Official Cat Fight Results

Here are the "official" results from West End Yacht Club. They also indicated "The committee made an error calculating the up to 45ft class," which translated meant that they added our race times together and carried an extra 1 in the hour column.

They also allowed Spellbound a Leopard 45 to to register as a Leopard 44 so they could compete in the under 45' class. I would have been happier if Freedom had received Baddest Cat since registering your boat for a shorter length doesn't show the best sportsmanship.

You may have heard reports that many people in the race had a very difficult time finding the weather mark including Cat Catatonic. The race committee indicated it was set in front of Smuggler's Cove and after repeated hails on the radio to them they insisted it was there. Cat Catatonic was the first boat to approach with many others in the fleet not far behind us when we discovered Wildfire headed for Sandy Cay, so they must have rounded the mark. All of a sudden we spotted the mark set in front of the Thatch Cut about a mile to our West. After talking with Wildfire at the buoy dedication, it was indeed true that he dropped the weather mark from his boat.

Next year I will offer to set the weather mark using Kittytonic and record the coordinates for all of the captains to have to make this a fair race. I've never heard of a race being run like this before.

For some reason, they put Galeaux and Freedom in the over 50' class, which wasn't a huge deal, but we don't even know what our start time was because the buffoons on the committee boat never told us we were good to go across the start line.

Hey..we all had fun and that's what counts..remember the race committee are all volunteers giving up their time to organize this..now if we'd just had some wind???

what is the "qualifier" for Baddest Cat, I have never been able to ascertain that.

We can laugh and joke about it now, it's not the America's Cup after all, but when you sail one of your best races and get third in class instead of third overall due to a 60 minute calculation error, non-existent weather marrk, and eventuslly taking second to a boat not even in your class, that does test one's patience.

Doing 'round the buoy' club races for years here in Ft Lauderdale ... every race was the Americas cup. At least in our dreams. Really hope everyone had loads of fun, and what no protest flags!!!

I think the Race Result categories for the larger cats should read:
- 45 Feet to UNDER 50 Feet.
- 50 Feet and Over.

This is how the classes were defined in the Race Instruction sheet given to the captains, and I assume this was based on actual LOA (not manufacturer's marketing department - e.g. FP Lucia 40 is actually 38.4' long).


Our Saba 50 Cuvee is 49.2 feet LOA so we were placed in the 45' to <50' class.

The Leopard 45 and Lagoon 440 specs show both as 44.7' LOA, so both being in the <45' class seems appropriate.

I think the time penalty added for boats flying spinnakers, such as Spellbound and the top 2 monos, was too low particularly with the very light wind conditions. Captain Jay and Rick on DeLife sailed an excellent race, but were significantly disadvantaged by the low spinnaker penalty applied to the two spinnaker flying mono's that placed in front of them.

I thought the race committee did a good job explaining the start order for race 1 and calling out time checks prior to the 11 am start time. Committee clock was 35 seconds faster than our GPS. Boats were started at 1 minute intervals based on the start number (which appeared to roughly match the order of LOA of the cat fleet). With our #14 order we were to start at 11:14. We played it safe and got to the line about 20 seconds late but passed 8 cats in Race 1 and pulled away from all the cats starting behind us. It did get confusing midway thru Race 2 as half the fleet was starting while the other half of the fleet were simultaneously finishing Race 1 on the same line.

I agree the placement of the Race 1 mark was very odd. We made course towards Smugglers Cove and wound up sailing a good bit extra distance. This being our 1st (but hopefully not last) Cat Fight, I simply assumed this scavenger hunt approach to racing was part of the "fun" factor of this race.

I do feel empathy for the race volunteers on the Committee Boat. We were half way thru Race 2 and there were still cats limping across the finish line for Race 1, and the last cat to finish Race 2 was at about 5:45 pm so the committee was out there for 7+ hours, then had to rush back to Foxy's for the awards presentation.

I would have liked to seen the uncorrected and corrected times reported.

All in all we thoroughly enjoyed the race and Foxy's Halloween Party!

The Robertson & Caine Leopard 45 is actually 44'7" LOA and 39'8" on the waterline ... so I think the committee was just being fair to the entrant. The designation of "45" is just part of the name for marketing purposes, it doesn't actually reflect the true length of the yacht.

A friend of mine on the committee asked if I could help out this year as they were short handed. Although I wanted to go, I am kind of glad I wasn't able to be there ... you guys are a tough crowd!

The West End Yacht Club was established in 1978 by a rag tag group of sailors who liked to get together in Soper's Hole and Race each other from time to time. Their meetings" (read drinking parties) were held at Walter's Suprette (a tiny little general store) on Frenchman's Cay. Walter just passed away a couple of months ago.

Anyhooo, the club managed to get themselves recognized as a legitimate yacht club, and their "clubhouse" eventually moved to the Jolly Roger Restaurant, now known as Fish N' Lime.

This is a club that basically takes nothing seriously, protests aren't permitted and almost everything about it is tongue in cheek. The only rule is that you have a good time. That is the entire premise the club was built upon. I mean, how many races have you sailed that permitted people to run their engines up to the start line?

When the BVI Yacht Club applied for and received the prestigious designation of "Royal", our members decided we could not be outdone, so we added "Loyal" to our club name. At the time, there was some discussion about making the "L" in Loyal on our shirts kind of blurry and written in scroll.

What Manpot said ... they are all volunteers, and from what I heard, there was more than one greenhorn on the committee this year since many of the old guard have moved on. I'd like to thank Lou, Martin, and all the other volunteers who, over the years have made this a great race for all!

By the way, Galeaux and Freedom are both Voyage 500's and are exactly 50' LOA. They belong in the 50 and over class. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

Laura, it is my understanding (from being on a team that won the baddest cat award a few years back), that the award goes to the boat who's crew dresses in the spirit of the race, who decorates their boat and makes every effort to win ... despite things like markers being missing or (in our case that particular year) floating off into the far reaches of Cane Garden Bay and going unseen by all ... except yours truly!

We were first to round that mark while most other boats just picked a spot close to where the mark was supposed to be and pretended to round it. Yes sure, some people were ticked off and called it unfair, but the mark was out there ... it was just a moving target. LOL!

We used to have a big old red Budweiser blow up sofa tied in front of the windscreen on the bow and we had a few other Halloween decorations as well.

Thanks a lot! After reading the previous posts on this thread I was confident in my decision to never get involved in racing; it seemed way to serious for my tastes...but then you go and post this and make it seem like there might actually be fun to be had somewhere out there in the racing scene! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> I'm so conflicted now! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Here is my two cents.

It was a great time and a great turn out. This was the first time in three years that I was able to take the time off and come. The last time I got to race was three years ago when Kimber and I set the course record for mono hulls and won the one legged cat division on Far Cry a 31 Foot Bombay Clipper. (We where the only mono in the race by the way :-) I do think we should have won the baddest cat award that year. As sailing that fast in an amputee cat of that vintage and size while wearing pig noses and funny hats should have counted for something.

I do think the growing pains where showing. I was dumbfounded by the spinnaker penalty change. I Remember a few years back a discussion about spinnaker penalties. Originally they where set up to be huge so the bare boats would be competitive.

I would also like to have seen the times posted. Mainly because the top three mono's beat just about every Cat on straight time and we do like to gloat. :-)

None of those issues would stop me from doing it again.

Well I always had fun whenever we raced and that one race was a hoot. I felt like the cat that swallowed the canary when I finally spotted the mark. None of us could believe we didn't have any binoculars aboard!

Because we rounded the mark, EVERYONE had to turn around, sail back from wherever they were and round the mark too. We were in stitches on our boat laughing at all the very serious looks on the skipper's faces as we sailed by them going the opposite direction. A few good-natured fists were displayed, albeit some with extended fingers ... as we sailed off for the win.

Later that evening at the Halloween party, one or two people approached our table wanting to know who the culprit was who spotted the marker, causing everyone to have to turn back. My teammates were very gracious, and didn't out me. We just all pointed at each other.

Good times! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Leopard 45 LOA 45'

I think it would be appropriate to have the times posted since it would be great to see if the top three cats or top three monos had bragging rights.

I can only say that we smoked the 52' mono with kevlar racing sails both legs...any didn't fly our spinnaker like a few other top finishing cats.

The new Leopard 45 with the front porch is 45'0" LOA. Spellbound is the previous model Leopard 45 with stepped coach roof and is listed as 44'7" or 44'8" LOA depending in the source.

Oh good grief. Didya have fun? Is everyone still alive?
Then you won the silly race.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" /> ... except you responded to the wrong person! Poor BaardJ was just pointing out a fact for Sailaway42. LOL.

Ain't it great when everyone has fun, chills out and enjoys all the BVI has to offer? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

http://www.stmaartencharters.com/our-boat

Once again ... the NEW Leopard 45 is in fact 45' LOA. Up until the release of this brand spanking new model, all Leopard 45's were, and still are 44'7" LOA. See the date of the press release on Robertson and Caine's website:

Introducing the new Leopard 45

It is common practice to reference the model name (ERRONEOUSLY) as the actual length.

Your boat, the Lagoon 44, is often referred to as a 44 footer. However, it is actually 44'8" LOA ... one inch longer than the Leopard, so I think you were pretty evenly matched.

If you truly believe you were wronged by the volunteer race committee, may I suggest you call the number on that website and ask what year the yacht was built. If it does happen to be a 2016 model, ask if it was delivered before or after the new Leopard 45 made it's WORLWIDE DEBUT at the Annapolis boat show just last month on [color:"red"]October 9, 2016[/color].

Hi All from Annapolis, driver of Boomslang here....

This was a great race, thank you to Loyal West End for doing the honors...

Here in Annapolis folks do race and take it seriously....

The CatFight rules clearly state this race is rated F for Fun....

Catatonic is always a top finisher, and a well sailed boat. Kudos to her skipper and crew for that. As well, her skipper also was a prime mover behind the Dawg Rock memorial, so heartfelt thanks for that...

On the subject of the race.... it was sure as heck fun to be on sailing boat, with like minded scallywags, in the BVIs on that beautiful day.

Yes, the mark was hard to find. Yes, there is always controversy and good natured bitching. Part of the fun.

If folks want to get into the weeds about the rules of the race, good luck! Hope you enjoy that aspect of it. I have been doing that race for quite and never have I read such nit picky stuff. I have to think the race organizers could not give a whit about parsing the rules to this degree, and I am in favor of that approach. If the serious racers on this forum want to organize a "by the Hoyle rules" actual cat race, have at it.... in the mean time, can't we just enjoy the casual fun CatFight just the way it is and was, and hopefully will be?

The spirit of the race is FUN. You are competing against charter cats crewed by relative amateurs, who do not know the local waters.

If it were a serious race- you would see crews lightening their boats, dumping water and anchor chain, limiting crews, taking off provisions- the stuff we see up here in championship races. Some yachts do not even allow crew to have a freakin' beer during the races!!! If you tried that at CatFight, your crew would mutiny!

So see you all next year- and again- despite the concerns over the race- it is a great event, and Catatonic rocks for honoring our late friends Mark.

JAM
Annapolis <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

As A LONGTIME CATFIGHTER I SO AGREE..lighten up everyone or this will just go away..and then we'll all be losers..not by a few inches of boats lengths but by life experiences..

@ bviicatter ... here, here!
@ Manpot ....... Amen!

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Just back from our extended sail after Cat Fight. We had a blast and we were very happy that Capt. Jay could join us this year. We're all competitive and the adrenaline does flow, but I would not enter this race if it was not a fun race. Still, Jay sent me specs on adding a bowsprit to our Beneteau 40 after this race. My biggest concern is that we might spill our beers with more sail up.

The one-legged cats started last and we had a good set of binoculars. So, we did spot the mark before going to far upwind. But, we did not see the mark until the Hobie Cat passed it since it was to small to see above the swell without more contrast. I would love to start the race next year with a lat/lon of the mark.

I need to sort through our photos. We have great photos of Bravissimo and Black Pig as we crossed their sterns and they ours. I hope they and the other one-legged cats are back next year!

Cheers, RickG