The 1998 Summer Sizzler, in Daytona Beach, was the most exciting sailing I've enjoyed in several years. I crewed with Brian Karr on his NACRA. We had 4 races on Saturday. It started out "nice and easy" as Tina Turner says, and then got really adrenalinogenic by the end of the day. Wind for the first two races was easterly at about 10-12 knots, perfect conditions for the NACRA. By the fourth race, the winds strengthened to a solid 20 knots from the southeast. Swells from wandering Hurricane Danielle were expected to begin during the day. They finally did by the late afternoon, along with the winds. These were the perfect conditions for the excitement. Beach Scene at the Summer Sizzler

The open fleet comprised about one-third of the entries, so the competition was there in our class. In particular, Paul McCain and his crew came from Tampa for the race. Paul is good, real good. He doesn't make many mistakes either. Paul came in first in 3 of the 4 faces, Brian finished first on the third race. Just to give one idea of the level of competition, there was not more than 25 seconds difference between Paul and Brian for any of the four finishes. (I think the greatest difference was for the race Brian won. A couple of times, it may have been as little as 5 seconds.) Brian has figured out how to make his NACRA zip around the course. It is is large enough to go over swell without jarring the riders off of it. The first three races were chariot rides around the course. The fourth race was the most exciting of all. With the wind and swell, Brian decided to do the wild thang. He told me to get down on the lee hull. That's the one under water. No, more precisely, it's the one with a 20 knot current running over it. It is also the one that frequently is under a waterfall. Besides holding onto the boat, two other crew chores are more challenging on the lee hull. One is keeping the boat down during big lifts. At one point, I made it to windward just in time to see the boat yield to gravity and remain upright. The other difficult task is finding marks near the shore to the west side of the course. With glare and swell working together, it was harder to find the marks than to find a news reporter that isn't talking about Clinton's sex life.

Pushing out into the surf On the final race, C pin was located near the shore. Breakers from the rising swells were forming just outside the mark. We rounded the mark, hardened up after the wild thang. Tthen we were promptly clobbered broadside by a breaking wave. Then it was off for more boat speed and to finish the race. Sunday's races were cancelled due to swell and no wind. Brian finished second in open, behind Paul McCain. Congratulations, Brian.