Comparing mast rake on five 2.4mR
Clinic participants: Patrick Loduca, Daniel Evans, Magnus Liljedahl and Gilbert Peckar
Danny and Patrick to leeward with downtown Miami in the background
Sailing school in action
The past months has been spectacular for sailing in Miami. November and April/May are consistently the best months for sailing on Biscayne Bay. Not that the other months are bad, but this stuff is special.
Team Paradise had a 2.4 training camp this past weekend. Patrick Loduca, from Chicago, visited our Magic City in preparation for the disabled regatta in St Pete and a couple of other regattas on the Florida west coast. Daniel Evans took the opportunity to sharpen his skill. Danny, who soon will have to undergo surgery to re-attach his biceps tendon, is also heading to St. Pete this week.
Anyway, we had two good days of sailing. Stephen Rottblatt came out with us on Saturday. Our fifth boat remained on shore, as the wind was out of the east at about 15-20 mph. Gilbert Peckar came to help us both days and it is always nice to have someone at the dock when returning to port.
We sailed some pretty long upwind legs which provided for some nice stuff downwind. We did many "Rabbit Starts", which is a great drill. It teaches time and distance and how to duck a another close hauled boat. Once we were all on starboard tack, the drill ended when one of the boats was able to tack and clear the other boats. If the weather boat was out front, we simply let the leeward most boat become the new rabbit and we restarted the drill.
The runs were exciting, especially on Sunday. We sailed a bit further south where the waves usually are bigger. I had to return to port for a quick sail repair, but made it back out again.
How lucky am I to be able to sail almost every day? Our sailing school has seen some action and it i good news. Nothing like a little extra income to support our mission.
Next up is the St Pete regatta and a week-long corporate team building event in Miami, where we will be using all of our five Sonar plus Karin Mitchell's boat. It will be a lot of fun and provide us with a bit of income as well.
Another piece of good news is that Patrick Norstrom from Sweden will be sailing Sonar in the Miami OCR. He will be teaming up with Bryan Tabler from Orland, FL and Steve Shaw from Canada. Not sure what to name the team, but how about "United Nations"? I will be sharing more details on this as it develops.
All for now.