And Now for Something Completely Different

Not doing any sailing lately but we did make it to Sun-n-Fun. In case you are not an airplane nut, Sun-n-Fun is the second largest airshow after Oshkosh. It's a great time and only an hour away from our house. We were in a good spot and the light was right to get a few decent shots of the Blue Angels.

 Wing tip to adjacent airplane's canopy is 18 inches.....really. Look it up.

 

 

 

 

"Fat Albert" the Blue Angels support aircraft.

 

Not something you see every day, P-51, P-38 and F-22.

 

Shiny show-planes.

 

Hinge and latch mechanism on the Grumman Avenger's folding wing is a work of art. Ridiculously small and light considering what it has to do. Why do we not have push-button hydraulically operated folding masts on our boats? Oh yeah, sailboats are of no military value.

 

Matt Younkin puts on an impressive show in the Beech 18.

 

 Just Aircraft's Super STOL. One of my favorite planes at the show. This thing will take off and land in less than 100ft. A lot less in the hands of an experienced STOL pilot.

 

 

As dirty as it gets on final. Deployed leading edge slats clearly visible. That's an autogyro in the background.

 

We camped with friends at the show and watched the night aerobatics from the campsite while sipping refreshments.  Yes that is an airplane doing aerobatics while spewing fireworks.  Pretty awesome for airplane-nut pyromaniacs. You know who you are.

 



Everglades Challenge 2014 Start

It's that time of the year.  The EC started this morning and for once the weather was beautiful.   A record number of boats lined up at the start.  I heard that there are about 140 competitors this year but have not confirmed that.  Whatever the number it's the biggest turnout yet.  Here's a quickie iPhone video of some of the start.



"Meade's Island" daysail

To celebrate being the only state without snow on the ground I joined the WCTSS for a daysail.  We have not been on the water in quite some time and it was good to get back out there.  Several  folks braved the relatively chilly 62 degrees with 15kn winds and we had a fun time catching up on the beach.

Launching at Pop Stansell Park in Palm Harbor. It's a nice beach launch, perfect for small boats and kayaks.

Ron and Whisper coming in at top speed.  Whisper flew at 9kn-10kn on the down wind run to "Meade's Island"

 Eric and Jane Devoe's beautiful Welsford  Houdini, Belafonte in the foreground.  We met up on the beach at "Meade's Island"  We call it "Meade's Island" because it's in front of Meade Gougeon's house.

Pulling out at the end of a great day

Mark and Morgan Visit

Mark and Morgan, my best friends and roommates from college visited last weekend.  Mark lives in Sweden and Morgan lives in Minnesota so they were both looking forward to some mid November fun in the sun.  As has now become crystal clear we are not to have good weather whenever guests from up north arrive. This is starting to get ridiculous.  Morgan has been here two times during the fall when it's normally 80 and sunny and both times it's been crap.  Same for Mark and others.  My family has stopped coming down for Christmas because their visits coincide with nasty cold fronts  Anyway, we had a great time hanging out at some of St Pete's attractions and even got a damp but warmish day out on Goat.

 Three amigos ready to set off for a little sail out Bunces Pass and into the Gulf.

Break for lunch on North Beach.

I like the pastel colors however this is not what DeSoto is supposed to look like.

This is what the same spot at DeSoto looks like 99% OF THE TIME!

Mark took the helm on the way back.

Morgan was very concerned.

It started drizzling.

The crew braved the conditions in good spirits.

 Coming back to the launch site.

Dali Museum was fun.

Habana Cafe, superb as always. Tostones!

Buzzelli Rendezvous at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron

The annual Buzzelli Multihull Rendezvous has become a bit of a tradition.  I'm not a racer but it's fun and interesting to check out what go-fast boats show up.  Hugh Horton came down from Cedar Key for the weekend and we carpooled to Sarasota on Saturday.  On the way there we stopped at Lucas Boatworks and Happy Hour Club.  Hugh had not been there before so Dave gave us the grand tour. Dave had his hip replaced recently and was getting around just fine, amazing.

When we got to Sarasota Pat Ball was already out sailing a beautiful 49 year old George Luzier daysailer.  George Luzier did the restoration so it's as authentic as can be.  Pat invited Hugh and me to go for a sail so we hopped aboard and had a great time cruising around the bay.

 Luzier daysailer.

Before taking off with Pat we helped Mike McGarry launch his foiler trimaran.

Nice beaching legs.

Hugh and Pat enjoying the sail.

"Chasing" some of the race boats like this Stiletto.

Randy Smyth's F-25C "YO" blasting by.

We stopped by the committee boat "Roseate" for a few refreshments.  "Roseate" is a Dave Gerr designed shallow draft trawler built by Charlie and Pat Ball.

Back on the beach we spotted a Tornado, highly modified for the 2014 Everglades Challenge.  Those wings look mighty comfy.

 Calm at the docks before all the race boats come back.

Here's Meade Gougeon talking to catamaran designer Peter Wormwood.  I think Peter Wormwood has designed some of the most beautiful cats on the water.  This is the gorgeous 35ft "Merlin".

 "Merlin" on the right.  The 40' white cat docked aft of "Merlin" is OH Rodger's race boat.

Playing with the iPhone auto panorama mode, it's come a long way.  I've manually stitched a lot of panoramas and aligning wooden planked docks is a royal pain.  This thing does it flawlessly.  Call me impressed.

Crystal River Boat Builders Launch Blockade Runner Scow Replica "Spirit"

For the last two years the Crystal River Boat Builders, CRBB, have been diligently building a replica of the 36ft blockade runner scow "Wartappo".  They only used tools and methods that were available during the 1860's.  That means no DeWalts or Makitas in sight.  Here's a description of the Wartappo: http://www.tsca.net/CRBB/scow.htm.  Today was the christening and launch of the scow. The operation went smoothly and "Spirit" slid into the waters of Crystal River as the crowd cheered enthusiastically.  Well done you crazy boat building fools!  Go to the CRBB facebook page for lots more info and pics: https://www.facebook.com/crbbs

 Tractor ready for the pull to the ramp.

 At the ramp the tractor was unhitched and moved to the bow where it pushed the scow the rest of the way down the ramp.

 Massive tabernacle.

 Happy papa.

 Thumbs up for the final push.

 T-1

She floats!

The Queen approves.

 The crowd is happy.