The Charlotte Harbor Regatta

by Dennis Peck

February 8th & 9th saw 9, 2.4mr's in the Charlotte Harbor Regatta. Sailed on Charlotte Harbor on circle one, the regatta hosted 12 divisions of one design racing with 4-5 classes per circle.

Interesting action on circle one, the 2.4mr course. Saturday saw fog in the morning and the start was delayed for a short time until some breeze showed. It wasn't steady but did create some interesting changing of places that day.

Sunday the second day came with a North breeze which held for the races with some shifts when you sailed to the weather mark off the northern shore of Charlotte Harbor, (actually the Peace River which becomes Charlotte Harbor) but the locals call it all Charlotte Harbor for the river is the other side of the bridges.

The current and shifty wind on the starts made for some interesting times. Some got hit hard on the starts as you can tell by scores (me and I am local and should have known) and others came out on the goods side.

What was really neat about the regatta was the closeness of all the 2.4 sailors and the fellowship between each. Just as in most of the 2.4 regattas we all had some good laughs. It was one of the first regattas that I was able to sail in just for the good time and it was great. It was good to get back into the boat after not getting much time in it since most of the time we are getting others out in them. Interest is growing in the area for the able bodied and starting to get the minds of the able-bodied into the boat, about time. Four of the nine boats where able-bodied sailors, interesting mix the way it should be for all. The results say a lot about the mix.

Mark Bryant found his grove and stayed with it as the rest of the fleet worked at finding that grove. Good sailing Mark, and the rest of the group.

International 2.4 Meter

By Dave Ellis

Look at that beautiful sailing yacht in the distance! What a classic. Wait…is that a giant head sticking out of the deck?

There is a good reason that this little boat looks like a classic 12 Meter of America’s Cup fame. In 1983 sailboat designers in Sweden used the “8-Meter” rule to create a much smaller single-handed keelboat. No, the 2.4-meter designation is not the length of the boat. Back in the day the “meter” designation was arrived by applying a formula:

At the 2.4-Meter level, it produces a boat about 13.5 feet long with about 80 square feet of sail area. This little boat weighs 600 pounds with 399 pounds of that as lead in the hollow keel. Happily, that lead can be removed on shore for trailering.

As with other “Meter” boats, there was some leeway to the design of the boat. It caught the imagination of some talented folks who produced boats to the rule. Wing keels, or other untraditional features like the 12 Meters had late in their America’s Cup life, are not allowed.

Read the rest of the Article at SouthWindsMagazine.com (make sure you zoom in if needed)

2014-01-04

Winter 2013 Racing Results:

Dec 6 - 8, America's Regatta, St Petersburg, FL
Results

Dec 10 - 12, US Midwinter Championships, Charlotte Harbor, FL
Results

Dec 14 - 15, US Nationals, Charlotte Harbor, FL
Results