The 20 nm course began west of Key Biscayne and went through the Biscayne Channel, north to a turning mark east of Bear Cut and then back the same way we came out.

The Island Race was scheduled for November 9th of last year, but too much wind forced the Race Committee to postpone. The race was re-scheduled and finally took place on February 1st, 2020. Team Paradise participated with a team of disabled Veterans and yours truly as the on-board coach. The Island Race is a part of our pathway for Veterans to learn sailboat racing and eventually become World Sailors.

The Island Regatta illustrates how different skill levels oftentimes complement each other and provides for a near-ideal learning environment. The best way to learn is to always have someone better than yourself in the boat and that is how Yours Truly learned.

Veterans teaching Veterans

During a practice session a few days before the race, our senior sailing instructor and retired Coast Guard Captain, Bob Hurst, trained with the team of Duane Smith and Julio Gonzalez.

Duane has been sailing with Team Paradise for several years. It took him a while to assume the responsibilities of becoming a helmsman, but he did. Duane is floating to the top, so to speak. He became Basic Keelboat certified, then sailing with us weekly before passing the Performance Sailing and Spinnaker endorsement certification. He raced with a team of Veterans in the Columbus Day Regatta last year and did very well. He's been sailing with the Warrior Sailing program and competing in National events in multiple States.

Julio came to us from the Veterans Ocean Adventure program, where he discovered sailing and developed an appetite for our sport. He is currently pursuing his Basic Keelboat certification with Team Paradise. He sails with us regularly and realizes that the only way to become good is to keep sailing.

The Race

The commitment as a helmsman, other than focusing on steering the boat, is to properly enter the regatta and to attend the skippers' meeting. It's a fact collecting mission and a fostering experience. The attention to detail begins here.

We started our Sonar in the J-24 fleet. After a short battle, we gave up the pin end to a competitor knowing that it would be a long race with plenty of passing lanes. Sure enough, we grabbed the lead after the first rounding and extend throughout the race, finishing way ahead of the competition. We couldn't even read the sail numbers of the second-place boat. Duane did an outstanding job driving the boat. Julio and I shared the duties of trimming the spinnaker and the jib. Julio kept his focus and did very well considering that he is relatively new to the sport.

Focus! Duane driving, Julio flying the kite while Yours Truly is keeping an eye on it all. This picture was taken shortly before the finish. The red spinnakers in the background was the competition!

The Awards

The award ceremony at the Key Biscayne Yacht Club on Saturday night was a bit of a downer for us. We were scheduled to race with the J-24s, but somehow, likely because of the time that had elapsed since the original race date in November, the race committee had lost sight of what was said. Instead of an obvious win, they (the race committee) counted us as a 2nd place finisher in the ACR 2 class (assigned rating = handicap class for odd boats). I felt bad for our team, but Duane was quick to realize that he should have attended to Skippers Meeting on Thursday evening instead of assuming that nothing had changed since the previous attempt to run the event. BTW, Duane did attend the skippers meeting at that time. It's unfortunate, but not the end of time. It was a lesson learned, for sure. Despite it all, I was extremely pleased with the performance of our team and it didn't go unnoticed by the other sailors present.

Yours Truly,

Magnus Liljedahl a.k.a. magthemotivator