RS Aero US Midwinters - Davis Island YC, Tampa, Florida, USA, Feb 10-12th 2023
Thanks to Marc Jacobi for his reports;Day 1
4 races sailed, light wind for the first, then full hiking for the remaining 3. Subtly shifting beezes to 20kn and very bumpy seas made for tough beats and lots of planing downwind!
In the 7s, young Callen Burnett (a 6'3" high school SOPHOMORE) is in 2nd Overall after winning R1 going away and notching generally consistent finishes in the breeze. Eugene Schmitt started a little slowly with a 4th, but swept the remaining 3 races to lead the pack going into Day 2. Marc Jacobi lies in 3rd, 1 point behind Callen.
Irish carpetbagger Roy Van Maanen leads the 5s with consistent finishes, while Flip Dép Lê Myerson is in second, gaining ground on Roy by winning the final two heats. Local Emily Wagner, top female, rounds out the Top 3.
In the 9s, Madhavan Thirumalai is crushing with four bullets, followed by regatta organizer Ryan Schenck, and, one point further back, Boris Mezhibovskiy.
Great fun for the first day, with solid breeze predicted over the remaining 2 days of racing. Throw-outs should kick in tomorrow, tightening results in some fleets and gapping others. Stay tuned!
Day 2
As hinted at in yesterday's write-up, there was much in play going into today for all three fleets. Bucking the forecast, the day's breeze didn't build until half-way through the third race, giving light air specialists a chance to redeem themselves.
In the 5 Fleet, if your last name started with an "O," you had a good chance of winning a race. Trin Ollinger dominated the first contest of the day, and her husband Ellis won the other two to leap into 3rd Overall. Flip Dép Lê Myerson and Roy Van Maanen continued their battle for First Overall, with Flip's consistent 2,2,3 finishes allowing him to pull even with Roy. As of now, Flip wins their tie breaker with his 2 bullets to Roy's 1.
In the 7 Fleet, Callen Burnett kindly broke his big toe the prior day, allowing the old farts a chance to battle for the podium. Star of the day was Hank Saurage, who NAILED the first two starts, allowing him to score 1,1, followed by a 4 to pull within 2 points of Noel Butler, who had a consistent day in the variable breeze, scoring 3,2,3. Marc Jacobi struggled upwind all day but had breakout speed downwind to score 2,4,2 to remain 1 point ahead of Noel. Eugene Schmitt started a bit slow with a 5, but his next finishes of 3,1 keep him comfortably in front with 11 points after throw-out.
In the 9s, it was moving day for Boris Mezhibovskiy, who entered the day 3rd behind Ryan Schenck. Boris' consistent 2nd place finishes edged him ahead of Ryan, who placed 3,3,4 for the day. Madhavan Thirumalai continued his winning ways with 3 more bullets. Going upwind, Mad had what looked like significantly more mainsheet tension, and had excellent pace on the downwind legs.
So, lots of drama going into the final day of racing tomorrow. The forecast is for cranking winds between 15 and 30 knots. We'll see if the forecast is correct, and if it is, will the RC run the final race in those sporty conditions?
Day 3 With the club anemometer reading a solid 28 knots and gusts into the low 40s, the RC decided to forego racing.