February 8, 2026
Weather was great, temperature in the mid 70's and a nice A sail breeze. Unfortunately the wind was coming over our backs.
We had 10 boats out sailing and T was on hand to help anyone in need. The race was three parts. After race 4 we paused for the scoring which assigned handicap starting delays for race 5. There was a lot of discussion and, dare I say complaining, about how I wanted to start the next race. Needless to say those who had done the best in the earlier races complained the loudest because they could not cross the starting line until all the slower boats started. The idea was to handicap the fast boats just enough so that the race would be very close at the end. Looking at the results of race 5 seems to show that some of the complainers were right. They were handicapped too much, and some of the slower boats ended up finishing near the front of the fleet. So the first shot at handicaps was a bit too much. I asked if the skippers wanted to try another handicap start or go back to a conventional start. We used conventional starts for the remaining 3 races. We also modified the course to get some better upwind and downwind legs.
Rocky dominated the sailing and is the new Skipper of the week. Although in post race discussion he said his rudder was oscillating the whole time. The rules forbid using the rudder to "scull" the boat forward. So, there was some discussion about whether his boat was legal. But the decision was in his favor. A noisey rudder servo is not sculling. Just kidding. No one was serious about disqualifying his boat.
Other post racing discussions suggested we have a club championship regatta. Another idea was that we have a dinner banquet for members and guests. Harry volunteered to look for a suitable restaurant with nice accommodations for a group of 20-30. Both events would be best attended if held in late Feb. or early March, perhaps on the same day. Terry agreed to start thinking about a club championship regatta.
If you have ideas or are willing to help with these events contact Terry or Harry. If you need contact information I can help with that.
Tony was out for the first time this season. He is a Sporting clay shooter and will be competing this week in central FL and then traveling the next few weeks. He hopes to be back for more sailing in March. The last few races Tony was helping Wheat recover his boat from the far shore.
Happy suggested we use today's scores to handicap the racing on Thursday. We'll see. Rocky (Skipper of the Week) is race director this week.
Another subject Rocky brought our attention to prior to sailing was the club website, MIMYC.club
Richard offered to continue maintaining it. Rocky reimbursed him for the annual hosting fee with GoDaddy.com
Richard will work to remove much of the details linked to the Mid-Winter Regatta since it has moved.
If there're subjects you'd like to see covered by the website, please let Richard Phelps know at Rgp2417@gmail.com.
Richard will also reintroduce the concept of using Team Reach, an easy-to-use site where Don can list our sailing days and we can individually select if we WILL / WILL NOT attend and everyone will know at a glance how many and who plan to sail. It will also enable Don to update us quickly if conditions change at the pond by posting the update with our club's listing in TeamReach.
MORE INFO TO FOLLOW
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Don Armstrong
Don't forget THURSDAYS-- Fun sailing begins at 2:00
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.