January 12 and 13 was the fourth regatta in the Florida Flying Scot District Series. The Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club was the weekend's host. Charlotte Harbor is a small yacht club just north of Punta Gorda. The 21 boats, which was a new high for this relatively new event, used every piece of water in the club's small harbor.

Saturday was and a great day of sun and wind. It was tricky on the race course at times with us going from the top three of the first race to the back of the fleet, but we battled back to a 6th. So went the second race with lots of lead changes. We had a solid race going in the third race until the second beat where we got pushed to the side of the course with less wind, (lesson -- don't let other boats dictate your tactics!). We ended the day with a 7, 6, 10 and week sitting in 7th place. Other than the top three boats the scores were
really tight. As usual Jeff and Amy Linton were leading the way.

After racing, everyone showered and headed over to the Punta Gorda Boat Club for a great dinner and a few drinks before finding venues to watch the second NFL playoff game of the day.

Sunday morning was shaping up to be a great Florida day with the weather we came for. We arrived early and headed out for a great practice sail way ahead of the rest of the fleet. Turns out we used up all the wind, because the rest of the day turned out to be pretty tough. There were many TLE's in both races on Sunday as the wind came and went and the current continued to build. We survived the day
with a 6 and a 5 to end the event in 5th place overall. Jeff and Amy Linton won the event. But the big news was class new-comer Zeke Horowitz who finished second for the event.

We are already looking forward to catching up with our Florida friends at the next event in February at Lake Eustis. In fact the boat is already there, as John dropped it off on his way home.

John, Sharon, and I would like to thank along with the Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club, our host for the weekend, Martin Holland (Yes, that is right, the former commodore of Hampton Yacht Club who has moved south) for a wonderful weekend. We felt very good with our fifth place overall finish in a very deep fleet.

Link to the results: https://www.regattatech.com/scoring/action/showResultsRoster?clubCode=CHYC&eventCode=FSEvent4-13&divisionName=Flying%20Scot

There are still several opportunities to go sailing in the warm Florida sun:

1. George Washington's Regatta -- Lake Eustis Sailing Center: Feb 16 - 17.

2. Mid-Winters Warm-up -- Davis Island Yacht Club: March 9 - 10.

3. Mid-Winters -- Sarasota Sailing Squadron: March 11 - 15.

It is all very simple: If you want to get better, you need
to hit the road and sail against better people. Please let us know what we can do to help you join us on the circuit. We would love to have some fellow FBYC sailors out there with us!