As many of you know, SSA members Alden Shattuck, Tip Clifton, Bob Tan, and myself (Ted Morgan) are competing in the Laser fleet at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta. There are 14 classes represented, comprised of over 850 competitors from close to 50 different countries. To put it bluntly, this event is HUGE. In the Laser fleet alone, there are 114 competitors from over 30 countries.
So what have the conditions been like? Well the first day the breeze was a very comfortable 10-15 knots with full on sun - temps in the 80s (sorry, it's awesome here!). Tuesday and Wednesday saw the breeze fall into the 5-10 knot range - very Chesapeake Bay like conditions which enabled me to have one pretty good finish. Today (Thursday) we saw big breeze - in the 15-20 knot range as a strong cold front pushed south. We should see more of the same tomorrow for the final three races.
When you look at the results you will probably think we've been stinking up the joint as all four of us failed to qualify for the 'gold' fleet, and have been fighting to stay out of the back of the silver fleet. In reality, we've been racing against the best in the world. For those of you who have gone to the midwinters in years past, the competition at this event this year blows the doors off the midwinters.
The boatspeed these folks have off the starting line is phenominal. You have to be on the front row, and you better have your A game ready to roll, otherwise you'll be sucking bad air for the duration of the 60 minute race...there are very few passing lanes at this event.
There is a bunch of great coverage on the internet for the event. Gary Jobson is producing awesome videos daily:
US Sailing has an awsome website set up where you can look at photos, results, whatever:
http://www.rolexmiamiocr.org/results/index.htm
To sum things up, the four of us are older than almost all the Laser sailors....we are nowhere near the physical shape they are in....but we are fighting hard and hanging tough.
Ted
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