2018-19 Sarasota Viper Winter Series is Locked and Loaded

[Travis Yates]

The Red Tide is gone and Sarasota Bay is ready to hose some great winter Vipering again this year! Actually, Sarasota will be in popping up in your sailing news feeds here soon as the Sarasota Sailing Squadron will play host to the F18 Worlds next month in addition to Downtown Sarasota hosting the annual World Sailing General Conference.

The format this year will be very familiar to those of you who have made Sarasota your winter Viper home for the past 5 years. Three 2-day events (Dec, Jan, Feb) leading us back to Maimi in March for the Bacardi. The only change will be that in Jan and Feb we will be sharing the Squadron and the race course with the VX One fleet as we try to test the true capabilities of Team Doyle Boston/Jackpot's 'Hospitality Trailer' (and best utilize the staff and volunteer resources of the Sailing Squadron).

Registration is live and as always it is a huge help to have you register ASAP. There is a chance that if both fleet max out on numbers, SSS will run out of storage space and turn people away. We were not close to it last year but just to be safe..... get your act together now and be sure to have your spot!

Here is the link to registration:
http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/17588#_home

Here is the NOR:
http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/regatta_uploads/17588/20182019SarasotaNoticeofRaceSeries.pdf

[Cole Constantineau]

Signed up for all 3 events!  Can't wait! :)

If anyone from the northeast is wondering about costs, logistics in migrating south, send me a PM.  I put together a summary for a member of the Mudhead's Viper fleet and can re-send to folks...

Cheers,

Cole

[Justin Scott]

A lot of migrating birds and boats stop off at Noroton on their way South. :)

[Cole Constantineau]

Ok--We're at 10 boats now!  Looking like a fun crowd already!  We'll have 25+ I think for most weekends; lots of people I know are going still aren't signed up!

Cheers,

Cole

[Travis Yates]

We are up to 15 Vipers, with three longtime SRQ WS participants registered but not yet paid. We even have a Cali team registered for the whole series!
Get your Airbnb and VRBOs sorted out and get yourself registered, you know your coming...so let me and everyone else know!

[Travis Yates]

Hey All,
17 official entrants thus far for the Sarasota Viper Winter Series. How many more are out there...generally I get 6-8 entries (always nice) in the four weeks prior and 2 of those are in the last 48 hours (kinda lame).  I need to make some final food and beer decisions and I need YOUR help with prep! If you are planning on showing up in December do me a favor and register NOW!
http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/17588
If that is completely and totally impossible.... send a quick email to [email protected] and let me know you will be there so I can make sure the support boat cooler has enough beer for you:)

[Paul Karpawich]

Hi All, I recently bought a Viper in the Fall ( Grendal #70) from Matt and Mark Rowlinson out of Canada. I will be sailing out of Marlboro Mass come this Spring. I am planning on joining Cole Constantineau a few days earlier to get out Viper sailing down in Sarasota on Dec 12 and 13th. If anyone racing on the 14th and 15th needs a crew mate, please let me know! I would love to join.

Regards,

Paul Karpawich
508.577.1911 (m)
[email protected]

[Craig Wilusz]

Paul, if you ain't easily offended by crass humor, the occasional collision, sailing and finishing no matter what the hell is happening on the boat, and the occasional mooning of passer-bys, Deborah and I can take ya that weekend....


RE: Hi All, I recently bought a Viper in the Fall ( Grendal #70) from Matt and Mark Rowlinson out of Canada. I will be sailing out of Marlboro Mass come this Spring. I am planning on joining Cole Constantineau a few days earlier to get out Viper sailing down in Sarasota on Dec 12 and 13th. If anyone racing on the 14th and 15th needs a crew mate, please let me know! I would love to join.

Regards,

Paul Karpawich

[Brad Boston]

You should defiantly take Craig up on this! They will show you a lot about this boat.
Brad

[Andrew Maki]

Does anyone have 1 spot available for me to crew in January? Please PM me to let me know
Andrew
#74


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[Peter Beardsley]

There's a 27th boat definitely attending who is not yet signed up for Sarasota, which is a new record for December.  Weather forecast looks decent too.  Looking forward to getting down there again and seeing everyone.  I know there are a few other boats planning to race in January and February who are not yet signed up - hopefully some more folks can attend. 

[Peter Beardsley]

December 2018 results attached for posterity. 

REALLY competitive weekend.  Delta between first and last boat to finish in Races 1, 2 and 3 was maybe 4 minutes, which is much tighter than past Sarasotas.  A lot of really good teams deep in the standings, and a lot of teams that don't always mix it up at the front of the fleet had some excellent races and great moments.  Really excited for them and hopefully we can keep pushing the back of the fleet toward the front to move everyone's game forward. 

Races 1 and 2 were around 8-10 knots with puffs to 12.  Breeze started at 180 in Race 1 and had a 20 degree righty on Leg 1.  Race 2, the weather mark was at 200 in similar breeze - not quite enough for planing most of the time.   Between races 2 and 3 the breeze clocked to 270 and settled in at 255 and slowly started dying.  Finished 2nd in Race 3 wire-to-wire, and Race 4 was much lighter and dying hard, with the race shortened at the second weather mark.  Highlights:
- Having a bunch of brand new Vipers in attendance, and the regatta winners were racing their new boat for the first time, and the second place boat was sailing something close to a stock boat out of the box. 
- Not 100% sure why Jay Pokorski didn't sail Saturday since he was at the party, but so was a copperhead snake that took refuge in his trailer.  There may be video fueled by liquid courage to get the snake to crawl on a batten before getting flung into the woods. 
- Some party drone footage that people may have spent too much time viewing and editing in the Hooligan trailer - looking forward to seeing how that comes out. 

We probably could/should have done a fleet debrief on Saturday night.  Would loved to have heard (and I suppose we still can if they want to post) what the winners were doing on Saturday and if they are bringing any new thoughts to the table. 

[Cole Constantineau]

I definitely second Peter's thoughts--

This was probably the best front to back fleet I've sailed in in the Viper class.  The overall fleet delta was the tightest I've ever seen it.  I really think in race 1, positions 2-16 or so were settled in a 30 second window...insane! :)

Stay tuned for the official writeup coming today, and for now, here's a quick recap video for ya'll:

https://youtu.be/lsAhfQD9av0

[Brad Boston]

Great work Cole and Brian! You guys really work hard at pushing our class!!
Thanks
Brad