May 23th - Capt Jack Seta, Reporting from Sliddel, LA:

Hey guys,

Today turned out to be almost a perfect Victoria day, all except the 15-20mph winds we had for the most part of the morning with constant radio and battery problems for almost skippers. Matter of fact after the results were past out this evening, we/you can see that from 4th place down to 14th everyone had a DNF at least once. This type of water(brackish) really plays havoc on electronics and even batteries. Winds finally started to redcuce after lunch and things started getting back to normal. But not before the corrosion factor knocked out a few skippers for the rest of the day. All the weather forcast said we would get rain and yes the atmosphere was very unstable, but the rain never came. Mike Biggs of New Orleans is doing a great job with his RD duties and Tyler Ross is having a full day on the rescue boat. With only 14 boats, they were able to run one fleet and managed to get 16 races in before 4:30. About 18 of us went to dinner tonight at the Marina Cafe under the Yacht Club. The usual war stories and hacking on each other was the norm. Tomorrow is another day and the weather looks to be the same.

Results as of Saturday night:
1st Chris Macaluso 23 pts
2nd Hew Hamilton 26 pts
3rd Gilbert Maclaghlin 34 pts
4th Doug Fox 67 pts
5th Ray Seta 84 pts
6th Phil Geren 87 pts
7th CJ Bustowitz 96 pts
8th Ron Stephanz 106 pts
9th Dave LaBlanc 118 pts
10th Adrian Lee 148 pts
11th Bob Pipers 164 pts
12th Andrew Fox 174 pts
13th Robert Bivojt 190 pts
14th Al Ross 200 pts

       

       

May 23th - Mike Biggs, Reporting from Sliddel, LA:

Thought for a while we were going to have to rename our regatta the Hurricane Hootenanny, but the hurricane didn't quite develop, and it went in east of here, anyway. That didn't keep us from having higher winds than Victoria's like, though. Winds this morning were around 15 mph, gusting to around 20. We also managed to avoid a deluge - which I had come to expect, considering the storm just offshore last night - getting only a few very light sprinkles during the day.

When sailors like Chris Macaluso and Hew Hamilton bury the bow half a dozen times on each downwind run, it's clear there's too much wind for Victorias and their standard rigs.

We registered 14 boats, and lost half the fleet before lunch time, mainly with radio and servo problems. I think the bulk of both were due to high loads, and the wet nature of Victorias in high winds and chop. There were also some structural problems, but those were soon fixed, I think.

We _may_ get the scoresheet worked up enough to post first day results later, but I believe it will show that the three top sailors are Chris Macaluso, Hew Hamilton, and Gilbert Maclachlan, not necessarily in that order.