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2023 SPYC John Jennings Regatta

By January 12, 2023 No Comments
Regatta report by TJ O’Brien
What better way to start off the year with some 505 sailing! The St Petersburg 505 fleet was invited to join the John Jennings Memorial Regatta, and after a few boats scrambling to find crew on short notice (myself included) 5 boats made it to the start line. The story of the weekend was to get the races off early. Both days started off with a light to moderate breeze that quickly faded over the course of the first race each day.
In total, 3 races were completed, 2 on Saturday and one on Sunday. The race committee was very patient with the challenging conditions and was able to get the second race off on Saturday after a long delay. The delay gave a few sailors time to reconsider their decision to don wetsuits, after all it is quite warm down here in sunny Florida (hint, hint – Midwinters is right around the corner and we have our second Clearwater event in February). The second race was completed in very light conditions late in the afternoon. The start time for Sunday was moved up to try to catch the morning breeze, and it’s a good thing it was! After a start in decent conditions, with a few crews on the wire in puffs, the wind almost completely shut down on the second upwind. After searching for zephyrs for a little, and several position changes between Nathaniel and I as we each found breeze the other didn’t have, the breeze filled in enough to finish us on a shortened course. Race committee was willing to wait for a sea breeze, but the 505s decided to head in and start getting to boats ready to go to Clearwater for Midwinters (another hint – hey here’s the registration page for Midwinters: https://www.regattanetwork.com/event/25578)
The challenging conditions gave us plenty to talk about in our debriefs. Class newcomers and rookies learned a thing or two from the old guard, and as is usual at 505 regattas there was the sound of a drill in the parking lot as someone was making some modifications to their boat.
Results:
1. Ethan and Andrew 1-1-1
2. Lin and James 2-2-2
3. Nathaniel and Eric 3-3-4
4. TJ and Mike 4-4-3
5. Charlie and Ben 5-DNC-5

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