Short Tacks and Regattas

Sarasota Bay Sailing Association Boat of the Year Event, April 17 & 18, 2020 Bird Key Yacht Club and Nautical Gin are presenting the 2020 Nautical Gin Sarasota Bay Cup on Saturday, April 18 on Sarasota Bay. PHRF and One Design courses will be setup.

Festivities will begin Friday April 17, at 18:00 with complimentary hors d’oeuvres, keg beer and non-alcoholic beverages. At 19:00 the PRO’s for One-design fleets and PHRF fleet will review sailing instructions, courses and respond to your questions. PHRF race will be a pursuit format.

Saturday (casual dress), a cocktail party will begin at 18:00 followed by dinner, the awards ceremony and live music until 21:00.

Registration at www.negattanetwork.com/event/20291 or at BKYC Friday 1700 – 1800 prior to festivities.

St. Augustine Race Week, March 14-21, 2020 St. Augustine Race Week, March 14-21, 2020 is an eight-day regional sailing regatta featuring three days of offshore races, two days of inshore races and a two-day youth regatta. All events are PHRF. The youth regatta and demonstration dragon boat races will be held in full view of spectators along the downtown St. Augustine Bayfront. Racers, spectators and the general public are invited to two nights of downtown after-race parties featuring live music, food and adult beverage vendors and awards presentations. First Coast Sailing Association is the sponsor. Proceeds benefit the JDM Youth Sailing Scholarship Fund.

Website is www.staugustineraceweek.com. Facebook address is www.facebook.com/SARaceWeek. For information contact Dan Floryan at dfloryan1@comcast.net. featuring 10 person teams paddling wildly to the beat of a drummer in the bow of these slender Chinese-inspired racing vessels. It’s something few local people have ever seen.

The popular Party Tent with live music, food vendors and adult beverage sellers is back once again and open to the public as always. It’s located downtown by the Municipal Marina and open for entertainment on Thursday and Friday of Race Week. The general public and spectators are also invited to enjoy the exciting action of youth sailors competing in 420 dinghies right off the sea wall between the Castillo and the Bridge of Lions. A live onshore announcer will be calling the action and educating the audience about the intricacies of sailboat racing.

Proceeds from the 8-day regatta are used to fund the John Daniel Meehan Youth Sailing Scholarship fund named for the man whose vision and active support transformed Race Week into a regional event that embraces the entire city and attracts competitors from Charleston to Daytona. The fund pays tuition for local youth from 8 to 18 to attend summer sail camps and join competitive sail teams at yacht clubs and sailing organizations in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Smyrna Beach and Daytona. In 2019 more than 40 youngsters were enrolled in the program.

In addition to money generated by entry fees and the sale of regatta apparel, the life blood of St. Augustine Race Week is sponsorships from a broad variety of local businesses and organizations. At the head of the list of donors each year are the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council and Meehan’s Irish Pub, where Manager Reggie Maggs carries on the tradition of financial support begun by his former boss John Meehan. Other sponsors are currently being solicited.

Up-to-date information about scheduled events, racing classes sponsors, registration and Race Week history can be found at www.staugustineraceweek.com.

For information contact Dave Montgomery at dave-writes@comcast.net

St. Augustine Race Week Expands an Already Great Event St. Augustine, FL – What started as a little three-day offshore race for local sailing clubs has blossomed into a wildly popular regional sailing regatta encompassing eight sailing clubs, three live bands, dozens of sponsors, hundreds of spectators and thousands of dollars raised for youth sailing scholarships. For the 2020 edition of St. Augustine Race Week, co-chairmen Dan Floryan and Guy Anderson announce a major scheduling change that expands the format from six days to an eight-day week of racing. By moving the inshore series to Tuesday and Wednesday of Race Week they have given each major racing series its own set of days without interference by other classes. The new schedule is now Youth Regatta - Saturday and Sunday March 14 & 15; Inshore Series Tuesday and Wednesday, March 17 & 18 and, Offshore Series Thursday, Friday and Saturday March 19, 20, 21.

What about Monday the 16th you ask? On that day, downtown spectators will be treated to exciting dragon boat races

Lost at Sea by Capt. Robert Beringer As a genre, sailing movies have bestowed few offerings over the years. From the sublime: Wind, Kon-Tiki and Captain Ron, to the subpar like All is Lost and Waterworld, we sailors are a small bunch and rarely get thrown a cinematic bone.

So when I came across the R rated horror film Mary, with its crimson cover of a burning boat and shredded sails, I jumped on it like an osprey on a fish and settled in for an entertaining night at the DVD player.

Academy Award winner and legendary actor Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour, The Dark Knight Rises) plays a middle-aged fishing boat captain who is fed up with working for peanuts and wants his own boat. At an auction he spots Mary, an abandoned old beater of a ketch with a carved figurehead that practically screams, “I’ll bankrupt you, run away!” to people like you and me; but he’s smitten, and within ten minutes has not only purchased her, but convinced his long-suffering wife, gamely played by Emily Mortimer, that this is their ticket to a new and prosperous life in the chartering business. Ha! This guy knows nothing about sailboats, wait till he looks at the hull.

In fact, I would venture that no one involved with this movie, directed by Michael Goi, knew much about sailboats or the sea. When you watch you will see many uh-uh moments of poor continuity and inaccuracy (there are no mountains in the Bahamas and Mary is a boat, not a ship). But, as Coleridge said, “suspend your disbelief”. Sure, I can do that, but I can’t suspend my disappointment in the lack of imagination in this wafer-thin script.

In no time at all the boat is completely refurbished and under sail, bound for Bermuda. But on the way Oldman and Mortimer discover that Mary has a dark and horrible past, and that their family may not be the only people on board; strange things begin to happen, crewmember Tommy (Owen Teague) goes bonkers with a knife and has to be put ashore. What follows is the stuff that mediocre cinema is made of: nightmare sequences, jump scare moments, and formulaic subplots, culminating in a facile ending that left me disappointed. See Mary if you must, but your time would be better spent getting at that winter repair list on your own boat. Movie Review: Mary / Running Time: 85 minutes Rated R / terror, violence, and language. Gary Oldman, Emily Mortimer, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo

© 2019 Robert Beringer Robert Beringer Marine Journalist/Photographer, Author of "Water Power!" For free sample go to: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/542578 To order: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/waterpower-robert-beringer/1121938666?ean=2940151920025 Free archived articles at hubpages.com/@captnrobert

Also offering offshore course with Smith Shoal finish - see NOR’s for details

Midday start from Venice

Nautical Gin Sarasota Bay Cup April 17-18 Bird Key Yacht Club PHRF and One Design Races Live music, great beverages, food & friends at BKYC Friday & Saturday Sponsored By:

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Sarasota Bay Yachting Assoc. "Boat of the Year" event

Register: www.regattanetwork.com/event/20291

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