Coconut Grove, Florida

There is nothing like coming out and winning the first race on the last day. It makes the rest of the day a lot easier.

There was barely 4 knots of wind for the start of race 1 today. Brian and I started in port tack, at the committee boat, hit the right corner, and never looked back. There were a few tricky moments on the first run, in 4 knots of wind, but we managed our position well. For the second lap, the breeze built to 6 knots and steadied out a bit which made out lives easier. Our competitors were back in the fleet a bit which was nice for us.

So for the last race, we just needed to stay in the same area as Whipple and Vasella so as to not give them a chance to put big points on us.

Brian and I were actually going pretty fast so with another good start, we managed to be ahead of them the whole last race and that was more than enough to get us the win for the regatta.

Larry Whipple with Brian Fatih finished second Peter Vessella with Guy Avellon third, Arthur Anosov with Dave “Julius” Caesar 4th and Augie Diaz with Arnis Baltin 5th.

I am appreciating how very lucky I am to be, down here in Miami, sailing Stars in 75 degree temps and sunshine. That said, I plan on doing it again the second week of January when the Star Winter Series continues with the Bob Levin Memorial and then the mid winter championship.

Happy holidays to all!

Paul

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