Today is the first day of racing at the St Pete NOOD regatta. I have been over on the West Coast of Florida for the past week training with Red Gear Racing for my campaign, but I am sailing an AHPC C2 F18 with Todd Riccardi who arrived LATE last night. Today we have to build the boat and make sure everything is ready to go and then we get out on the water to race!
There are 12 F18’s registered for the regatta here in St. Petersburg, Florida and while the numbers are lighter than most of the events I have been sailing in the caliber of sailors is a who’s who in American Multihull Sailing. This promises to be a challenging regatta with the stiff competition, the ever changing conditions that are well anticipated here and the aggressive coldfront that has rolled in and looks to be staying around for the weekend. I sure am glad that I have my full complement of SEA Exposure Gear with me as I will only perform at my best when I am well protected against he elements!
While I have never raced with Todd, he was one of the people instrumental in me starting multihull sailing. Todd has a long history of sailing high-performance boats and is continually pushing himself to climb higher and higher in his achievements in this sport. We should be able to work well together and given the conditions we have the opportunity to push the limits this weekend and pull off a podium finish. Of course we will have to focus on getting to the startline with enough time to secure the best spot on the line and then maximize our space so that we can jump off the line and stay ahead of everyone on our way up to the top mark!
I am looking forward to an exciting weekend in St Pete with some great friends. I will give updates as I can, but you can watch the results at http://www.sailingworld.com/nood-regattas/st-petersburg