Sailing season in North America is well underway now and the cold weather is behind us for another year. We have been to two regattas so far and our calendars are full with upcoming events.
Recently we just returned from our annual trip to Syracuse, NY. It’s always a big regatta but the weather can be fickle. The buoy race portion of the regatta is preceded on Friday by an optional fun distance race around the lake. It’s usually roughly 16 km and requires rounding some islands in the lake. The distance race sailed in breezy conditions, although some had to wash the mud off the top of their sails afterwards. Unfortunately the buoy racing over the rest of the weekend was a light wind affair. Even though the wind was light the racing was quite close and quite challenging. The 16 fleet is enjoying some stimulation in participation as teams prepare for the world championships, at this event 49 of the 62 boats participating were Hobie 16’s. We don’t often get to sail in big fleets like this and it’s always a fun challenge.
The skippers meeting covered the usual stuff but there was also a special request. In the past few years’ people have been posting lots of pictures of the parties on social media. Seems the park where the event is hosted wasn’t appreciating photos of people dancing on the tables! So the request was no photos of the party. I guess what happens in Syracuse, stays in Syracuse. The party was great but you’ll have to take my word for it. There was a small incident with fire trucks and police cars but no photos so that did not happen.