Force 5 Class Association

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.

"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.

What an awesome regatta in Indiana! 11 Force 5s and I think 7 of us were travelers and 4 local boats. Thanks to the folks at Bloomington Yacht Club. This is a great little club. Only 40 members and just a few acres of land but wow do these guys put on a regatta like the big boys. Everyone I met was just great. The food was awesome as we had smoked birds (turkey, duck and game hen) with different sauces for each. We also had some great home made side dishes and dined on the porch family style at long tables. Sunday morning we had a wonderful pancake breakfast. Lots of beer, wine and a few Caesars (some funny drink from Canada) too. Being a cozy club, camping and boat storage is all right next to the clubhouse. You never have to walk far. The club is right behind the "Port Hole Inn" which has an excellent selection of fried fish and plenty of cold beverages. But enough about all the fun we had, I should talk about the racing too.

“The sea was angry that day my friend…” is a good description of how we ended the regatta at the Thames Yacht Club in New London, CT. But before we dig to far into how we finished, lets talk about how we got here. The F5 NAs have been going on since 1974, the year Gary Jobson won. The NAs first visit to New London was in 1994 and on the podium were Bob Cullen, Luke Buxton and Court Young. It was Bob’s fifth NA victory. Between those three skippers, they would go on to win 12 NAs between them. We would return to Thames YC in 2004 and 2007. And here we are back again for the 2011 chapter of the F5 NAs.

Sailing out of Thames YC is a really neat opportunity. It is very much an urban club. The parking is on the streets around the club, no parking lot at the club. So, unloading your boat happens quickly while the local traffic waits patiently. Awesome 2 story clubhouse and beautiful sandy beach at the club make for a fantastic venue for sailing Force 5s. Most everyone had arrived and setup by Thursday night. There were discussions of a practice sail but light wind and cold beer make for a battle that will always be won ashore.