Heading for the Fla. Panhandle tomorrow

[rfrance0718]

I'm leaving Columbus tomorrow at 2:00 with my crew in the truck and the Thistle in tow. It looks like it's going to storm all the way down. We should pull into Fort Walton Beach YC Saturday morning and the storms should blow through by 3:00 PM. So it did the same thing last year. We just took our time and took a good long rest in the middle of the night. Racing starts Sunday and we should be able to get the boat set up Saturday evening, but probably no practice sail. We'll see. The weather is looking pretty good for the 4 race days. It's going to be windy on Sunday and then lighter for the rest of the regatta. Light is good. Ideally, we'd like to have about 475 lbs total crew weight and we'll be in the 420 range. We'll hang in there on on Sunday and then hopefully be competitive for the last 3 days. It will be good to get out and knock the rust off.

Pictures. #1 The rig on its way to Montana last summer.
#2 The crew; Emerson, Matt, Me. Sailing the wood boat. We'll have the glass boat for this regatta.
#3. Glass boat at the same regatta last year.

It's exciting to have Emerson along. She's a HS senior. Her college ticket is punched, so missing some school should be fine. She's been a great HS and Junior racer. She'll wrap all that up this spring and move on to the next level. Matt has his own Thistle to campaign and I'll need to start crewing for him some.  Matt and Emerson and I have sailed a lot together, so good teamwork. Should be really fun sailing!You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.   

[Spot]

Safe travels and great racing!

[Norm L.]

Travel safely Bob. In trailer sailing Captain Ron is incorrect. If it's going to happen it's going to happen on the trailer.
But you have a ton of experience.

If it was a leisure trip, I'd say arrange to spend a day with Steve Haines in Panama City and talk boats. 

[rfrance0718]

Thanks Norm, it seems like I've made all of the mistakes, but I keep finding new ones.