January 4, 2026
Sunday, John was out for the first time this season. He was joined by skippers Bruce, Bob, Happy, Paul, Harry, and I for a fun day of sailing. Suz, Jane, T, Don H., and Rocky were also on hand. Winds there were gentle, A sail speed, coming over our backs. We didn't have a starting line that gave us a nice upwind mark under those conditions.
Happy tried one course and after a practice race he decided not to score the races and he switched to "around all the marks" going CCW. Races were long and the fleet got stretched out as the leaders pulled away. Any boats left clustered together in the fleet had lots of problems at the far marks.
Special thanks to Harry for getting the garden hose from Terry (who stayed home with a bad cold) and arrived early to clean off the dock.
Our two score keepers, Suz and Jane, were ready even though we decided not to keep score.
T helped rescue entangled boats from the far shore, and later coached skippers having trouble. Don Hearthorn was on hand for a nice visit. He still has his boat, but he's not sure if his vision is good enough to sail.
Rocky did'nt bring a boat, but after watching a few races Happy convinced him to sail his. A few minutes later Rocky was reporting he had no control over the sheet. The rudder was responding but the sheet servo was not working. Rocky was struggling to get back to the dock and not making much progress. Eventually he moved a transmitter switch and the sheet servo began to work again. (Turns out some Spektrum systems have a switch which disables the throttle control channel for RC aircraft. The switch is intended to prevent accidental startup of electric planes). On our boats it disables the sheet servo.
THURSDAY-- Fun sailing begins at 2:00
And the following Thursdys
--
Don Armstrong
Don't forget THURSDAY-- Fun sailing begins at 2:00
And the following Thursdays
--
Don Armstrong
Sailors are coming back to Marco
Great to hear from Roger. I also arrived in FL yesterday, and a few weeks ago Bruce called me to say he is ready to start sailing any time. So with Rocky and I we should be able get a small fleet going. The sailing marks are stored in the park building. Rocky is going to check with the City this week to confirm when we can get them out. As soon as that's done we plan to schedule a work day to to get the marks out. I'll put out an email as soon as we know the date.
I goodly number of other members have emailed all of us stating when they expect to be back on Marco. It looks as though we will have an active fleet again in late '25 through early 2026.