As it gets cooler up north, the Sarasota Viper Fleet is getting fired up to host a fantastic East Coast Winter Series. Based on feedback from the class and a test run last winter, the Sarasota Viper Fleet will host a three event series that feeds from the Mid-Atlantics/Gulf Coast Champs and into the EFG Pan American Championships in Miami.
The Sarasota Sailing Squadron will host the series and allow all participants to store their boats, rig-up-ready to sail, for $40/month November through March.
Here is the link to the live registration, REGISTER TODAY! YOU KNOW YOU ARE CONSIDERING IT SO JUST PULL THE TRIGGER AND THE DETAILS WILL WORK THEMSELVES OUT.
http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/9200
AT A GLANCE
• $300 registration for all three 2-day events
This includes 3 shirts, Saturday dinners, continental breakfasts and beer/water.
• $100 registration for any single 2-day event
This includes 1 shirt, Saturday dinners, continental breakfasts and beer/water.
• $40/mo for mast-up boat storage Nov-Mar
• Local fleet members will help with receiving your boat from up north and sending your boat to Miami. Actual shipping arrangements will be up to individual owners. Last year the cost to ship a double Viper trailer from Miami to Sarasota was $250 one-way on Uship!
Take a look through our facebook page if you'd like to see some action from last winter's sailing down here in FL:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarasota-Viper-640-Fleet/587973181298375?ref=bookmarks
Looking forward to seeing y'all here this winter!
8 boats registered so far...
Here's the link:
http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/9200#_home
Dave
Myasasaur is registered.
Great Craig!
Look forward to seeing you down here. We raced yesterday (class start during the Sarasota YC Invitational) with our group, after getting blown out Saturday. Saturday was 28-41kts all day but, Sunday's 12 to 19+kts was fantastic with blue skies 72deg water and 68deg air in the middle of the 'cold front' that rocked the east coast!
For those of you sitting on the fence about Sarasota, give me a call or shoot me an email with what we need to do to get you committed to keeping your boat (and your sailing sole) from going into a cold winter hibernation until March.
The first event in December is the same weekend as the Sarasota Christmas Boat Parade which is a truly unique way to get into the spirit that can be done in shorts with the best vantage point in town right at the Sailing Squadron seawall. Michelle Lee #202 hosts an epic seawall-side hot coco/cocktail/smoars parade viewing event that is kid friendly and adult fun!
Looking forward to hosting,
Travis
941.350.0909 or
[email protected]
Looks like 10 boats registered so far. Planning is well underway - should be a great series! Hope to see everyone in Dec.
Dave
119 Tucker McElroy
Up to twelve now... Latest entrants, 227 and 58!
Sending my boat (187) to Sarasota on 1/19, should be up to sail the 2/7-2/8 event then off to Miami.
Excellent Carson. We're at 14 now and you'll make it 15. See you in Sarasota and congrats on the win with Alex in SoCal last weekend.
Dave
And there are at least two more boats I know of who will make it 17 whenever they get around to signing up.
Great job on getting boats down there!
If anyone needs crew, please let me know, I'd love to go to at least one of these. In fact, my 15 year old daughter had so much fun last year, she's pestering me to take her to one or two of these! We MAY turn up with one more boat for the final one, stay tuned...
It is warm and windy down here right now and it would seem like we have more people that want to sail then boats in Florida.... not sure if there are any factory demo boats still in existence and for sale? If there are it has gotta be easier to sell a boat(s) and help build the class by getting new folks out in boats down here then showing them boats in a warehouse up in the snow.
Along those lines, for all of you current class members that have your Viper for sale, perhaps you should consider storing it down here for $40/month, where you can show/charter/sell it during the winter months.
Just ideas to get people out viper-ing
Looks like we're going to have perfect Viper weather for the regatta this weekend! Clear skies, with highs in the upper 60s and wind 15-20.
The homemade hooch (in all sorts of flavors from Limoncello to "Sambuca" to "Kahlua") is ready and I'm starting to make the spicy chili in the next few days...
All we need now is for the rest of the fleet to arrive. :-) Can't wait to welcome you all to sunny Sarasota.
Cheers,
Michelle #202
Good times, I think we got nine races in? Congrats to The Lotz's on their win. SSS did a nice job. We left #100 there and are coming back.
The RC did a great job with the shifts, and moving the line around, nice work.
See ya soon.
C & D
#100 "Myasasaur"
Congratulations to Phil and Wendy Lotz for their terrific sailing on the weekend! Sarasota put on a great first winter series regatta with 9 races over two days.
It was great meeting new faces at the event and seeing old ones also.
Brad Boston
Good point, Brad. There were a lot of new faces! Fun sailing .
222 will show up in Sarasota this weekend and the people who missed the first event are from what I know planning to sail the second and third events, so the turnout will be even larger for those who are on the fence about whether to make the trip.
Just uploaded some photos and a video clip from Saturday. Should get another few photos from some of the mark boats. Check the Sarasota Fleet FB page for the action and look for a regatta report to post on the Viper Class site soon.
Big thanks to PRO Ron Pletsch and the fantastic Sarasota Sailing Squadron volunteers. Also a big shout our to our sponsors and all the hard work from our local Viper fleet members and and our local sailors and volunteers. We are fired up for a larger fleet at the next two events. Please reach out and let us know what we can do to support you/your crew/your boat getting down here to sail this winter.
As Craig and Brad pointed out, we had two new crews/boats out racing Vipers for the very first time at this event in addition to lots of new faces AND we had more people excited to sail Vipers then we had boats! It is happening down here so now you need to pull the trigger and get down here to the fun this winter!
Here is the FB link
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarasota-Viper-640-Fleet/587973181298375
Big thanks to everyone that helped put this weekend on, helped sponsor the series, and thanks to all the folks who travelled a long way to sail. Looking forward to seeing everyone again in January!
Dave
USA 119
Tucker McElroy
Sarasota Winter Series Kick-off a Huge Success
December 13-14 Regatta Report
Provided by Travis Yates:
Saturday we started at noon in 5-8kts out of the NNW and sailed one race in that before the breeze dialed up 8-10 for the next two then it was 10-15 on and off for the balance with some planning in the last race. With north-ish breeze we get a little chop but it was nice for going down hill. All this was in bright sun and what we consider chilly, as the high did not make it above 70. Ron Pletsch did a killer job with the course and the length of race times were all in and around the target 35-40 min.
We got six races off because the forecast for Sunday was no breeze AND the breeze was getting better the longer we sailed Saturday. Boats were back on the dock by 4:45 and folks showered and started in on drinks. Michelle Lee organized a great Chili and Baked potato bar complemented with her custom assortment of handmade liquors and a keg of holiday Vermont microbrew on tap. The Viper Fleet had a mile long table in the "VIP" seating of the outdoor pavilion and all were fed/marinated and then treated (along with 300 or so Squadron members) to the Sarasota Holiday Boat Parade, which passes down the north seawall of the Squadron.
Sunday started early with a 10am warning signal in 4-7kts and the breeze stayed right about there in terms of velocity. The direction was fairly consistent and Ron had one postponement between races to shift the course as the breeze went to the left rather then dying. The 'I' flag was up most of the day to keep the races firing off. We got another three races today and headed back in to get folks on the road with nine good races under their belts.
Phil and Wendy Lotz sailing with Luke Lawrence dominated followed mostly by Brad Boston. It was great to have Ethan Bixby (former North Sails St. Pete) in with the Hampton guys and they earned a solid third.
Some notable things to highlight: Stephan Michael, the new owner of #99 joined us in his first public Viper outing and Cliff Whatmore of Sarasota made his first outing in Jeffery Lee's Viper 105. Both teams had a blast learning the ropes.
Full results: http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/9200
Photos: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarasota-Viper-640-Fleet/587973181298375?sk=photos_stream
Nice report! What Vermont microbrew was it? I've introduced a number of Viper sailors to Long Trail and Heady Topper. Next time, maybe some Switchback...
Cheers!
Magic Hat
Nice work, Travis on getting the Sarasota Winter Viper Series a shout out on Sailing Anarchy. We won't ask what you had to do to get in Mr Clean's good graces.
http://sailinganarchy.com/2014/12/22/the-new-florida/
The New Florida
Bucking the upward trends of most regattas over the past couple years, Key West Race Week continues the slide it began a decade ago, with just 121 boats entered as of Friday's entry deadline and some meager-looking class numbers. So where has everyone gone? One answer is Florida's West side, which is raging with sportboat regattas up and down the length of the Gulf Coast. Davis Island Yacht Club's 3-regatta J/70 series is oversold, while we turn to a newcomer in the sporty world for more info on a great sailing venue that's making the effort to get more people on the water.
The Sarasota Sailing Squadron has quietly been stacking the schedule for this winter sailing season. In just the last three weekends, SSS has hosted the kickoff event for the three stop VX One Winter Series, which saw three days of off-the-hook sailing with 21 VX's on the line. This was followed by the 84 boat Laser District 13 Championships that included the Norwegian National Team. This past weekend was the kick off of the three event ActionQuest Sarasota Viper Winter Series with 13 Vipers on the line, in a series that now has 18 boats registered (and growing) for the upcoming two events in Jan/Feb. Phil and Wendy Lotz, with Luke Lawrence, were on fire as they managed to outpace North American Champion Brad Boston who was followed by Henry and Barb Amthor sailing with the always fast Ethan Bixby.
Considering that not more then 50 miles north of Sarasota Sailing Squadron, at Davis Island Yacht Club, there are 48 J/70s battling it out in the Quantum J/70 Winter Series, and with the news that the 2016 Melges 24 Worlds is likely moving somewhere in the vicinity, t has to be said that the West Coast of Florida is THE hot place to be sailing sportboats!
Great racing this weekend. Results for event # 2 attached. Writeup to follow on the web.
It has been so much fun to meet all the Viperers from other areas. This is not only a great group to sail with, it's a great group to hang out with. Our Sarasota fleet has enjoyed the visiting Vipers so much, that we're starting to plot our next few road trips to visit other Viper home clubs. We're all signed up for Miami race week in March and thinking about how we can get up North this summer.
Can't wait to see everybody here in Sarasota again in February.
This was a fabulous event and should be on everyone's must-do list.
Jonathan
Regatta recap posted at http://www.viper640.org/usa-news/hybrid-blackout-panda-team-wins-second-sarasota-event/
Thank you to all the fun Viper owners who joined us in Sarasota over the series. It was so much fun to meet everyone. The entire Sarasota fleet will be traveling to Miami in March and then the GYA kickoff in May, so we hope to see you all there.
Huge thanks to the Sarasota Fleet for running three great regattas this winter. This should really be a "must do" for more people this coming year. Once you're down there, living is easy and the racing is great. There were a half dozen tents pitched on the grounds of the squadron this past weekend, plenty of kegs (and when the kegs are tapped, beers are sold at the bar for $1.50). The J70s over the past two events just a few miles away at Davis Island YC have managed a total of 10 races...the Vipers had 19 on the same weekends thanks to excellent and efficient race management (and a boat of course that performs much better in lighter air). Having a local fleet hosting the racing improves the hospitality tenfold. We are looking forward to returning next winter -- it'll be a set routine -- do MidAtlantics in Hampton, leave the boat in Virginia where it is 400 miles closer to Sarasota, send it south where it is even closer to Miami, parachute in on relatively inexpensive direct flights from NY for the weekend, fly in Friday night after work, fly out Sunday night, no vacation time needed, and then the boat is out of the snow and we can race year round. Pretty fantastic.
For those who are interested, the writeup of the February event is posted at http://www.viper640.org/usa-news/beardsley-and-pletsch-win-sarasota-winter-circuit-title/
Results from just the February event are attached.
I put some photos up on
http://sarasotasailingsquadron.com/2015ViperWinterSeries.htm
of the February series.
Great pics and commentary. Thank you.