CMCS Sailing Club

Sailing Southwest Florida & Beyond

Naples to Fort Myers Offshore Regatta

27 Feb 2021 10:30 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

A sunny, warm and breezy morning welcomed 18 boats in the February 27, 2021 Naples to Ft. Myers Beach race.


The race, delayed until a 1050 start due to low tide constraints, began with a single mass broad reaching start off the Naples Pier. Winds were less than 10 knots from 165. Boats separated into their various courses but many such as “Pepper” headed to the east of the rhumb line on course 345.

A lightening breeze motivated a “hotter” angle of 355 around noon. Puffs of wind, likely from patchy clouds, helped matters along. Abruptly about 1300 the sea breeze kicked in with a near instantaneous change of wind direction to 265. Just in time, we were running out of water nearing the shore! We quickly changed into a tight reach, course 315, and headed directly for the finish. With an apparent favorable tide all the way north, we finished near channel mark 3.

The first boat to finish was “TriPolar” at 15:10:18. The rest of the fleet followed over the next 90 minutes.

Congratulations to the winners – spinnaker fleet – Dan Spence, “Vagabond”; non-spinnaker – John Finnegan (single hand), “Miss Cathleen”; and Cruising – Roger Horton, “Wicked”.

Scott Milligan


CMCS is a 501(c)6 non-profit organization.  PO Box 101268, Cape Coral, FL 33910

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