The 2024 Flying Scot George Washington Birthday Regatta (GBWR) and Midwinters in Eustis, FL, is in the books. The National Level regatta was not only outstandingly managed, it was incredibly fun despite the ways the weather tried to dampen our spririts. How’d we do? Not as well as we would’ve liked, but we did have a great time.

The Regatta was scheduled for Friday/Saturday/Sunday, February 16, 17, & 18, 2024. David Ames held a special training seminar sponsored by Mad Sails on Thursday, February 15. He did a classroom session, boat rigging session, then on-the-water session with drone recording (thanks to PJ Buhler, drone pilot extraordinaire!). Link to drone video coming soon… Brother Kendall and I did some sailing on Wednesday before the regatta, trying to sail without a rudder (winds were light), and, since I’ve been having difficulty tacking and passing the hiking stick behind my back, we worked on tacking. This video gives you an overview of our efforts to learn how to sail with just our weight and sail trim to steer. It can be done…

Friday’s racing started after noon. It took quite some time to get the 75 or so boats launched (81 registered; some decided not to come siting the pending inclement weather), and we chose to stay on a can through the regatta. NOTE: We took a cheap rubber raft with us, and I’m glad we did: it allowed us to use our boom tent overnight (really beneficial during rain) and leave it behind, along with other stuff in a dry bag. This also proved to be invaluable when Brother Kendall lost his balance at the can, slipped off the boat, and stepped into the raft! Had the raft not been there, it would’ve been game-over on Sunday morning!

The weather on Friday was decent: 5-10 knot winds from the west clocking to the northwest, mostly cloudy skies, about 75°. We chose to race in the Challenger fleet as this was our first National event. Race course set was a WA3, which, according to the Sailing Structions was W/L/W, starting below the leeward gate, and finishing above the windward mark. Championship Fleet (42 boats) started first, then about 7 minutes later, the Challenger fleet (31 boats) started.

We didn’t do too well. In fact, we simply slid down the ladder to somewhere around 22nd after the first lap, when over the radio the PRO declared the race abandoned and re-sail. Kendall as quite pleased; it took me a minute to realize this was a good thing

Why was the race abandoned? There was some confusion regarding the course. Appendix S of the Racing Rules of Sailing designate course WA3 as W/L/W/L/W, or 3 windward legs. However, the Regatta SI’s specified 3 TOTAL legs, so W/L/W. The RC got confused as to which was the correct course and did not set a finish line for the Championship fleet as they approached the finish. They rightly abandoned the race and re-sailed, frustrating the leaders of the Championship fleet. NOTE: If you’re hosting a regatta, don’t use the same course designations in your SI’s as the RRS Appendix S. It’ll avoid confusion.

The RC did manage to get 2 more races in, so by the end of Day 1 we had completed 2 races where we scored 13 & 11. But there was a great party at The Troff that evening–good seafood and Yuengling beer!

Saturday dawned grey and raining, and the forecast matched the final weather: no wind, rain, and mid-60’s all day. Races were abandoned, but the host club did a great job keeping folks entertained and fed, breaking out the wine/cheese party early. Wisconsin Dairy Farmers association sponsored a bunch of cheese for the event, and it was excellent! Unfortunately, a number of boats decided they didn’t want to deal with the continued rain and departed early from the regatta (~25 boats left early, fairly evenly split between the 2 fleets).

We did, however, get a great interview with another team of Saling brothers: Jim and Jeff Jilek. I’ll let you learn about them from this 3 minute interview:

Sunday got cold, around 50°, but at least there was wind, even if the rain continued. After a quick briefing for boat extraction following the regatta, we got underway, and sailed 2 more races. Brother Kendall had bought some superior foulies for the regatta, while I did not; suffice to say I now have new foulies! We took a 6 & 8 for the last 2 races, then worked to get the boat out of the water.

Congratulations to all the winners. While we didn’t take home any hardware, we did have a terrific time. Thanks to the Lake Eustis Sailing Club for hosting such a spectacular event. We’re hoping the North American Championships in June (at Cedar Point Yacht Club) will be as well attended.

Videos are being posted as we process them. We’re doing something different this time: Brother Kendall has figured out how to post 360 videos on YouTube, and I’m posting a study video focused on boat handling and sail trim, with pic-in-pic-in-pic videos. Here are links to a couple of them:

We’ll be posting more “fun” videos on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@SailingWithMyBrother/videos) over the coming days, so be sure to check that out and subscribe.

And, of course, results:

Challenger Fleet:

Championship Fleet:

Learnings from analyzing our videos:

1. The vang doesn’t get tight enough.  The leech telltale streams 100%.
2. W’ere not getting the pole high enough.  The luff of the spinnaker is strapped, and the shape is not vertical enough.
3. We have good upwind speed and pointing.
4. Our starts (on a long, uncrowded line) are not bad; in some cases they are excellent, and we get out front right away.
5. We need help going downwind, understanding jibing angles, and also with boat handling on jibes and sets.  The jibe and set process is not well enough practiced.  We need to determine what is the best process (I’m still calling for moving the pole first, and that’s NOT right).  
6. I’m still dropping the tiller extension.  Need to practice tacking on the trailer.
7. We seem to get tired, and lose focus.  A ratchet block on the main will help (already received).
8. We go the wrong way even once we’ve learned which way is favored.  We allow traffic to set our path, rather than figuring out how to get around the traffic to go where we want to go.
9. We argue, esp. about whether I’m pinching or not.  We can’t do that.

This is a short video of me finalizing our trip south for the regatta.