Saturday’s races will take place in upper Charlotte Harbor, starting at noon. We will have our 15′ Boston Whaler on hand to set marks, run the starts, and keep score. We will run fairly short, easy races until we get tired of it, then go have a BBQ steak dinner party.
If conditions allow, Sunday’s race will be from Shell Creek to Ponce De Leon Park in Punta Gorda, as detailed below.
We expect everyone to operate under the standard Racing Rules of Sailing, as modified by these sailing instructions.
- Protests:
The Head Catboat Jib Trimmer In Charge is NOT interested in forming a committee to entertain your protests. Obey the rules, and if you believe someone else did not obey the rules, keep it to yourself. This is the Sun Cat Nationals! The very idea is intentionally ludicrous! If you take it too seriously, you will be expelled so that the rest of us can have fun. - Collisions:
Do not scratch my boats! Do not scratch each other’s boats! If a collision occurs that results in damage to any boat, I will post pictures and details at Sailing Anarchy, and then everyone involved will be sorry! - Use of engines:
If conditions allow, Sunday’s race will start upstream of my neighbor Frank’s dock on Shell Creek, east of US 17, and will end at Ponce de Leon Park in Punta Gorda. Racers will start under sail, and the use of engines to get under the US 17 and railroad bridges will be permitted only when in sight of those bridges. The use of engines will also be permitted within 100 yards of the Ponce Park/Punta Gorda Isles channel and within that channel to the dock. The fishing pier will be the finish line. If weather conditions make sailing in Shell Creek and the lower Peace River impossible, we will go to the Interstate 75 bridge under power, then sail on to Ponce Park from that point. If launching into Shell Creek is impossible due to low tide, we will do something else that day. - Punta Gorda Sailing Club Racers:
Sunday the 14th is the Punta Gorda Sailing Club Fall Series Race #5. Leave them alone! Sun Cat Nationals participants will remain well clear of all other boats under sail on the harbor, regardless of any other navigation rule or racing rule of sailing. If a PGSC racer might have to think about your intentions, you are too close. Use of engines to get clear of the PGSC fleet will be permitted, but only on downwind headings from 0 through 180 degrees. Causing a PGSC racer to alter course will result in disqualification. - Awards:
The soon-to-be-coveted Sun Cat National Championship Regatta Cup will be a disposable plastic cup with the name of the winning boat scrawled on it. (Note from the Jib Trimmer in Charge’s Wife in Charge: We might splurge and obtain a Tervis Tumbler for the award.) The finishing positions of each boat in each race will be tallied, and the boat with the lowest total score wins the Cup. We will have the awards ceremony in Ponce Park once all the boats are back on their trailers. Someone please remind me to bring a disposable cup and a Sharpie marker, because I’ll probably forget. That is how much you should care about this Cup. If you come and have fun, you win the much more important game of life!