Spring Wrap-Up
It seems that this winter just breezed by. The travels, friends made and friendships rekindled has made this one of the best winters in memory.
We essentially set up our "southern hub" of Quantum Sails in Jacksonville. In early December we towed our Thistle and a bunch of test sails for a weekend of learning. It worked and we have a solid grasp on our 2008 model changes and look forward to doing more testing through the spring and summer.
During the testing weekend, Greg Griffin, Paul Abdullah, Matias Heinrich and I had an idea of hosting a training weekend doing a bunch of drills in order to get on the water and get better in the Thistle. The idea was simple enough and in the end we held two Training Weekends at The Florida Yacht Club in Jacksonville.
The first Training Weekend (Feb 3-4) we had nearly 15 boats. It was fun and we got a lot accomplished. We did a number of downwind drills, which really produced some flying rust, but in the end everyone was better polished. Mock racing and reaching drills rounded out the weekend and many won some great prizes.
The second Training Weekend (Feb 17-18) had a few less boats, mainly due to the conflicting St. Pete NOOD regatta. The intensity of the training remained high and we did some different drills and worked on starting. We had great feedback from both events and it truly set the stage for an annual Training Weekend in '08.
In between all the Thistle Sailing, we towed our Lightning (Quantum Racing) down to Miami for the Orange Bowl. The event was lightly attended, but proved to provide us some great practice for the Midwinters in March...more on that later.
March saw nearly everyone from the Quantum Toledo loft somewhere in Florida. Thistle Midwinters, Interlake Midwinters, Flying Scot Midwinters, Lightning Southern Circuit and Thistle Southern Circuit (Orange Peel) were all on our hit list and Quantum Customers posted some amazing scores....check it out:
Thistle Midwinters 2,4,5,6,10*,12*,14*
Interlake Midwinters 1,4,5*,9,10,12
Flying Scot Midwinters 6
Lightning Savannah 4,7
Lightning Miami 1,13,20,23
Lightning St. Pete 9,10
Thistle Orange Peel 1,4,5,6,9*,11
For only being in the game for 18 months with Quantum, we are quite proud of the above scores. But we are careful not to get all caught up in the "results game" the way others do. We like to focus on the middle-tier sailors in helping them get better. Proof positive in that at the Thistle Midwinters our customers finished 1,3 in the "B" division. Truly we are proud of this feat!
Back to reality and the very volatile spring weather in Ohio. All of our tans will quickly fade, but the memories will be with us for a long time. We are looking forward to capitalizing on our spring success as we continue to build championship caliber sails right here in Toledo, Ohio!
Cheers,
Skip Dieball
Owner, Quantum Sails Toledo & Quantum Sails Cleveland
