St. Lucie Sailing Club

Racing has been one of the key elements of the St. Lucie Sailing Club throughout its history. The first race of the new club appears to have been on May 18, 1974 (prior to the official formation of the club) with a regatta for planing hulls and displacement hulls. This nomenclature was changed later in the year to cruising and class boats (Hobies and Sunfish). The type of handicap used is not recorded although there is mention in the history that the Portsmouth Rating System was used for displacement hulls.

In January 1976 the Club handicap system was devised. Jack Tyer, sailing a Catalina 22’, being a consistent and dependable sailor was used as the scratch boat. This simply meant that each boat’s finish time was divided by Jack’s finish time - the result being the handicap. How frequently the handicap was updated and how many races were included in the calculation was left to the race chairman. This system remained in effect until 1982 when the PHRF was introduced in addition to the Club handicap. The idea was to have two separate fleets - one for the more competitive racers and one for the cruising boats. (Turn out for races were always high allowing for multiple fleets. 36 registered for the Herb Carey race that year). The skippers were allowed to choose the class. There were separate starts for each class. About this time Jack Tyer, now getting along in years, became less involved in racing. This necessitated a change in calculating the base for the club handicap system. The first attempt was to use the fastest boat as the scratch or base boat. Later this was refined to use the average of the top three finishers. That system remained in use through 1999 when it was again modified to reflect changing Club requirements. The Club handicaps were continuously updated after each race. The PHRF ratings are developed from the official US Sailing PHRF book. Therefore, for example the PHRF for all Catalina 25’s (with the same configuration) have the same rating whereas in the Club system each boat is rated individually based on respective skipper’s performance.

In 1985 the dwindling number of racers no longer supported two separate class starts and the committee proposed that all boats start together and be scored under both systems. It was suggested that the PHRF system was for the more competitive racers and the Club was for the cruisers and/or beginners. However, each boat racing had the opportunity to place in either class. With the recent increase in racing boats and more competitive skippers the club reverted back to two classes in 1999. The PHRF class is for the more competitive boats and the Club class for newer skippers. In 2000 we evolved to the “A” and “B” Fleet designations. With the “A” Fleet boats having a higher sail area to displacement ration than the “B” Fleet boats and both fleets sailing under PHRF. As our racing fleet became more competitive the cruising boats skippers stopped attending racing. In 2002 Norm Oleson and a small committee developed a separate racing program solely for cruising boat skippers. Most races for the cruising boats have had very good turnouts.

The early races where held at the Stuart Causeway and moved to the North Fork around 1976. All racing remained in the North Fork until the early 1980’s when those East of the Roosevelt Bridge requested that some races be held on their side of the bridge. At that time the winter series remained on the North Fork and the Summer Series were moved East of the bridge. In the early 90’s the series races were moved entirely to the east side of the Roosevelt Bridge and new courses laid out to allow for more regular triangular or courses and better up wind and down wind legs. Recently courses have evolved to windward-leaward races.

Historically a form of handicap racing has been the mainline of club racing since the late 70’s. A number of specialty races have been tried and most still endure. In the beginning there were one design races for Hobies and Stars. However, these did not last long. In 1978 the Herb Carey Memorial Regatta was established in honor of one of the founding members who had recently passed away. The regatta consists of three races; initially all sailed on the first Sunday of December. In 1982 this was changed to two races on Saturday and one race on Sunday with a party Saturday night (which also served as a Club Christmas party) and a party Sunday to announce the winners. The Saturday night party gave way to the Sunday afternoon/evening party and the date moved to November. In 1996 the Sunday afternoon party was switched back to Saturday evenings and again advertised as a combined Christmas party and Herb Carey awards party. In recent years the Christmas party has been separate from the Regatta with the Regatta held in November. A large perpetual trophy is presented to the winner (based on Club handicap). The winners of the trophy are:

With popularity of PHRF another trophy was introduced in the 1989 for the PHRF winner of the Herb Carey Regatta. This trophy was later named in honor of Chuck Reade, an avid racer, host of the post regatta party for many years and a past committee chairman. The winners of this trophy are:

The Don Ellis race began in 1987. The perpetual trophy was donated by his wife, Jean, in memory of Don, a past commodore and dedicated racer. Jean’s only stipulation was that the race is sailed on the North Fork in March and the results calculated by using the Club handicap. The Winners of this trophy are:

In 1993 Reed Haslam donated a trophy to be given to the winner of the annual race to Ft. Pierce and return in the ocean. The winners of the Cerulean trophy are:

In 1988 the concept of holding races using the pursuit (or backward race as they are sometimes called) format was proposed. The idea is to offer racers a more friendly start since each boat starts at its own designated start time instead of the normal mad dash by all to the one favored position on the start line. The intent is to get novice and skilled skippers out in a friendlier racing environment. Individual start times are adjusted based on a boat’s handicap to account for it’s relative speed. The slower boats would start first and the faster boats start later with the fastest boat starting last. Theoretically every boat would finish the race at the same time.

In the early 90’s, the concept of two race days each month was started. One Sunday for the series races and a different Sunday for the specialty races, which consisted of the Pursuit, Lady Skipper, Ocean and Don Ellis races.

1996 saw the addition of the “Beer Can Race” to the expanding race format. This race, suggested by Steve Batsche, initially was held on Wednesday evenings starting at 18:00. It follows the Pursuit format and uses existing channel marks in the North Fork. Initially there were no spinnakers and there is no race committee and no permanent record exists of winners. The fastest boat, which is the last starter, blows a horn for the race countdown and each boat is on his honor to start at his respective prescribed time. Again the slower boats start first and faster boats start later. Anyone needing crew or wanting to crew show up at the Deck restaurant about 45 minutes before start of the race. This is the great feature of these races - every club member or guest has an opportunity to race on different boats every week. After the race, the crews gather at the Deck, hoist a few, and tell tall ones. As the days got shorter, the races were moved to Saturday afternoon, alternating between Wednesday and Saturday as a function of Daylight/Standard Savings Time. In 1997 the Saturday race became permanent all year around and the Wednesday afternoon race continued during Daylight Savings Time. The Saturday Beer Can race remains the most popular race in the club with consistent large turnouts nearly every Saturday. In 2002 the Wednesday night course changed so it would sail south to the “Anchorage”. This way it would tie in the new Wednesday night sunset affair at “South Point” Marina at the “City Pier”.

In 2000 One Design racing started to make its comeback thanks to the efforts of Joe Price. Through his efforts and also John Dixon’s efforts with Flying Scots the Club now has growing fleets of Flying Scots and Buccaneers. The Club holds a One Design race each month and in 2002 The St. Lucie Sailing Club sponsored its first invitational regattas for one design with one regatta for the Flying Scots and one regatta for the Buccaneers. Also in 2002 our sailing club hosted the Florida State Championship for Catalina 22’s. The honor for hosting the regatta goes to the previous year’s winner, Don Lasky, a member of our club.

Our racing extends beyond the local club races. The tough competition on our local waters have help develop skills that have made our club members succeed in races away from our own waters. Don Lasky winning the Catalina State Championship two years running is an excellent example. Another is Stu Anderson a national champ sailing Lasers a number of years. We have had two boats participate in the Daytona Beach to Bermuda, Transat Race. They were Dick Cross on Osceola in 1993 and Steve Garrett on Delirious in 1997. Over the years we have had a number of boats race in the annual Columbus Day Regatta in Miami. Some recent successes include 1996 Steve Garrett taking over all race honors on Delirious in 1996. And in 1997 he repeated his success with a third in Class. Ed Luscinskas is another consistent winner at Columbus Day. Although there are any where from 300 to 700 boats at this regatta a SLSC boat usually comes home with a trophy. Also going back to the early 1980’s when the Palm Beach Sailing Club sponsored ocean regattas our club would come home with more than their share of trophies. In the late 1990’s a few of the smaller boat captains started trailering their boats around the state. As expected we usually come home with a trophy. Although we do not have a real large racing fleet we are a very competitive club as demonstrated by the success of our skippers when they travel to other regattas around the state.

We have over 110 possible race days in a year with all types of racing venues. The idea is to entice the most skilled to the most novice skippers to participate and enjoy a fun day on the water with their boats.