St. Pete NOOD

There used to be a saying about St. Pete. "the land of the newly wed and the nearly dead!", well that certainly could be kind of true when you look at the fleets are being sailed at this great event.

BTW, I truly believe that the NOOD regattas are the best value in all of sailing! While Key West, Miami Race Week, Block Island and several other high end regattas, all offer great sailing the NOOD regattas are the best bang for your buck in sailing PERIOD! For the money you spend on one regatta entry fee at the big regattas you can almost do the entire NOOD curcuit.

Anyway off the soap box back to the St. Pete NOOD regatta 07. I was just asked by my Dad to sail with him at this event. He had a crew bail due to work committments, as mentioned in my previous post I am quite stoked about that. But as I was looking over the entry list something stuck out like a well, a J-105 bow sprit. The overwhelming theme in this regatta is 15-20 year old designs making an incredible comeback in the sport.

Just look at the list.

13 Wavelength 24's
23 J-24's
10 S2 7.9's
14 Ulitimate 20's
6 Olsen 30's
6 Tripp 26's
7 T-10's
6 Hobie 33's (as class that I won a NA's in back in 1985!)
8 Sonars, (the class that got me my World Championship trophy)

That is 93 of the 199 boats that are listed as entries. I did not even touch on the Corsair boats, (I am not sure when they first came out), or start the arguement as to whether the J-105, J-80 or Melges 24 should qualify for this topic or not. Shit even the Melges 32 is really a 10 year old boat! So I guess nothing is really new in the world.

But I think much like the NOOD regatta platform the boats that I listed above give their owners great bang for the buck, a good structured OD support system, some great sailors and most of all a boat that sail very well. Well OK, (in my opinion), the J 24 does not fit that last bill, but there are 23 of them there!

Anyway, for all of you that are driving from the Michigan, IL, Ohio and Upstate New York areas, including my family, Please drive safe and keep the boats on the trailers behind you and the wheels on the road! Are we about ready for this white shit stop falling?

I know that I am. See all you NOOD'ers in St.Pete!
Cheers,

Tac