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Regatta in 25 to 35 knt wind last weekend was a blast. I had great crew/friends and plenty of good music onboard. We had an awful start as the conditions worsened and committee boat was nearly under water with the 5 to 7 ft seas. They somehow managed to wrap the anchor line around the lower unit of outboard motor and went stern to. Through the grace of St Anthony they managed to get back to shore. As I was saying we were quite late for start and with a broad reaching wind to a run Clave' was wheeling and dealing. Half way through the race we caught up and passed most in our class and a couple non spin boats to boot. Seas increasing and wind also I was glad I didn't try to set up stay sails for the first time. Last boat in our class to pass was a Cal 28. We surfed past him to gain lead while 3 dolphins surfed between the boats. Making the final beat to the finish line he managed to over take us up wind. The new sails pulled hard the whole way and the masts never were a problem. Had I been paying better attention to the start I figure we could have pulled off a bullet instead of 2nd place in class. Learned alot that day. It was well worth the hangover installed that night, ouch. Numbknots

Hey Numbknots, congrats on the 2nd place. First place next time!

Way to Go!

I told you she needs wind
Congrats!

Numbknots, way to go! Nice to hear the 28 CK can do so well, wonder if my 33CK will do as well, Rick

Racing these ck's I beleive is all about chosing the right race for the boat. Its about going off wind. I'm not sure what the percentage of upwind to off wind sailed wdould be but around the bouys or even a triangle course is not the place for these boats. Its off shore and off wind for as long as possible. When I ran down a hunter 30 non spin boat, that usually wins all the phrf races in the bay, I was one smilin' MF'er. Numbknots

You're right; long distance beam reaches or off wind races are ideal for the cat ketch, especially if the winds are high enough to prevent the sloops to carry their spinnakers. An F44 has won the Bermuda-1-2 race several times, last time in 2006. Skippered by the 18 year old son of the owner and on the two-man return leg crewed by his 16 year old brother...... and they outsailed (on handicap) an open 50 with semi pros. Cat ketches may look like pussies, but they are not to be f#$%ed with! (excuse my foul mouth).