Columbus Day Cruising Regatta 2K24 . . . .

[Charles Brennan]

   Wish I woulda went!! 

I've now missed four regattas Since 1977; two due to Hurricanes Andrew and Irma, and in 2020 I missed the CDCR, while I re-painted and refurbished Urchin.
And this year I missed it, due to several factors.
I honestly thought they would cancel the race, so close on the heels of a coupla Hurricanes, but apparently Miami escaped having any real damage at all.
They cut it pretty close though; Miami-Dade County didn't cancel their state of emergency until October 10 and the race was October 12.
The amended race instructions included the information that Marker C would not be used this year, since it was no longer in the Bay. 

But in all honesty, I wasn't going, anyway. 
Had several reasons:
1) Was still securing/cleaning up around the house and the yard, from Hurricane Milton.
2) I was unsure of my boat's ready status.   
I had just changed out the swing keel cable, rebuilt the keel winch and made some motor repairs and did not have a chance to test any of it, before Hurricanes Helene and Milton were upon us.
Why?
Because Hurricane Debbie had deprived me of local ramps to use for equipment testing, for the time being.   
I was not about to travel 350 miles south, with an untested boat.
3) The last (and most bitter!)    reason, was that I really just didn't think I had it in me, to handle the boat and do the race.
I have a hard time any more, getting that mast up and down, by myself.
(Old Trailer-Sailors never die; they just can't get their mast up!) 
Or getting the anchor back aboard.
I spent my whole sailing life with the firmly held opinion that the proper weight for an anchor, was 5 pounds less than the maximum weight you could heave over the side.
On this side of 70, I now believe the new weight is 15 pounds less than the minimum weight I can drag back aboard.

Last year's CDCR, is what convinced me I needed to down-size to a more manageable sailing craft and prompted me to acquire and start building a SCAMP.
But I sure do miss the Regatta; it has all the insanity and weirdness you'd expect, from Miami. 
There were 31 boats registered this year, 4 in Gunkhole Class.  As it turned out, all 4 failed to complete the race.
If I woulda went (and finished!) I woulda WON, with my time-honored strategy of: Winning Through Attrition.   

Next year will probably be pretty tough, as well.
For one thing, I don't know if I'll have the SCAMP finished by then. 
I also don't know if the Race Committee will even let me race it; they used to have an 18-foot minimum size limit.
I fought the committee to allow my son to race his Siren 17  one year and the winds were so strong, he dropped out and didn't race, clearly showing a great deal more common sense, than his Father. 
I will likely have to fight them again, to allow so diminutive a boat to race in a class that includes 31-foot Beneteaus, 25-foot Cape Dorys and 22-foot Bristols.
Nor do I have any idea what kind of handicap I would end up with.
And finally, it's uncertain whether the CDCR will even continue; 31 boats is a long way down from the 750 boats that used to cover Biscayne Bay.
At some point, they might HAVE to pull the plug on the race, tradition, or no.

Which will leave me with only my memories.
And that brings me to tonight's thought:
With Winter approaching, the TSBB frequently has guys with their boats on the hard, more interested in frequenting the forum.
I was thinking about doing a Winter Series on CDCR stories, from years past, perhaps weekly.
Would there be any interest in those stories? 

Just curious,
Charles Brennan

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

I imagine there will be plenty of interest.  Those of us who have read them before found them pretty entertaining.  And there are a lot of relative newcomers here who have never had the chance to read them.

[Charles Brennan]

Noemi, Es verdad, Chica.
Plus, All the TSBB tales only represent a coupla dozen years of CDCR races.
There's also 20+ years of tales from the CDCR races, BEFORE I found my way to the TSBB.

Thanks for the encouragement,
Charles Brennan

[Doug SC]

I have never been bored by your story telling! BTW, I can still raise my mast,  that is on all 3 of my sailboats.😁

[Norm L.]

Charles, the world is always ready for sea stories told by an Irishman.

And as you have said, no story is worth it without over engineering. (I think that's what you said?) 

[pgandw]

I did the CDCR in my ODay25 in 1981.  With my in-laws as crew - a mistake because after the experience they saw me as a depraved crazy guy who should be removed from the presence of their daughter.  Although I think my father-in-law secretly enjoyed all the naked women on the other boats.

And I managed to tick off my boss, who was also entered in the same class, by beating him.  Took 2nd on corrected time, but he had to collect my trophy for me because I had to leave on a business trip to Washington DC the minute we got back to the dock.

I was relatively new to the Miami area, and had not really understood the cultural phenomena of women and sailing in the area.  Apparently there was a cultural belief that being naked made your boat faster.  And my guess is it worked a fair percentage of the time - distracting the other boats made them slower.  Then the afternoon and night at anchor in Biscayne Bay.  There were many raft-ups for the bow flying competition - women would see how many bows they could swing across tied to the spinnaker halyard of the center boat in the raft-up.  I believe I counted some doing 9 or 10 bows.

The next morning was highlighted by Boston Whalers delivering Miami Herald newspapers to every boat anchored out there (well into multiple hundreds).  Truly the most amazing race I have ever been a part of.

There was another race that came close - a race off Ft Lauderdale beach for classic boats and clorox bottles.  This race featured a Le-man's start - boats at anchor with skippers on shore.  When the gun went off, skippers ran down the beach and swam, rowed, or paddled their way out to their boats.  Sails and anchors could not be raised until skippers were on board.  Although nudity was not as prevalent, there were still many attempts at winning through distraction, including launching water balloons with slings mounted to the shrouds.  We took and delivered a couple of hits from the broadsides.  Extra points given for hitting into the cabin through the open hatch.

Fun times racing in South Florida. 

[Timm R Oday25]

Charles of course we would love to hear  about past misadventures .
What else do us folks live in the land of the perpetually frozen
 have to do during the eleven months of winter ?
p.s. Some of us can still get our mast up by ourselves ..

[Charles Brennan]

pgandw, good stories!   
See?
This is what TSBB is supposed to be all about.

More, please!
Charles Brennan

[Charles Brennan]

Timm, go ahead and LAUGH!! 
Just remember:
This is your future looking back at you!! 

Charles Brennan

[Riley Smith]

Tell is all the tales you can! The only race I've ever been in I lost because the sheet traveler took that moment to come undone. We were on the river and my bud came around the curve. We took the shallows because my boat will float in a teacup and it was a great advantage. We were winning against a much bigger Pearson until I noticed the plastic wrapped  7 x 21 bridal I'd made was slipping out of the plastic and it had to be dealt with NOW! Phooey. He blew by us after 30 seconds or so. O well. SO....the only racing tale I've got LOL!

[Doug SC]

We have one crew of Flying Scot racers in the club that go all in with gear with the boats name on it. The boat is named Catnip. The new complete set of sails they just bought included  a spinnaker. I ask did they have anything special or colorful done with the spinnaker. You guessed it if you guessed a cat's head. I said I want a topless hula girl that wiggles in the wind to distract the competition. We tend to Lose ground on the downwind leg. This might have the other boats in front of us looking back instead of forward. I don't think there are any racing rules Prohibiting that.😁 now I  just have to convince the skipper!

[Timm R Oday25]

Charles ,I'm well aware ,you are telling my future story .. It's going to happen .
Much sooner than I expect...