2021-2022 Sarasota Viper/VX One Winter Series

[Travis Yates]

OK, we are locked and loaded for what would have been the 9th year of the Sarasota Viper Winter Series.... Heck, since I had a few Viper owners register their Vipers this last series, then we all end up sailing chartered/borrowed VXOnes in the majority of the three epic(safe) events we ran down here (great to sail against you, Henry and Peter)... I am just going to call it year 9 of the series coming up.

2021-22 Sarasota Viper/VX Dates

Dec 11-12, 2021
Jan 15-16, 2022
Feb 19-20, 2022
Mar 18-20, 2022

The March dates are three days and are a part of what will probably be the Sarasota One Design Mid Winters and as usual, we will have our own circle if the Vipers keep it on the schedule and it works with or around Miami for us.

Please do me a personal favor (in any what you get the chance on social media or otherwise) and express thanks to the SSS staff and its members for the continued support. I encourage Viper class members that are planning on spending 4 months sailing in Sarasota to consider joining as ?snowbirds?. With four months of non-member storage, it may be a wash on cost and would help the SSS!

Miss you all,
Travis

[Peter Beardsley]

Great news, thanks Travis.  We are planning to be back in Sarasota this winter, and hopefully many others will be able to join.  Great place to sail and Sarasota weather in the winter is wonderful. Plus maybe for those who are able to work remotely more flexibly going forward, it could be even easier to find flights at inexpensive times of day to travel. 

[Peter Beardsley]

From Travis for those who missed the email:
If you are receiving this email it is because I wanted to get this info to you so you can help coordinate getting boats registered to sail down here in Sarasota this winter.
The Squadron is in great shape and The Board, Membership, our new Manger Alyssa Thomas and myself are all looking forward to hosting a great series this winter.

A couple quick points:
1) Both the Viper and VX Ones are able to sail four events this winter if they wish to. That is Dec, Jan, Feb, March (Miami March is Mar 9-12th and Sarasota 3-day Mar 18-20th)
Registration for Sarasota?s march event will be separate form anything I am managing as it will be a part of the Sarasota OneDesign Mid Winters event.

2) As noted in the Notice of Race (Series), we will be limiting each individual Dec-Jan event to 50 total boats. Each class will get 25 spots and if one class has not used their spots by 14 days before an individual event, I will open the spots up to a class that has maxed out their 25. The Squadron is a super busy place post pandemic (membership is at an all time high) and I do not wish to manage (ashore or afloat) Viper/VX events with more then 50 boats total. 
3) I have changed the way I am doing registration and have moved to having three individual event registrations on Regatta Network. The Admin and user experience of the single event page for the three events never worked out well and Regatta Network has a good way to do series scoring that ties single event together.

Here are the three event registration pages and dates for use on FB, Forums and Class Pages/Calendars:

Event #1 Dec 11-12th- https://www.regattanetwork.com/event/23403
Event #2 Jan 15-16th- https://www.regattanetwork.com/event/23404
Event #3 Feb 19-20th- https://www.regattanetwork.com/event/23405
Event #4 March 18,19,20th- TDB as part of the ODMW

4) It is my intention to have MarkSet Bots in use at all events with an ability to have two weather marks (different colors) so courses can be changed as needed for each fleet without waiting. That is not fully confirmed but was magic last winter and I really think it is the way forward for multi-class course race management.

Thank you all for your support and I hope to see your registration soon and look forward to sailing with you again soon!
Best,
Travis

[Cole Constantineau]

Meow! is in!  It's actually easier for me to keep the boat at the Squadron than up here in Massachusetts, plus I get to go down and sail her once a month!  Can't wait!

Should be a good fleet!  Please reach out to me if you have any questions on logistics/how-to.  I've been down ~6 years now, and it never gets old.. :)

[Travis Yates]

OK everyone, in three short days the VXOne fleet managed to get 20 boats registered for the first event in Dec..... 32 boats registered for the Jan event, and 27 boats registered for the Feb event.

I put in place the 25 boats per fleet cap to keep the overall footprint on the water and one land at 50 boats. So the VXOne class has 7 boats wait-listed for Jan and 2 boats waitlisted for Feb as of right now....

To be fair to the long-term planning for all involved and to best react to the true demand from both fleets, I need to ask you to register and pay ASAP, for the events you are planning to come down and join us for.

Huge thanks,
Travis

[Peter Beardsley]

20 Vipers signed up so far for each of the 3 events - only 5 slots left.  Good start but if you want to sail, sign up and pay ASAP. 

[Cole Constantineau]

And--if you have any Sarasota logistics questions, definitely feel free to reach out to me!  It's going to be a good time!

[John Leyland]

Only 1 spot left for December and 3 for Jan & Feb.

[Bill Vickers]

Anyone know of a longer storage option if bringing the boat down a few weeks early and/or storing a vehicle down in the area ?

Bill

[Cole Constantineau]

Hi Bill,

I'm sure you can store the boat at the Squadron.  If you find car storage options, I'm interested too :)  See you in December/January!

Cheers,
Cole

[Peter Beardsley]

For those who missed the news, the VXs are moving their winter series away from Sarasota - hopefully a win-win, esp. for Vipers, as the cap on the number of Vipers is now 50 boats instead of 25 boats, but let's get as many people signed up as early as possible to allow teams enough time to make travel plans. 

[Darren Gilbert]

Wow, that's quite the change.  What brought this about?

[Bill Vickers]

    In all honesty, I think it will be nice.    Lift for launching, dock space, and now we can have more than 25 boats.     


VX One Sailors,

Following the decision by Sarasota Sailing Squadron to limit the winter series to 25 boats, cap on site storage to 25 VX Ones and Vipers combined, and demand estimated to be 50 boats for the January regatta, the VX One class has elected to relocate the series to Pensacola Yacht Club for this winter. Over the past few weeks, the board of directors has evaluated potential venues with the criteria being that the venue be able to accommodate 50-75 VX Ones with room for even more growth, provide mast up storage all winter long for all boats, and have a hoist on site. On Friday the board voted to select PYC as the host venue for the 2021-22 VX One Winter Series.
With over 42 VX Ones registering for the Winter Series in under a week, it was clear that we needed to find a new venue that could support such significant growth so that we did not have to turn away sailors from participating in the series and complicate logistics for sailors coming in from out of town. Pensacola Yacht Club is eager to host the VX fleet and we are hopeful that we will build a successful partnership with them.
The winter series this year will take place over the same dates as previously scheduled with two changes based on the feedback from the board and fleet captains.
#1 December 11-12
#2 January 15-17 (extra day of racing added for the Midwinter Championship)
#3 February 19-20
We will not host an event in March in an effort to have teams support Bacardi Miami
(March 10-12) and Charleston Race Week (April 29-May 1).
The two most common questions we expect are ?What about the entry fee I paid for the
Sarasota series?? and ?Isn?t it colder in Pensacola?? We have been in contact with Sarasota who have agreed to refund the entry fees to those who already paid. We expect the entry fee and storage costs for the Pensacola series to be the same or less than Sarasota. The temperature in Pensacola is on average 9-10 degrees colder than Sarasota, but the board felt that the potential to have a 50 boat event is worth the potential for it being a little colder.
Please bear with us over the next couple of weeks as we finalize the registration and NOR for the series, and we thank you for your patience while we have had to shift gears. Thanks to the hard work of some very dedicated sailors, we are excited about the prospect of hosting some of the biggest VX One events ever.
Regards,
The VX One Board of Directors
Chris Alexander, Jay Harrell, Jeff Eiber, Mike Marshall, Ashley Maltempo, Rod Favela, Bob Maccini, Michael Norris, Sam Padnos, Mike Lechner, Karl Kleinschrodt, Tim Pitts, Brian Bennett, and Justin Quigg
www.vxone.org

[Holly Watson]

Hey! I crewed this summer on SURF #74 in Thunder Bay, Ontario - Lake Superior. Spinnaker and a bit of tactics. Currently available for event 2 or 3 in Sarasota.

Female, 140 lbs, strong, good vibes.

[Steve Chapman]

Charter for Miami wanted!

If your boat is in Sarasota and you don't intend to do Miami, a Viper owner from Italy wants to charter a boat for the Bacardi Invitational.
If you are willing to consider a charter, please get in touch with me or directly with Oriano at
< [email protected] >.

Steve Chapman
288 Oshunmare