Clay Johnson's final day reported is now posted, click on "read more" to see it. 

The Midwinters East has concluded with some 180 Standard, Radial and 4.7 sailors, from some 14 countries, participating! Nick Thompson (GBR) dominated the Standards with Clay Johnson finishing second, Paige Railey takes the Radials over Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Tunnicliffe and Kevin Holmberg takes the 4.7s. Sailgroove did daily video and pictures which you can check out on their page. Get all the information at the main CYC site where you can get the results for the Standards, Radial Gold, Radial Silver and 4.7s.

Click on "read more" to read the latest of Clay Johnson's daily reports! 

Final Day:  The last day of the Midwinters East was pretty exciting!  The fleet arrived to the yacht club one hour earlier to try to get all of the scheduled races in.  There was a light Northerly breeze to start the day and the temps were in the mid-60s.  All signs pointed to a good day on the water.

The Full Rigs started third today behind the two radial classes because the radials were one race behind.  After watching the first two radials start, it became obvious that the right side of the course was favored.  The committee boat was pretty crowded and most boats tried to start there and quickly tack to the right.  The beat proved shiftier than expected, and Lee Parkhill -who was launched at the start- sailed an awesome first leg to take a commanding lead at the windward mark.  After the reach mark, the rest of the race was sailed in congestion as all of the fleets soon mixed on the course.  The wind was dying and the chop was building, but Luke Lawrence and Luke Ramsey were very level-headed and sailed fast among the other boats to pull into the top group.  At the final leeward mark, the breeze all but died.  The top four were pretty punched, but the rest of the fleet was left to jockey for position up the last beat.  Canadians Chris Dold, Bernard Luttmer, and Robert Davies made the best of the situation, going left and finishing 5-6-7 in a tough race.

After a short postponement, the full rigs lined up for their final race.  Heading into the race, Nick Thompson had secured first place.  Clay Johnson held a 6 point lead over Bernard Luttmer, who was just ahead of Luke Ramsey, Chris Dold, Luke Lawrence, Lee Parkhill, and Brad Funk.  It was very close!  The last race had a fresher breeze off of the Gulf.  Brad Funk and Nick Thompson won the boat end and sailed across on starboard to the middle-left.  Clay Johnson was the pin boat and met them half way upwind.  Those three were well ahead and finished 1-2-3.  With the race win, Brad Funk leap-frogged a handful of boats to end up 4th overall.  Bernard Luttmer navigated some windward mark traffic well to secure 4th in the race and 3rd overall.  Luke Ramsey concluded a solid regatta to take 5th overall.

In the 4.7s, Alejandro Ruiz-Ramon continued his lightning fast speed to win both races on the day--the last one by quite a bit--but it wasn't enough to overtake Kevin Holmberg from Davis Island Yacht Club for the championship.  Wendy Reuss had her best day, finishing 4-2, to move up in the standings.

Despite a bad first race on day four, Erika Reineke kept the pressure on in the Radial Silver fleet.  Reineke had a 1-2 in the final two races to cement her spot at the top of the leaderboard.  Callie Naughton, from Pleon Yacht Club, had a great last day with a 4-4-5 to move up to second in silver.  Finally, Matt Down had the best day of all, a 3-3-1, to finish in 3rd place.

Finally, the Radial gold fleet did not lack drama in the last few races.  In the first race of the final day, Anna and Paige were duking it out in first and second.  Anna successfully passed Paige but accidentally hit the leeward mark.  After her 360 penalty, Paige had overtaken Anna for the race win.  In the second race of the day, however, Paige was yellow-flagged at the start line and struggled to get back to the top, finishing 19th.  Anna was able to take a 6th place in the race.  Heading into the final race, Paige had a comfortable point lead on Anna, but Paige also had a 19th place as her throwout, meaning that if Anna could make Paige finish worse than 14th, she would win!  The start of the race was pretty tame, but soon thereafter, Anna went after Paige pretty hard.  They were in the high teens around the weather mark when Paige fouled Anna and had to do a 720 penalty.  Paige quickly spun and was able to sneak by Anna on the downwind.  Paige was then able to mow through the fleet pretty easily, finishing the race in 6th!  It was pretty impressive to see how efficiently Paige was in catching up.  A final highlight of the radial day was Christopher Stocke, who won the final two races to improve his overall position to 11th.

The Midwinters East ended well.  All four fleets got in their 10 scheduled races, and the Clearwater Yacht Club, the Race Committee, the Judges, and all the volunteers did a fabulous job running what has turned into a "must-attend" regatta on the winter circuit.

I also recommend going to sailgroove.org for videos, pictures, interviews, and more news from the regatta!

Day 3:  What a day!  The third day of the Midwinters East was pretty difficult for most sailors.  We started out with one race in a dying easterly breeze.  Because the breeze was offshore, it was quite shifty; with such competitive fleets, any mistake was magnified!  After the first race, the breeze died completely for about half an hour.  Shortly there after, though, the breeze clocked around to a 6 knot south-easterly for the rest of racing.

The full rigs had three very shifty races today.  In the first race, Clay Johnson, James Espey, and Luke Ramsey jumped out to an early lead at the windward mark.  The three lead the pack around the race course until the final beat when the breeze died and got a little crazy.  Espey and Ramsey guarded the left which worked out well.  Johnson fell to 9th in one short upwind after going right on the beat. 

The next two races were sailed in a more steady, but still right-favored breeze.  Victor Svard from Sweden took the lead early in the second race and never reliquinshed it.  Charlie Buckingham and Luke Lawrence used good speed and patience to pick off a few boats on each leg to finish in 2nd and 3rd.  Finally, Nick Thompson proved that he is human and had a 20th in the race!

In the final race, it was all about getting right and staying right.  Nick Thompson got back on track by winning the boat and quickly tacking right.  He won by a good distance.  Luke Ramsey, the sailor with the most consistent day, used a great last beat to finish second in the race. 

In the much anticipated radial gold fleet, it was Paige Railey who took the day with two first place finishes.  Paige sailed very well in the first race--shortened at the final leeward mark because of dying breeze.  Anna Tunnicliffe found herself pretty deep early on, but clawed her way back to 6th.  Christopher Stocke and Mateo Vargas sailed well in the shifty conditions finishing 2nd and 3rd, respectively.  In the second race, Paige again pulled out a bullet ahead of Anna Tunnicliffe and Ben Koppelar (NED).  But the story in the second race was when Marit Boumeester (NED) got her second yellow flag while in 2nd place and about 100 yards from the finish!  Brutal!  Both radial fleets only had two races today.

In the silver radials, the story was about getting out in front early.  The first race ended up being shortened at the first leeward mark of an inner trapezoid!  Talk about a short race!  Blair Listwan showed that being ahead early pays, taking the bullet.  And Matt Dowd sailed a great second race to take the bullet.  But it was Erika Reineke who sailed the best today, posting a 6-2 to jump out to a comfortable 20 point lead.

In the 4.7s, Kevin Holmberg remains in first despite a 2-7-5 finish.  Alejandro Ruiz-Ramon showed blazing speed to finish 1-1-OCS on the day.  Kayla Gibson kept pace with a 5-2-1.  The 4.7s are pretty close with 2nd and 5th being separated by only 6 points!

Tomorrow is the last day of racing.  The start time is one hour earlier and there will be no racing after 3 pm!

Day 2: The breeze was on for the second day of the Midwinters East!  Sailors were welcomed this morning by 18-20 knots of breeze and 4-6 foot waves as a cold front passed through overnight.  Temperatures were in the 50s for most of racing today, and keeping warm was a big component of the day.

For the full rigs, three windy, outer-loop trapezoids were sailed.  Nick Thompson continued to show his dominance, racking off a 3-1-1 to increase his lead to 10 points.  Clay Johnson had a solid day with finishes of 2-2-3 to move into second.  And Bernard Luttmer shook off any rust from not sailing and posted a 1-5-2.  These three guys were launched from the fleet pretty much all day and have jumped to the front of the leaderboard.

In the radials, it continues to be the Anna Tunnicliffe and Paige Railey show.  Sailing in opposite fleets again, Anna had a 3-1-1 while Paige had a 1-4-1.  These two are sailing really well, but each has been beaten in a race!  Marit Bouwmeester and Ben Koppelar from Holland, along with Sarah Lihan were super fast today.  It will be really interesting tomorrow when the radials split into Gold and Silver fleet!

Finally, in the 4.7s, it was all Kevin Homberg from Davis Island Yacht Club.  Kevin won all three races today and exerted his dominance on the fleet!

Tomorrow should be a little lighter with an off-shore breeze.  Should be shiftier too!

Day 1: The 2009 Midwinters East started today at Clearwater Yacht Club.  There were four fleets on the water.  The full rigs started first and were immediately followed by the 4.7s on the outer loop of a trapazoid course.  The radials, the largest fleet with about 100 boats, were divided into two fleets to qualify the first two days.  The first radial group also sailed an outer loop while the final radial group sailed an inner trapezoid.

The breeze was up for the first race today, with winds from about 16-18 knots and 3-4 foot waves.  In the full rigs, Nick Thompson jumped out to an early lead and held on to 1st place around the course.  Clay Johnson was a comfortable 2nd place and Brad Funk used some good downwind speed to pass James Espey (IRL) to take 3rd in the opening race.  A contingent of Candians closely followed. 

On the radial course, the first fleet got their race off just before it started to rain.  Anna Tunnicliffe held on against big breeze sailors like Sarah Lihan and a pair of Dutch sailors who were hot on her heals.  Despite a capsize on the first downwind, Anna was able to stay in front.  The second radial fleet was half way through their race when the rain really started to come down, bringing the visibility way down.  The race committee chose to abandon the radials after they finished the first loop of their course.

After almost three hours of waiting for the breeze and weather to settle down, the race committee resailed the second radial race and then had a second race for all fleets.  This race was significantly lighter and was sailed in very choppy conditions.  The breeze was about 4-8 knots and because it had shifted to the west, the waves proved very challenging.  In the radial re-sail, it was Paige Railey and Emily Billing who punched out to the top of the fleet after the leaders started to sail the wrong course.  Paige and Emily proved too fast and held on for a 1-2 respectively.

The full rigs finally got their second race off after three general recalls.  The leaders emerged from both sides and the race turned into a parade after the weather mark.  Nick Thompson was able to tack in at the weather mark and never looked back, cementing his place at the top of the scoreboard with a 1-1 today.  Chris Dold and Lee Parkhill sailed good races to finish 2-3 in the race. 

The radials and 4.7s sailed their second race in similar conditions:  light and lumpy.  In the Radial Blue fleet, Anna Tunnicliffe port tacked the fleet and extended to win her race.  Marit Boumeester (NED), Lisa Ross, and Sarah Lihan rounded out the top four in a close second race.  They yellow fleet was the last fleet to get their start off.  Paige Railey again won her race to keep the pressure on Tunnicliffe.

At the end of the day, Nick Thompson is winning the full rigs.  Chris Dold, Lee Parkhill, James Espey, Clay Johnson, Brad Funk, and Bernie Luttmer are all within two points fighting for second!  Close racing!

In the 4.7s, Alejandro Ruiz-Ramon from Davis Island YC had a great first day with a 2-1.  Kayla Gibson showed good speed in the first race to pull out a win.  The 4.7s were pretty close all day, since they were not sailing an extra loop in their trapazoid.

Finally, in the radials, Anna Tunnicliffe and Paige Railey are (expectedly) at the top of the fleet after scoring two firsts each.  But many good radial sailors have two top finishes.  It'll be interesting to see how the racing unfolds tomorrow and then when the fleets merge into gold and silver!