Reflections on a Great 2011

Happy New Year!!

This is a bit of reflection of 2011:

2011 has been a good and busy year. We started sailing Bella Mente in the Ft. Lauderdale to Key West race in early January. The team not only was first to finish but also corrected out 1st overall. It was a very enjoyable trip down the keys, sailing all downwind in good breeze. web site http://www.keywestrace.org/2011race.html#

Next came my first trip to Chile to Sail on Phoenix, a Soto 40. We had 10 boats sailing one design.

The Soto is a lot of fun in South America. Sailing in Chile was just like sailing in California. The water was cold, lots of sea life, and kelp. The water even smelled the same.

We had a very good regatta to and won it on the last leg of the last race. Sailing is very good and competitive. Can't wait to get down there more.

While I was in Chile, Bella moved tot he West Coast and had another refit. This time we added 5 feet to the back of the boat to make it longer. We also added sail area to the main and spinnakers. This was all to race the boat to Cabo in March. The race was of course to be down wind but it ended up the other way as there was a low that covered the course. After beating for over 24 hrs, the mast came down while leading the race.

Not fun as we never had the time down wind to test the refit out for Trans-Pac. This was the low of the year for me.

In April, I traveled to Dubai to sea trail the new Farr 400. With a new one design like this this was a good time to see how the boat sailed and get some idea of what to change and make it better.

It was a lot of work getting the boat in the water and sailing. We made some adjustments and sent the boat off to Europe to race. Next stop for the boat Barcelona.

From Dubai, I traveled to Mallorca to meet Joc, my Brother Dave and some other friends to do some training on our bikes.

I know the island pretty well but over the next 3 weeks we were able to see a lot more of this fantastic place. The first week was an organized training session.

We road every day and I did around 275 miles and over 17000 ft. of vertical. For me this was a big week.with big mountains. We then joined the Bekking family on the east side of the Island.

From there we toured around, played some golf and I also did some biking. It was a lot of fun, a real vacation with good friends.

Next stop Thailand to sailing on Hannes Waimer's TP 52 Team Premier. It was great to sail on the TP again. We spent some time tuning the boat up and we felt we got her going pretty well. We started by winning the first race. The boat and crew were good and we ended up winning the Top of the Gulf regatta. It was fun for me as I got to drive.

Hannes was happy as  his boat was worth more and has since been sold to Australia.

In Barcelona with the Farr 400, we put the boat together in a rush, ship was late, and got out on the race course. The boat rated pretty high in IRC but we wanted to see how she went. In a light air event we did not fair too well on corrected time, but she was very fast as we sailed with he 50 footer boat for boat.

Then it was off to South America again to sail Sotos in Ilhabela, an island near Sao Paulo. It was tough sailing there. Narrow channel with a lot of tide. 14 boats, good competition

We ended up finishing ok, but not great 5th. The Mitsubishi Sailing Cup had 3 regattas of 4 days each. The Soto class has done a great job promoting the fleet and had some great help with sponsors.

I joined the Flying Jenny 7 team in June for the NYYC Annual Regatta. FJ7 is the old 2007 Bribon, TP 52. Pete Pendleton spent a lot of time fixing her up and this was to be her first buoy race. We sailed a very consistent series with all 2nd's. To win the regatta. I did a lot of driving in this event which was fun for me. It was a windy lumpy regatta outside. We kept the boat together and sailed pretty well. It was great for me to sail with a local Annapolis team.

From Newport RI to St. Tropez for the Giraglia Race on the Farr 400. We added area to the main and the boat was better balanced with more power. We sailed in a 98 boat class that ranged from TP52's down to pretty slow 38 footers.

Our boat was fast but again did not rate well in IRC. For the long race with our speed we sailed in the top 15 boats in a 220 boat fleet. It was mostly light winds. We beat the open 60's to the rick 170 miles into the race and corrected on all the boats that finished ahead, but then the little slow boats sailed in with more wind to correct out..

Back down to Ilhbela for the Rolex Ilhabela Sailing Week. This again was sailed in Soto's. Another hard regatta as the class is getting more competitive.

We ended up 7th out of 12 boats, not our normal result.

On the way home I stopped by New Zealand to look at the new Southern factory for Bella Mente. We are building a new boat and I have been involved with the design and construction with a very good full team of guys. The new boat will be done in March 2012. After NZ, I stopped and meet Joc in Hawaii. Because of a conflict I was not able to sail with Bella to Hawaii but was able to meet them as they won the Barn Door Trophy for first to finish. I was very proud of the team and my input in the refit that help them win the race.

It was nice to do a race at home on the Flying Jenny. We entered the Governor's Cup that was a late afternoon start to sail to St. Mary's college about 50 miles down the bay. It was mostly a beat and having the big boat was a good thing. Adding getting two big shifts on the way and it was an easy win overall.

Ilhabela was followed by the Mit Sailing Cup in Buzios. Great place to sail and visit. It was a bit more up market area as most of the Rio people make the trip for nice vacations. It was a breezy regatta and we did manage to win a race but over all dropped to 9th.

Joc and I then drove from Annapolis up to Nantucket to sail in the IOD Celebrity invitational. This is a fun regatta that have brought in a lot of great sailors to race with team as tacticians.

To benefit the Nantucket Community Sailing foundation. I was teamed up with Heather Gregg-Earl and Richard Werdiger. We had a great time. They shared the helming and we ended up a very steady 3rd. The regatta was won by John Dane..

In Late August it was back to Rio for the last Mitsubishi Sailing Cup event in the Soto's. Rio is a very tricky place to sail, I loved it. The wind came from everywhere with good shifts along with tides that kept things interesting. We sailed really well to take a fourth. Torben Grael won with his son Marco driving. He did a great job. It was a lot of fun to sail with Eduardo Souza Ramos over the year. We won 3 events and watched the class grow. I hope to sail more down there, many new friends and great new places to go.

Next stop was San Francisco. We brought in a new Farr 400 to sail in the BBS. Of course the ship was late and it was hard to get up to speed.

We learned a lot about the boat in the Bay's condition as it was dog off chains. I think this was the windiest BBS I can remember. Speed of over 22 knots in the boat..

We would have finished off well but there was one race that we ran out of spinnakers so we did not sail. That pushed us to fourth in the series.

Back home for the last race with Flying Jenny, the IRC Mid Atlantic Championships. Good fleet including Numbers. We started with a bang winning the distance race in breeze, a reach fest around the bay. The next 2 days were light but we were able to win. Making it a clean sweep with Jenny and I for the year. Looking forward to sailing with the Team in 2012.

Then it was back to San Francisco for the Leukemia Cup and the Pumpkin Regattas on the Farr 400. We sailed very well with the boat in both regattas, taking second in the LC and first, with a sweep in the Pumpkin. Best of all was how our little boat raised over $15,000. But the regatta did over one million dollars. A great way to end the year.

                                                 Our LC Crew

looking back at the fleet of 220 boats that were behind in the Pumpkin regatta.

Looking forward to a great 2012, and more time like the above.