Congratulations to Tom Tatum and Dave Irwin, the owners of Maiden China and the crew who won the FT10 Class in the two day Jubilee Regatta at Pensacola Yacht Club held on November 12 & 13, 2011. Maiden sailed some incredible races. They had Big'um back on the boat and they always seemed to have an extra gear. They really sailed very very well. The one thing that we definitely learned (like we already did not know)... is that when there is any breeze at all... you better be at full weight. On Saturday (we saw a hight of 19... prob averaged 12-14) we were 200# lighter than they were. We absolutely could not hold a lane with them. On Sunday... we were 400# lighter than them. We went up on the rig and it helped. For he second race... we went up even more (to our 20-24 setting) and it seemed to even help more. Then... the breeze lightened up to less than 8 knots... and the extra 400# that they were toting around started to hurt them... particularly on the last down hill. The match racing (pseudo) was FUN!!! The total net delta for the 5 races was less than 100'. Darn close almost all of the time. On Sat the Tripps started with us. They were very nice and stayed out of our way. I talked to one later that day and he said that the "Tigers looked like they were at war and that there was no way that they were going to get in the middle of that!". Tons of fun!!! Someone asked my T why we lost. The simple answer was... the better team won! :-) Doug Flying Tiger |
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