BCYC Racing Results

Boca Ciega 3 Day LEARN TO RACE SUNFISH® Clinic / Regatta
Hosted by USSC Fleet 756, Gulfport Florida                         
October 23-25 2026

Winds were wild and winds were mild with 30° shifts, challenging 19 competitors. One violent shift almost capsized a few racers to windward, causing auto-tacks.

Friday began with practice racing in mild 5-10mph winds and getting familiar with a new course. Afterwards, a rigging demonstration was held showing how Cheap Thrill is set up and how to shift gears for light and strong wind sailing. Later a few of us met at the Gulfport Brewery for some food, drink and music. Sunday was canceled with a forecast of gusts over 30mph. The regatta was held on Saturday, and began with a classroom discussion of the peculiarities of the lateen rig, then moved outdoors for a strong wind setup and rigging demonstration including the (from the Lee Montes Video) Honour Reef method of putting in and taking out a reef on the water without dropping the sail.

An interesting new Square Race Course was used, bringing back the fun of planing reaches. Two sides of a square were parallel windward legs, with connecting broad reaches forming a big X. This course avoids having new racers struggle with jibing and planting the bow in the next wave after surfing into it. Despite the ominous forecast of gusts in the upper 20's, the actual wind between the gusts was 8-12mph. There were some tantalizingly short bursts of fun planing, which did lead to some changing of places on the reaches. Waves remained small. A few boats went out on (racing canceled) Sunday for fantastic high speed reaches across Boca Ciega Bay and back, over and over, with whoops and yells! WL courses lack the exhilarating “Woohoo” sustained high speed sprints, the most fun that can be had on an ISCA dinghy, with water shooting up out of the daggerboard trunk, falling into the cockpit, and then getting sucked right back out through the bailer. Therefore, Reaching Courses should be used in planing conditions.

The forecast was enough to cause several less experienced sailors to wisely err on the side of caution and stay on the beach Saturday. 5 races were completed in the challenging variable conditions. A fantastic dinner was lovingly prepared by volunteers and devoured by hungry racers, followed by the Awards Ceremony, featuring beautiful hand made wood burned plaques.

Darcy Jensen was 1^st Place Female, Danny Frend was 1^st Place Apprentice Master, Henry Gale was 1^st Place Senior Master, Marius Satas was 1^st Place Grand Master.

Fauss Hull took 3^rd place, I was 2^nd, and Mike Miller, a new Sunfish racer who traveled from Virginia for this event, won 1^st Place Overall and First place Great Grand Master, using a chartered metal rim 70's boat. Way to go, Mike! Welcome to the Sunfish Class.

Fleet 756 will be hosting the Florida Regional I on February 26-27-28, 2027. Registrations will be limited to 50, so plan to sign up early.