2011 Race Recap by Ron Kern

The pre-race.   This year only one house guest for the race, Dave Kashy.  Dave wanted to borrow my Mike's Lab L8 board which I had been unsuccessful in repairing.  Dave arrived at midnight Thursday and we stayed up until 3:20 a.m. repairing the board so it could be sailed Friday afternoon. 

Friday afternoon we sailed at the event site and tested the gear we thought we'd race.  It was a good thing because neither of us were dialed in until we came back and I put on a longer stiffer 530 mast in my 9.5m sail and Dave switched down to a 9m. 

Race Day.  Saturday we had the skipper's meeting at 9:30 a.m. which answered questions and gave the course for the race. The wind gusts were near 33 mph and everyone was feeling a bit uncomfortable about starting the race in the blasting wind.  Sand was blowing hard into the parking lot and above knee high on the beach.  Rig selection was simple, my smallest, 9.5m and 67cm fin.  We decided to postpone the start of the race hoping for a mid-day sag in the wind which happened a bit after noon.  We had a final skipper's meeting on the beach so everybody could synchonize watches and prepare for the race start.

The start and to Hillsboro Inlet channel marker.  Dave & Fernando had started quite a bit above me, Patrick was below.  Patrick was slowly pulling away very slightly but losing angle doing so.  I was not pointing as high as I normally would to weather and was just keeping myself parallel to the beach.  It was really tempting to "race" Patrick and expend some extra effort to catch up the distance, but I realized he was going to be making multiple tacks to weather and I wouldn't.  My plan was formed, conserve energy for the trip downwind and just stay parallel to the beach.  There was weed in the water but I was mostly successful in avoiding it and the couple times I did pick up a piece I was able to shake it loose.  Patrick wasn't so lucky as I saw him stop to shake it free.  Dave was staying pretty even with me but just losing a bit of ground.  Around the top of the Galt Ocean Mile, (south of Commercial Pier), Patrick had to make his first tack and that was pretty much the last time I considered him a threat.  The trip upwind was about a half an hour with one short tack to round the upwind mark.  I rounded first by a considerable margin.  

Downwind leg to Port Everglades Inlet marker.  I was by myself.  Upwind hadn't been too bad and I was glad I hadn't pushed any harder.  The first half of the leg was not so bad zooming along downwind staying out about ½ mile offshore just inside the reef.  The water was reasonably tame although at the speed I was going downwind concentration was at the max and the concern was surviving the long one stance position.  I was flipping my front hand grip up to down and back frequently and changing from little chicken strap to bigger chicken strap to keep things from freezing up.  My front arm was really getting worked and I was starting to wonder how far I could go without blowing up.  One half mile from the channel marker that was answered when the rig just ripped out of my front hand and I went down.  I looked around and couldn't see any competitors so I decided a short 2 minute rest would help me get back to the beach.  The rest helped and the next thing going through my mind was the gibe around the mark.  The water coming out the inlet was super clear and outgoing loaded with moon jellyfish.  I was wondering if I'd be smart to tack instead but decided what the heck go for it and I blew the gibe. 

Reaching leg to finish.  I fell three more times getting going again, but stuffed my foot into the chicken strap and beam reached back to the beach and finished. 

Finish line.  Woo hoo!  Done.  I had played things right and won the race. 

Awards.  Thanks again to the generosity of Adventure Sports Miami had we had plenty of awesome prizes, including a nice watch, gear bags, harnesses and windsurfing coffee table books fore everyone. 

Party.  This year's party was at our house for pizza and beer.

Wrap up.  It was a tough race again this year. It was great to see so many returning entrants along with quite a few new entrants.  I was really happy everybody listened this year and came with phones in waterproof cases.

Next Year.  Hope to see you all back next year along with some new entrants give it a try.  Keep December 1-2, or 8-9, 2012 open on your calendar.  Thanks to all for helping make the event happen.  

Ron