Sep 17, 2023 @ 00:57:19 EDT
Saturday morning in Daytona Beach was pleasant, but the weak pressure gradient across the region left us with calm conditions at the competitors' meeting before racing. A delay to redo the rotations to accommodate a school that didn't show allowed the wind to fill enough to get out on the river.
Racing began at 10:52, with west winds at the minimum for racing of 3+ knots. While that race went off without too much of a problem, the winds became very finicky. We ran a couple of sequences, but the winds died, or shifted & died, so we abandoned multiple starts to keep the racing fair. Our second race finally started at 11:30, with the same course we had for race one. Race three was sailed with the course rotated quite a bit to the south.
B Division came out for their first set and the winds would not cooperate. We set a course for the wind we had. That didn't hold, so we set a new course for the shifted conditions. By the time we had that set, the sea breeze had taken control, good news, but we had to set yet another course for the now reliable breeze. B Division got their first start of the day at 1:28 pm, with 5-7 knots out of the ESE, with a ripping inbound tide. With the reliable breeze racing was fast, competitive and tight. Finishing boats were often overlapped.
We got the A Division back on the water and ran another set of three races. Winds were variable, but 5-7 knots from the ESE to SE. With the breeze a bit more reliable, we extended the windward leg a bit to lengthen the course.
A quick rotation back to B gave us our final three races of the day. The sea breeze proved to be steady and less shifty from earlier in the day. We were able to run the full set of three races to complete two rotations for the regatta.
Sailing conditions were difficult for our event, with a strong current all day long. The teams did well, with many boats finishing overlapped, some withing inches of each other.
Thanks to all the sailors who came to race. A special thanks to the R/C Mark Boat, that worked hard all day long! Mike Stambersky, Ted Yeager, and Dave Anderson did a super job. Rob Mundell worked all day on the R/C boat with me, and I couldn't have done it without him. Thanks to Paco and Andrew who also spent time on the R/C boat.
Thanks to the Halifax Sailing Association (HSA) where we sail out of. We really appreciate the use of the facility for our pre-race and post-race activities.
Chris Herbster Faculty Advisor ERAU Sailing Club
| School | Team | A | B | TOT | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | University of Miami | Hurricanes | 11 | 20 | 31 | |||
| 2 |  | Jacksonville University | Fins | 26 | 12 | 38 | |||
| 3 |  | Rollins College | Tars | 23 | 17 | 40 | |||
| 4 |  | Florida Institute of Technology | Panthers | 29 | 35 | 64 | |||
| 5 |  | University of South Florida | Bulls | 24 | 42 | 66 | |||
| 6 |  | University of Central Florida | Knights | 29 | 44 | 73 | |||
| 7 |  | Embry-Riddle University | Blue & Gold | 43 | 37 | 80 | |||
| 8 |  | University of Florida | Gators | 47 | 38 | 85 | |||
| 9 |  | Florida State University | Seminoles | 40 | 49 | 89 | |||
| 10 | | Embry-Riddle University | Eagles | 53 | 37 | 90 |
The following chart shows the relative rank of the teams as of the race indicated. Note that the races are ordered by number, then division, which may not represent the order in which the races were actually sailed.
The first place team as of a given race will always be at the top of the chart. The spacing from one team to the next shows relative gains/losses made from one race to the next. You may hover over the data points to display the total score as of that race.
