SARASOTA, FL, OCTOBER 20-21, 2012: The Buzzelli Multihull Rendezvous is held every third weekend in October, this year was the sixth annual meeting and it did not disappoint. Friday afternoon many came out to join the Sarasota Youth Multihull Team for practice with coach Jim Zellmer. Matt Mcdonald brought Falcon F18 hull number 3 out and was quick in the light breeze.
Saturday morning a front came just in time for racing. The first two races were held in patchy conditions from 8 to 15 knots. Then the wind shifted to the north and it blew a steady 12 to 15 knots. Sarah Newberry and John Casey won the first two races in a close battle between Matt Mcdonald and Alex Shcaffer on the Falcon and Erick Weinstein and I on a C2. Erick and I won the last three races of the day and had some close racing downwind with Sarah and John on the Cirrus R.
Sunday we arrived to 17 to 22 knots out of the northeast and the breeze backed off to about 12 towards the end of the day. The conditions were challenging for some. Erick and I took 3 out of 4 races for the day with Sarah and John in 2nd and Matt and Alex in 3rd most of the time. However Sarah and John won a race and Matt and Alex also got a second.
At the start of the third race of Sunday there was an incident at the boat end. Matt Mcdonald began to head Erick and I up, so we headed Sarah and John up and there was slight contact between Sarah and John’s Cirrus and our C2. Everyone was moving very slow and there was no damage, but Sarah and John decided to protest us. Erick and I continued to battle the Cirrus around the course and beat them on the final leg. Then when we got in we had to deal with the protest. The protest committee surprisingly decided that we had failed to avoid contact, even though we were leeward and had an established overlap. We were scored a Dsq for that race rather than a 1st, giving Sarah and John the regatta win.
Overall the regatta was great, there couldn’t have been better conditions. Jack Famiglietti, a Sarasota Youth Multihull Team member, showed a presence and was quick on the second day. Karl and Beth Langfield also sailed on their C2 and Peter Cullum sailed his Infusion. It was interesting to see that the top 3 boats were all of different designs.
Next year the Buzzelli Multihull Rendezvous will be a great tune up event for the 2013 F18 North Americans, which will be held at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron the following week. Join Sarasota Youth Multihull Team group on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/groups/107003419380803/)
Report By: Jeremy Herrin (USA 218)