Carinthia Web Log: Wirth Monroe Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach - Are you sure we will fit under the bridge?

Carinthia has done this race now a number of years so it was very close to the conditions we have seen before. As part of the southern circuit Hot Ticket again joined us for the "race to the buffet". She was late getting to the start for which was explained to us later.

Apparently a crew member who was late delivering a sail caused HT to miss the 9am opening of the Fort Lauderdale 17th street bridge to reach the Atlantic Ocean. After much discussion the decision was made that they would be able to clear it. Except a scary moment occurred when the radio antenna on top of the mast scraped the bottom of the bridge and navigation lights on the spans in spite everyone sitting on the end of the boom to tilt her.

Route up the course

To make things worse after arriving in the starting area their #3 genoa went up incorrectly and had to be taken down minutes before the start. With all that distractions we were the first boat to the ocean side of the line at the gun with the J105 Loki a little behind and to our leeward. HT was noticeably late on the shore side of the line. We decided that we would start with our #1 with the wind speed in the high teens close hauled and from the northeast. In the first 10 to 15 miles Hot Ticket managed to match speed with us, but we made every opportunity to point as high as we could so we could sail into the gulf stream. Loki soon fell back and we were the farthest right in our fleet. We started getting lifted and continued to get out farther right. About 20 miles up we were heavy in the Gulf Stream with the miserable 8 foot pounding waves that accompanied it. On the conveyor we got nearly a 2 knot kick that catapulted us ahead of everyone in the PHRF fleet including Ticket. By the time we reached the end of the 40 mile course the other J120 was nearly 4 miles behind us. At the end we were headed but made the finish line without tacking. The boats behind had to tack 4 times to stay off the beach.

Arrival at Sailfish Club in Palm Beach

All in all, we managed to place 1st in class and 1st overall, second year in a row.

Here is the link for the finishes: http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_Number=1&eID=543
Crew Members: Bob Declercq, Chuck Stormes, Eric Ryan, Karl Kuspa, Dave Shriner, Pat, Nicole Neely

Ted Neesley and Mike Lawrence with the rum babe

The trip home was also successful. Karl managed to bag 6 fish and we ate really well that night with fresh seared tuna and broiled mahi-mahi, a taste treat indeed.