Saturday, March 7, 2009











The view from the fluffer's seat


Day 3 of racing

Day 3 of racing



Day 3 of racing





They don't mess around with these parties. They go til 5 am everyday.


Big Mike on the mast.

Tammy and her new Dutch friend from Team Rhoon.





Stephy getting her grove on.

Dave grilling up dinner.

Nemo has been found!


Having fun at the Friday evening party.

More pictures...


Doctor at the helm...




Day 3 of racing.

Mr. Johnson



The Kattack Racing women.



Racing Day 3

Two races today, the third was cancelled due to too much wind. Winds were blowing 30+. The spinnaker never made it out of the bag. Plenty of fun in the sun, more sunburn!



Love ya Seanman!



Our bow man rocks


We can dream, right?



Boss man enoying a post race Caribe.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Day 2--Cheeseburgers Eating People...

As dictated from the days crew...

The wind piped up prior to the start, forcing a head sail change from the #2 to the #3 less than 5 minutes before the start. Bow men Matt & Mike were super happy about this.

Circling at the start we ran into fellow Lake Minnetonka sailors, Sammy Rogers and Dave West. Go Minnetonka

With Doctor at the helm for the start, we started out well-- near the committee boat. However we were overpowered and forced to bail to port about a third of the way up the beat , but we caught a nice shift and the next time we tacked we were in the top three boats. Then captain Tom took over at the helm and drove until we turned the corner on a reach and was relieved by Dave for more stellar wave driving.

We then tacked near the port layline and for a while we were in second place. We had to duck behind a Farr 65, which put us in fourth as we rounded the layline. Then we bore off on to a close reach, but struggled a bit in the large (7-8' feet at this point) waves. Then we rounded the mark on the south western tip of the island and tacked to port and sailed close hauled, but again we were over powered compared to most boats in our fleet.

Along the western shore of the island the waves got to be about 14 feet and we decided to take one reef in on the main, which improved the balance on the helm and increased our speed about a knot. This decreased our leeway on port tack.

When we rounded the north island buoy we shook out the reef and set the spinnaker on a dead run. After the jib was doused we noticed we had lost a batten on the #3. The steering was difficult in the large swell-- now up to about 12 feet. We had one major spin out. We watched two boats attempt to jibe and fail miserably so we decided to douse our kite and tack with just the main. With the spinnaker we were doing 10-12 knots.

After the jibe, we hoisted the #3 jib and we were doing 9.7 knots. With the weather looming behind us we decided to keep the spinnaker stowed and just reach with the jib only.

Near the southeastern buoy the squall we were watching hit us with a vengeance. Anyone with a spinnaker still up was in a serious broach situation. We were glad we didn't have our kite up at that time. The winds were gusting to 40 at this point.

We rounded the mark and sailed close hauled to the finish. After finishing, we sailed back towards the harbor and when we went to take down the main realized the halyard was jammed. So Jeff "Kookabura" Solum went up & released the shackle, sending the main sheet to the deck.

We came home to Tammy & Wendy having prepared a wonderful dinner. And now, the night is young and we're on our way to Kim Sha beach for the evening's party...

Pictures to (hopefully) follow. Kinda hard to snap shots in these breezes.

Tomorrow's winds are forecasted to be 22, gusts over 40. Bring it on!

IGY Commodore Cup Award Ceremony Night!

The start of Day 2 racing (Around the island) as seen from home base... Villa de Kattack

The women of Kattack Racking (Stephanie Powell, Jana Breitner, Nicolie Hendrickson, Wendy Helberg, Tammy Faiola)



Boss man with his trophy

A "not so good" video of the award presenation:



Day 1 of Racing-- Kattack Racing takes home the Gold!






Sorry that this is coming so late, the boys are a little behind in their blogging efforts so I thought I'd help them out.

We continue to have a great time of course. It's hot and we all have varying degrees of sun burn despite the SPF 45 and zinc oxide we're applying constantly.

Yesterday (Thursday) was the Commodore's Cup with three buoy races. To all of our surprise, we finished with three bullets and claimed the trophy last night at the Port de Plaisance award ceremony. The crew was nearly flawless and Tom's driving was excellent. Way to go Minnetonka All Stars!

Today is around the island race. It will be about a 35 mile race and much different than the buoy racing we are accustomed to. I'll try to get Big Mike or Seanman to post tonight with some of the details since I'm taking a beach day myself.

Pictures:

Photo 1: Post Victory celebration with Seanman, Nicolie and Tammy
Photo 2: Kattack Racing on the rail
Photo 3: On the race course

Cheers!









Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Bidet Picture of the day


More of our first day...







Photo 1- Sint Maarten Yacht Club
Photo 2- Boss man and the single ladies
Photo 3- Representing Wayzata Yacht Club
Photo 4- Matt knows how to use a bidet!!!
Photo 5- Dinner at "Villa de Kattack"

Love and miss you all (from the ladies)!

The first 24 hours...






Hey boys and girls... We are NOT in Minnesota any longer!!!

We're here and having a blast. This weather sure beats the 2.5 feet of ice on Minnetonka.

Here's a recap of our first 24 hours...

-9 am dock time came a little too soon-- the Heineken was flowing last night.
-Winds were blowing 15 knots at 7 am!!!! Thanks to Tammy for being so excited and telling us all this long before we needed to be awake.
-Big Mike climbed the mast and did some minor repairs and cut his toe.
-We ran aground before leaving the gazillion dollar marina, but we got off that quick (Minnetonka All Stars know what to do in this situation)
-We made it past the draw bridge (Way to drive Boss Man Tom!!)
-Wendy said no pooping on the boat- period. That's rule #1 and no deviations allowed.
-We got the bitches hiking and man can those bitches hike (Yeah to our Minnetonka All Star Women!!!)
-Louis, Louis! Our Brazillian First Mate for the day.
-Matt is the best bow man in all of the Dutch West Indies!!!!
-Stephanie wears red lipstick even when sailing in St. Maarten. And of course she put on a nice black cocktail dress for the water taxi ride back to the dock (she says it's a cover-up, but we know the truth-- the 3 inch heels give it away).
-Nicolie can grind like no other woman can. Grind girl, grind!
-Tom exchanged burgees with the Commodore of the Sint Maarten Yacht Club tonight!
-Jana & Tammy ran the provisioning mission from hell and ran across the draw bridge seconds before it opened up for the night. We had the best dinner of Tuna, Salmon and Flipper. Mmmmmmmmm good. (but poor little Flipper!).
-Dave is happy to be on a big boat once again and even happier to be with Minnetonka All Stars. Who says living in Florida is so good?
-Tom can drive that bitch! Whoa baby...
-5-7 foot swells and 18 knot breeze--- oh so NICE!!!
-Jeff Solum needs some work on his freestyle. Nicolie and Wendy are giving him some swim lessons tomorrow on the swim from shore to anchor.
-Doctor is well... being Doctor and keeping us all on track.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

SMX PaRTY MaP- (clicky)

The Craft- 40.7

Is it island time mon

Bands

The Bands

3 bands Thurs, 3 bands Fri, 4 band Sat, 5 Bands Sun

I hope they know something besides Bob Marley tunes ;-)

Check it out.

http://www.heinekenregatta.com/Parties/Bands/2009-Bands.html
Regatta schedule

Schedule of events



Tuesday 3 March 2009

 10.00 – 16.00 Budget Marine Match Racing Cup
o Water Taxi Service from 10.00 – 16.00 to spectator boat.
 16.00 – 18.00 Early Registration Commodores Cup
 19.00 Prize Giving Budget Marine Match Racing Cup’ @ Sint Maarten Yacht Club

Wednesday 4 March 2009

 11.00 – 17.00 Registration @ Sint Maarten Yacht Club
 11.00 – 17.00 Water Shuttle between Sint Maarten Yacht Club and Budget Marine
 19.00 – 22.00 Welcome Back Sailors Party @ Sint Maarten Yacht Club

Thursday 5 March 2009

 9.00 - ± 15.00 IGY Commodores Cup
 9.00 – 17.00 Water Shuttle between Sint Maarten Yacht Club and Budget Marine
 11.00 – 17.00 Registration @ Sint Maarten Yacht Club
 16.00 – 1.00 Water Taxi Service between Sint Maarten Yacht Club and Participants fleet
 16.00 – 1.00 Water Shuttle between Sint Maarten Yacht Club and Port de Plaissance
 19.30 Prize Giving IGY Commodores Cup @ Port de Plaisance

Friday 6 March 2009

 7.00 – 9.30 Water Taxi Service
 9.00 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta
 9.00 – 17.00 Water Shuttle between Sint Maarten Yacht Club and Budget Marine
 16.00 – 21.00 Sailors Lounge @ Sint Maarten Yacht Club
 16.00 – 2.00 Party at Kim Sha Beach
 14.00 – 1.00 Water Taxi Service between Sint Maarten Yacht Club and Participants fleet

Saturday 7 March 2009

 7.00 – 9.30 Water Taxi Service between Sint Maarten Yacht Club and Participants fleet
 9.00 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta day 2
 16.00 – 21.00 Sailors Lounge @ Marigot Waterfront
 16.00 – 2.00 Party at Marigot Waterfront
 14.00 – 1.00 Water Taxi Service between Sint Maarten Yacht Club and Participants fleet

Sunday 8 March 2009

 7.00 – 9.30 Water Taxi Service between Sint Maarten Yacht Club and Participants fleet
 9.00 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta day 3
 16.00 – 21.00 Sailors Lounge @ Sint Maarten Yacht Club
 12.00 – 2.00 Party at Kim Sha Beach
 18.00 – 20.00 Prize Giving St. Maarten Heineken Regatta
 14.00 – 1.00 Water Taxi Service between Sint Maarten Yacht Club and Participants fleet

Thursday, February 26, 2009