Welcome to the Force 5 Class

2012 North Americans Results

Byron Hicks

2012 Force 5 National Championship

”My legs ache, my arms are sore, my back is stiff, my shoulders ache, my butt hurts yada, yada, yada”. All or some portion of the above was heard after the 3^rd day of the 10 race series on Albemarle Sound meticulously arranged by Courtney Young. Winds generally in the 10 to 15 knot range provided plenty of upwind, downwind and mark-rounding action for the multitude of Force 5 sailors from as
far away as California, Florida, New York, Texas and Connecticut.

2012 Force 5 NA Championship
	Sail #	First	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Adjusted Total
	Die Hard Division
1	8048	Fred Meno	2	1	10	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	23	13
2	0	Bob Cullen	1	2	1	7	1	4	1	2	1	2	22	15
3	3052	Courtney Young	8	3	5	4	7	2	4	3	4	3	43	35
4	7814	Peter Young	4	4	3	5	3	6	9	8	5	6	53	44
5	7777	Darren Keech	3	5	9	3	6	10	5	5	7	5	58	48
6	1111	Tom Welsh	5	7	2	8	4	7	10	10	3	4	60	50
7	7	John Barrere	6	6	7	2	9	9	3	4	8	7	61	52
8	1172	Byron Hicks	7	11	4	10	5	8	6	9	6	11	77	66
9	1266	Bill Hunter	10	8	8	6	10	3	7	6	10	9	77	67
10	70	Craig Thayer	9	9	6	9	8	5	8	7	9	8	78	69

	Try Hard Division
1	8047	Brian Hampton	1	2	3	1	3	2	2	3	1	1	36	33
2	1	DJ McCabe	3	5	1	2	1	1	1	1	3	4	37	32
3	2856	Nancy Stutzman	4	1	5	4	4	3	3	2	6	2	60	54
4	8847	Keith Schrecengost	2	4	4	5	2	5	6	6	4	3	75	69
5	1998	Pete Russell	6	3	2	3	6	6	6	6	2	6	84	78

2012 Midwinters Results

Tom Trump

Force 5 Midwinter Championship 2012

Upper Keys Sailing Club

Key Largo, FL

The Upper Keys Sailing Club played host to 34 sailors participating in the annual Force 5 Class Midwinter Championships Feb. 23-25 at the club on Buttonwood Sound. Local sailors along with others from around the nation sailed a total of eight races over the three day event.

A Trip to Carl Ross Key in the Everglades

by Bruce McCord

In September of 2010 the Miami kayak and sailing meet-up groups planned a trip to Carl Ross Key, a barren and remote sandy island in the middle of Florida bay. Florida bay is a beautiful and isolated spot at the bottom of the Florida peninsula which is protected by the Florida keys to the East. Carl Ross Key is closed in the winter due to its proximity to a major bird sanctuary but can be visited May through mid October.

The idea was to launch from Flamingo - a remote fishing camp in the middle of the Everglades and travel 8 miles by sail or kayak out to the island, have lunch and return. It sounded exciting, so my 8 year old daughter Annie and I signed up and agreed to meet Miles, the head of the group at 10 am at the launch at Flamingo. After arriving, we carefully scanned the water for alligators and crocodiles (this is the one place in the USA where you see both) and we launched our Force 5 sailboat – #3020 Nohea.

I told my daughter not to smile if she saw a crocodile and we would be fine. (She frowned appropriately as we saw one on the opposite shore) We applied bug spray and sunscreen and put the sail up.

2011 Hospice Regatta Results

"A tale of two dinghy's - The WCSC Hospice Regatta"

The WCSC hosted one of the best executed regatta's I've been to in many years. Although not new to sailing, I am new to dinghy racing and purchased my first dinghy, a Force 5 named "Forty-Two", back in early June. The boat led me to this great website and this website led me to the Hospice Regatta.

I got in contact with Brian Hampton and he was gracious enough to procure two F5's for me and my father-in-law, Bob Piscura, to sail for the weekend so we wouldn't have to trailer ours down. Driving down from middle TN was fairly easy, besides going through Atlanta, and only took us about 4.5hrs each (Bob coming down from VA). I arrived around 1500 and Bob rolled in later that evening around 1800.

The WCSC is tucked away on a small back road near exit 11 off of I-85 in northwest SC. The lake seemed a bit low, but the wind was up and the weekend looked promising. Upon arriving at the club I met up with Brian and was immediately taken in by the friendliness and comraderie of everyone participating in the regatta (Byron, DJ, Chris, Brett, Mike, Leland, Josh, etc). Brian rounded up some beverages for us at the F5 headquarters, The Lodge, (first things first) and showed me around the club and which boats myself and Bob were going to be using for the weekend. I had thought to take out the boat I was going to borrow for a little bit that afternoon but no one was out there -- the wind was 20-25+ mph.