistant to heavy air pitch poling which are a consideration on any long distance race. The big hulls make the surecats much more comfortable to sail in marginal conditions. Combine that characteristic with the speed they have and now they become choice boats for any long distant event.

So maybe we add the Sail the Bay to the list??

We had 3 SC 15's at the rappahannock rivah regatta.. We had a blast and 2 of us finished 1st & 2nd in the open class..

jjd78 wrote:We had 3 SC 15's at the rappahannock rivah regatta.. We had a blast and 2 of us finished 1st & 2nd in the open class..

Yeah ....Yeah ....but you guys have self tackers and we should have run jibless !! Rub it in man...I'll get there !!! To add to this list there are two other SC15's here in Virginia and 3 SC19's a SC18sq and 2 SC 20's one slightly modified. We would like to see them all come out and play. Not sure everyone is up for can racing though.

I have done 50+ miles on both my SC15 and SC19 !!! Had a blast on both. I would like to some day attend a few of those runs in Florida as well as attempt the Everglade 30o and the GT300 in Texas. All on my SC19 though.

Bruiser wrote: (by the way we backed into winning this one, but that is another long story)
RC27

How about telling us this story? I would like to hear more about the race and the conditions. I am sure others on this board would as well.

Regards,
Andy

havliii wrote:

Bruiser wrote: (by the way we backed into winning this one, but that is another long story)
RC27

How about telling us this story? I would like to hear more about the race and the conditions. I am sure others on this board would as well.

Regards,
Andy

The Around the Island Race was a bit of mess this year but ended up with some luck for us. We were there to race as we had Randy Smythe, out fit the boat with new sails. So we wanted to try them out and see how it all worked. At the start of the race there was a major storm system that had moved through the area during the night. We went to the Club early to see if they were going to cancel or post pone. Our boat was at Randy's house which was up a small creek near the Club and starting area. The committee said things were a go. We looked at our phone's weather sat and it showed storm cells moving through the Gulf still and it look like it would be very ugly offshore. So I was not in a big hurry to start. We saw Mike Kelly with his ARC22 at the Club and he said he was not sailing because his wife was not interested in going out in the weather. At the hotel we ran into Hans (of the Gcats), and he was not sailing either. In the end, we said well there is a small break in the weather, we can start and decide later whether to go into the Gulf or not and just see how the boat does. As we were getting ready to leave the house, Mike came over from the Club to tell us that they are changing the course to the inside one. Meaning we would race to Pensacola on the inter coastal there and back, so we would not be going into the Gulf. We decided then it was a go, now however we were going to be late for the start.

We started late, everyone had sailed off when we finally crossed the start line. There were only about 6 or 7 boats that ended up starting the race. A number of folks bailed because of the weather, and also there was a multihull race set up the same day in Pensacola so not a big crowd. Anyway, on the first leg which was up wind with wind at 15 to 20 on starboard tack we came across a turned over Hobie 17, I could tell he had been over for a while as he quit trying to right the boat. As we got near I asked if he could right it and he shook his head no. One of our crew we got from Ft Walton, Joseph, a young energetic fella just graduated from High School. He jumped off and swam over and helped him right the boat. Then we were off racing again, and I mentally told myself, there is one down. It was a beat to Pensacola up the intercoastal, which is very narrow in many places. We ended up getting a lot better at tacking. My guess is we did 60 or 70 tacks. Gradually we picked off boats. As we got to Pensacola the wind had dropped dramatically now it was only 6 or 7. I think this is what allowed us to catch up so much. By the tunring mark only a Tornado and Randy with his Sizzors was ahead of us. We ended up catching the Tornado going down wind. Our down wind speed was about 13-14 in 7 knots of wind with occasional puffs of maybe 10. Our spinnaker is a roller furler chute like the America's Cup 45's run. Very flat, but requiring you to heat it up very high. The result though was that our apparent wind took us very low. Lower than what the Tornado was doing with his spinnaker.
We were able to correct over everyone except Randy, who we never could catch. He finished about 10 minutes ahead of us on his very fast little design he calls Sizzors. A unique little trimaran with some great down wind speed. In the end Randy got penalized for being over early at the start. In this long distance race they have a rule that if you are over early (since it is a 100 mile race) they penalize you one place rather than disqualify you. So we "backed" into a victory after all. So it goes that on very long distance races, the weather can change and make a big difference. Sometimes it hurts and sometimes it helps. This time we ended up very lucky.
Anyway this race gave me a lot of time to think and it seemed like we could have a lot of fun getting the "bigger" cats, meaning all of the Supecats, the ARC's and the RC to focus on going to the long distance races as our thing. We do not have the numbers for the class racing around the bouys and those classes no longer seem to like the distance races, so maybe we can these distance races our shows.


That was my thought anyway,
Cheers

Great write up!

Randy going 'over early' in a 100 mile race seems like a pretty strange mistake. With 100 miles out ahead of you, one would think that a few seconds at the start would be insignificant. I guess the other possibility is equally as painful, he could have lost (on corrected time) by a few seconds and agonized about his 'late' start for months.

Bruiser....Yes I feel the same about can racing and look for the longer type runs with my stock SC19. I would really like to try my hand at a few of these races/runs in Florida and Texas. I would be interested in seeing a picture of your gennaker and knowing what you had to beef up to make this happen. Bill Roberts has been talking about this in another thread and said the loads are pretty high on the boat with this type of sail.

Our spinnaker is a roller furler chute like the America's Cup 45's run. Very flat, but requiring you to heat it up very high.

Other than that it sounds like it was a great time and congrats. A win is a win no matter how it happens. Just look at the pros in America's Cup. Running the course single boat just for the points and now team New Zealand has the option on how they will advance to the LV finals. The other might have to scrap it out.

SC15Av8or wrote:Bruiser....Yes I feel the same about can racing and look for the longer type runs with my stock SC19. I would really like to try my hand at a few of these races/runs in Florida and Texas. I would be interested in seeing a picture of your gennaker and knowing what you had to beef up to make this happen. Bill Roberts has been talking about this in another thread and said the loads are pretty high on the boat with this type of sail.

Our spinnaker is a roller furler chute like the America's Cup 45's run. Very flat, but requiring you to heat it up very high.

Other than that it sounds like it was a great time and congrats. A win is a win no matter how it happens. Just look at the pros in America's Cup. Running the course single boat just for the points and now team New Zealand has the option on how they will advance to the LV finals. The other might have to scrap it out.

Thanks.

Regarding beefing up boat, we have not actually beefed up anything. The loads are high for the halyard, however in my mind there is as much load on the spinaker doing 25 knots when you stuff it...so I am uncertain. I know there is a lot of compression loads. We have learned that the main has to remain tight as it is providing most of the support for much of the load. The main has to be sheeted in anyway due to apparent wind being in front. So we are focused on blowing the sheet when it gets iffy.

How do you post a picture here anyway?? This picture is with the spinaker and reacher up on shore. I have no pictures yet of it flying.

http://bruiser41.smugmug.com/Motorcycle ... 0009-L.jpg

Cheers