RRS Annual Regatta!

AHOY! Welcome aboard I'dRatherBeSailing, the newsletter written by sailors who's parents still don't know exactly what we're doing out there, for sailors who are in the same boat. I promise we're being safe out there, Mom.

In today's email:

• Regatta: A hometown Race!

• 'Ello, Electric: Beneteaus and Outboards

• Shipwright Course: Interesting takeaways

• Route du Rhum Update: In classic sailor fashion, they're waiting for a better weather window...

Absolutely kidding. The race was postponed until Wednesday, due to winds up to 50 knots, and "huge seas in the English Channel", a direct quote from the official race site, and an all around scary sentence. Above is what Windy looked like Monday morning. (For Mom: Red is bad, Purple is about as bad as it gets).

Start date is now Wednesday Nov. 9th, 14:15hrs FR Time. 

Reef Runner Sailing Regatta 2022

All the Regatta talk got you itchin' for a race? Skip the one in France, come race in Florida! Reef Runner Sailing is hosting their second annual Regatta in Panama City, Florida! For the uninitiated, Reef Runner Sailing is an award winning ASA Accredited Sailing School that has been teaching for the past 20 years. They are also my alma mater, if you will. Shoutout to Captain Jeremy! I'm forever Swallow-ing in your footsteps, and may our adventures never end. 

• Where: St Andrew Bay. From Preferred Channel Marker to Safe Water Buoy and Back!

• When: November 20th, 10am.

• Rules: Sailboats only. The full rules, and registration form are here at ReefRunnerSailing

• Cost: Free!

• Winner Gets: The core sailors currency, Bragging Rights

• After: Raft up with other boats at Red Fish Point. Sundowners, anyone?

Electric Boats

The age-old saying: Opinions on electric boats are like rudders: everyone has one. We're not here to give our opinion on them...yet. For now, we're keeping an interested eye on them, and will curate the best and worst of new electric boat related stuff here so we can all stay fully charged on the topic.

• Beneteau: Their new Oceanis 30.1E is briefly covered by Yachting World. Digging through the official Beneteau site yields almost nothing, so this gets 1 Grain of Salt 🧂

• Electric Outboard: Fully electric outboard with 45 mins run time, the Temo-1000 will be available next year for a breezy €2,850.

T-1000 is also, if you recall, This Guy 👇. So hopefully this isn't the start of outboards becoming sentient and over-rowing the human race. (That was so bad, I'm sorry. I'll see myself out)

Shipwright Course

A quick update on the Italian Shipwright Course mentioned last week. The fist class is in the bag, and so far, pretty interesting. The tastiest takeaway from the introduction:

• A very long time ago, some royalty decided to sail their boats just for the sake of sailing. No guns, no fishing, no cargo. We now have Yachting.

• Boys will be boys, so they start racing their yachts. We now have Yacht Racing.

• All racing hull design traces back to a couple of countries trying to beat each other in a yacht race, America's Cup.

• America's Cup has been taking place for so long that there would be gaps in race years as countries took a break for, well, wars. The Civil War, The World Wars, to name a couple.

Have salty friends who might like the cut of our Jib? Share the link below!