I saw a J-24 being towed near Rattlesnake Island, a few Sunfish and Hobies, and that was it. I didn't go to the Windmill Regatta, as I had some serious sailing of my own to do. Winds were good, and never put whitecaps on the water.....Variable wind speeds, but very nice sailing under haze-filtered sunshine.
When I retrieved the previous photo of the Windmill, I reflected that the most speedy and advanced British designs came out before they drilled the North Sea platforms, when gasoline was (and still is) very expensive for them.
International 14 disrupted small sailboat design (14 footers) when the designer sailed across the English Channel, beat all the opponents in a French regatta, then sailed back across!
I was surprised to read this morning that most Americans learn to sail on a Snark, which had sold over 400,000 boats by 1996. It's no wonder then, given its styrofoam hull, that we don't see more sailboats on Winni. (All recycled styrofoam, but still!)
While Americans worry about gasoline thefts from our boats, some British sailing websites have a running scroll regarding small sailboat thefts!
These are interesting times.
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