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Published: 23 May 2016

Small Town Brewery Arriving at Cococa Beach from Vero Beach After 8 hours of tough conditions.

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Published: 22 May 2016

The Florida 300 for 2016 was a great five day run up the East Coast of Florida, but who won? Well everyone who gets to do a race like this is a winner but it is a race so here are the results. 

Much more to come, stories, pictures, and videos but the envelope please....

2016 FLORIDA 300 OVERALL WINNER OF THE RACE AND THE OPEN CLASS - Team Buoy 44 with Brian Lambert and Will Rottgering

Detailed overall results with times here.

2016 FLORIDA 300 WINNERS BY FLEET

F18 Fleet

1st Turtle Mojo - Cirrus R - Dick McDonald and Dave Ingram
2nd Irrational Again - Nacra F18 - Sergey Duko and Anatolly Duko (13 yrs old)
3rd Team Tiger - Hobie Tiger - Jacob Keilman and Brett Robinson

Inter 20 Fleet

1st Miami Yacht Club White - Mac Agnese and Ian MacDiarmid
2nd Miami Yacht Club Yellow - Leandro Spina and Guz Zuloaga (first leg Taylor Palmer)
3rd Miami Yacht Club Orange - Raul Lopez and Maximo Nores

Open Fleet

1st Buoy 44 - Modified Tornado -Brian Lambert and Will Rottgering
2nd Key Sailing - Nacra 20C - Kirk Newkirk and Tom Whitehurst (lowest overall time)
3rd Cyberspeed - SC20 - Craig Van Eaton and Mark Herendeen

See full results with times here.

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Published: 21 May 2016

It all comes down to Daytona Beach

This week at the Florida 300 has seen it all, beautiful beaches, great weather, storms, capsizes, teams helping teams, and tight competition over all conditions.

The race is a true test of sailing skill and endurance, and not just the endurance of the team members sailing the boats but for the ground crew as well. Waking up at a new beach, getting the boat ready and underway each day for the 10:00am start, then getting themselves, trailers, and equipment up the coast to the next beach, putting the boat (and crew) to bed and doing it all again the next day.

The arrangement of the race stops along the coast in some very busy areas means that depending on wind conditions and traffic congestion it can be difficult for ground crew, after seeing their boat through the surf at the start, to finish packing, check out of their hotel, and drive a sometimes circuitous route to the next finish line before their boat arrives. No time to spare for eating or sight-seeing, it's all about the racing.

Ideally, in a team with a strong ground crew, the skipper and crew can focus during the week on just one thing, sailing the boat as fast as they are able.

This week also demonstrates that in the Florida 300, in the spirit of the Tybee and the Worrell before, there is a spirit of camaraderie and mutual effort that runs through the event. Everyone understands that no matter how well prepared or supported, no team makes it all the way to the finish without help from their fellow teams. From added muscle to get the boat on beach wheels and off the finish line to lending equipment to replace broken or damaged parts from a shackle or pin all the way to a complete mast.

The weather is always the big wildcard and this week had aces and jokers galore. After the first day from Islamorada to Key Biscayne in fairly perfect conditions the race had three days in a row of heavy afternoon thunderstorms that hammered the fleet. Every time the fastest boats at the front of the pack made it to the beach just before the storms and the middle and back of the fleet got pounded.

Two teams, Tavernier Creek Marina (Nacra 20 Carbon) and Dutch Rockerz (Nacra F18) suffered broken masts. The Dutch Rockerz were able to obtain a backup mast and missed one day of racing while rigging the replacement. Today they were back in the race and having a great time.

Today, like the previous two, after beautiful weather all morning the storm clouds started moving in and just as the lead teams Key Sailing and Buoy 44 approached a really nasty dark cloud appeared from the West moving directly over the finish area. Key Sailing arrived just ahead of the leading edge of the storm in near calm conditions while just a short while later Buoy 44 finished in high winds. Check out the change in conditions in these two videos. Video of Key Sailing Finish and Video of Buoy 44 Finish.

The rest of the fleet was stretched out down the coast but the next three boats were tight together and it was all three "Royal" teams with Yellow, then Orange, then White all finishing close together in the midst of a thunderstorm.

Lots of pictures in the photo albums here.

But check this out.