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CS in the EC


Paul356

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Here's a post on the Wooden Boat forum, from Doug Cameron.  Pretty darn good boats, eh?

 

 

Doing final touches on the Core Sound 20 Mark III before the WaterTribe Everglades Challenge. With registration closing in a couple of days, it looks like 4 boats of the Core Sound family entered: mine, an and Paul Stewart in a CS 20 MK I, Gary Blankenship and John Bell in John's 17, and Scott Rice and Ned Goss in Graham's first EC 22, Southern Skimmer. You can follow the race (we all carry SPOTs), beginning March 7, at watertribe.org.

http://capt-doug.blogspot.com

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  • 1 month later...

If your interested, there will be some great chatter about the Core Sounds and the EC22 in this years EC, as well as all things sailable on a thread already started on Sailing Anarchy here http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=164096, much of the commentary comes from Watertribers who have completed ECs in the past, and other colourful folks. Also our good friend Steve puts out a blog called Log of Spartina, he sails his home built Welsford Pathfinder, http://logofspartina.blogspot.com. He is Paul and Alan's shore contact and will be blogging a bit about thier challenge.

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Race is off to a rough start this morning with multiple rescues already recorded. Coast Guard has a 'mandatory weather hold' on the race at the moment, but no idea how many competitors even know about it. Last I saw, Dawn Patrol and Mister Moon were both holding their own, DP went "outside", MM went "inside". Constant reports available on the water tribe site....

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Reports are sketchy, some conflicting. Anywhere from 4-11 rescues this AM. Crews all reported safe so far, some boats maybe not. A few boats had already reached Check point 1 safely, with others closing in. This is going to be a royal cluster f... as not everyone seems to have their phones turned on, or can't be reached by their shore support teams. Coast Guard is using all resources including jet skis to stop boats from proceeding.

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It's now official: both the EC and Ultimate marathon have been cancelled at CP 1  at the request of the Coast Guard. I am sure that there will be much more about this in the immediate future, stay tuned....

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Interesting that CG would order a cancel, vs. a "hold" at CP1. What a difference a day makes........by morning the crisis may have passed.

 

A few years back, I crewed for my sister in a 2 day race out of Norfolk. Sometime around 3 PM on day two, a nasty squall blew in. Seeing what was coming, we doused all sail, fired up the D-sail and with a little luck and my pucker factor running high (sister seemed annoyed by not concerned), we rode out about 10 minutes or so of 60 mph plus winds. Others were not so lucky. They were caught with full sails up, including spinnakers. Several suffered knockdowns and a few were dismasted. About the time things started to settle down, the radio came alive with all manner of may day calls including boats adrift. CG simply asked if anyone was hurt, and if not, told them to call Sea Tow.

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Just so everyone knows. All B&B boats are accounted for and made it to CP1. Doug is off sailing the MK3 20. The CS17 is here at cp1 and my dad and I are back at cp1 calling it a day. Such a weird year and still sinking in but for us it was a sucess. Boat was great with the new weighted centerboard and we had a great sail to CP1 and a night aboard in pine island sound.

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Based on what's been posted on the Watertribe sites, I expect there will be changes next year.  Watertribe's philosophy is to provide a starting line, a finish, the checkpoints and you're on your own, which we as independent sailor types can understand.  CG's philosphy is that if someone is going to wave a green flag at 80 or so boats and kayaks regardless of the weather, then the someone ought to be taking responsibility if half a dozen or a dozen of them can't handle the weather they set off in.  CG made the comment that they did not have a manifest of participants or any safety coordination from sponsors.  So, two reasonable philosphies, but they conflict, and reading between the lines in the CG announcement yesterday, they were pretty tired and disgusted by being called upon in these circumstances.  Also, and admittedly from a vantage point 1,000 miles away, it appeared the weather cleared or settled noticeably by around noon.  If that was indeed the case, an easy question for CG would be to ask why the start wasn't simply delayed 5 hours.  While the Watertribe philosophy is we go regardless.  Again, we understand both, but it was the CG that was out there picking up boats and people and (probably) wondering whether it couldn't have all been easily avoided with a few minor modifications.  That makes for angry CG's, and they end up with the rules on their side, and I assume they kind of felt they'd done enough for one day.  At a minimum, I would expect the 'tribe to be posting safety boats across Tampa Bay next year.  At worst, some of the 'tribe organizers could be facing fines or other sanctions this year for organizing a mass activity that (at least in CG view) violated CG safety rules.  I doubt we've heard the end of it.

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Good points Paul. Difficult to know the right thing to do and still "do".

 

On the race I referenced, that was the 2nd day of a 2 day race. On day 1, the air was so light it took forever to cross the starting line and a lot of folks never made it to the finish line the first day in the allotted amount of time.  Second day was better, until that squall hit. We withdrew once we fired up the engine, but couldn't have finished anyway, as the committee boat took off and ran for cover too. No way to predict any of that.....it came up in a matter of minutes.

 

I withdrew from another race that started out in pleasant conditions, but which quickly built to over 30 mph with gusts running higher. With half the fleet suffering near knockdowns and other problems related to being overpowered, less than 1/4th of the starters finished and of those who did, the guy who was leading most of the way got passed near the end when his jib blew out.  Of the guys who finished......they thought it was great fun. One of the guys who wasn't prepared for that kind of wind......one of the near knockdowns.....saw that as a near death experience and he sold his boat shortly after. We haven't seen him since. Same experience as the EC had, except all that caught us AFTER the race started.......not while it was starting. No way to predict any of that, but the same problems just the same. That kind of weather could pop up......and probably has.......at any point along the way.

 

So do you have races or not? If yes, there has to be some acceptance of risk coupled with prudence on the part of participants. On the other hand, I suspect there are folks entering these races who have no business being there. If that is the case, it may behoove the sponsors to do a better job screening out those folks who might be tempted to bite off more than they can chew.

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