Team Seacats

Wow…it’s getting windy here. I went out to take some pictures this morning and took some of the water. I looked at them and thought, “hmmm…that doesn’t look so bad”. I stepped out of the hotel room and realized that it had laid down a bit while I was taking shots…here’s one from the hotel balcony just now. More photos HERE

Well, the front came through last night and it lived up to expectations. It’s nukin’ out there. Gilbert’s (where we are staying with the boats) is pretty protected but there are some healthy swirling gusts coming through. In fact, the Team Tybee Nacra 20 blew over last night on the beach but fortunately they didn’t suffer more than a couple of scratches. We didn’t finish all the preparations we probably should have last night and although the boat walked around a little (as did most) everything is OK. Bill Croughwell recorded a 36 knot gust on a dock on the south side of Blackwater Sound and the water is pretty frothy. Rick White says he’s not going to make a final decision until the skipper’s meeting – so we should know more in a bit.

While rolling down the road, we’re talking about the weather. It appears that a fairly healthy front is expected to come through early Saturday morning bringing pretty high wind. The NOAA forcast is currently calling for 15-20 early in the morning and 20 – 25 knots for the rest of the day. John and I are pretty light on the boat – barely making the 308lb combined minimum crew weight in order to use the large F18 sail plan. We have to carry 10lbs or so of weight on the boat to make up half of the weight distance to the 330lb spec. With the high winds expected for Saturday, if it’s not enough to cancel racing, it’s going to be pretty interesting to see how the boat handles at that weight (rather…lack of it). Can you say “downhaul”?

I’m sailing with honorary Team Seacats member John Williams this weekend. John is a huge supporter of our sport and graciously donates an incredible amount of his time to assiting with the sports organizing bodies. Besides all that, he’s a great sailor too and has sailed catamarans with some of the best in the country. I drove a little over 6 hours to get to John’s house in Jacksonville, FL last night and we got on the road this morning (a little later than expected). We expect to arrive in Largo about 4pm to start setting up the boat.