Update on Kona Worlds

[konajoe]

Kona Worlds are being held in the Florida Keys in late October. Here's a recent update. Amazing event at a great location.


You can't always be at the front of the crowd. But even worse to miss the boat altogether. While we are still over nine weeks away, we have over 80 registered competitors for the Kona Worlds. There are less than 20 charter boards remaining and while there are still 16 villas left at the Guy Harvey Islander, our discounted room block is scheduled to terminate next week. We are negotiating to extend the deadline, but procrastination will definitely leave some on the outside. When you contact the Islander at +1-305-307-3721, please remember to tell them you are with the Kona Worlds in order to get the discounted rate.

Early Silver Fleet. In the Kona family spirit, we are offering the option of registrants selecting Silver fleet prior to the start of racing. Some of the racers at the 2014 Kona Worlds found that they enjoyed the spirit and comradery of this major Kona event much more than the challenge of competing against the best racing talent in windsurfing. A Silver fleet by choice would allow for a slightly lower wind limit as well as shorter and/or friendlier courses against competitors closer to the same level. If enough respond to or select this option when registering, it will only improve the playing field for the Gold fleet. Just reply to this message if you prefer racing in the Silver fleet or have any questions.

Kona Gulf Coast Champs. The Clearwater Community Sailing , known for putting on great events, is hosting a tune-up regatta for the Kona Worlds on October 21-23. Many of the top racers will be there, giving you the ability to gain Kona racing skills and equipment tuning. The Notice of Race and registration is available at Kona Gulf Coast Champs. Reserve your Kona charter equipment for both the Kona Gulf Coast Champs and the Kona Worlds and we will arrange to have your tuned equipment available in Islamorada to continue preparation.

Register for the 2016 Kona Worlds and find the Notice of Race at http://konausa.org/worlds.

Reserve Kona charter equipment at http://store.konaone.com/us/events/konaworlds2016.html. Or in the U.S., please contact Sherry@progressivesports.com, 386-760-9926.

[konajoe]

I just got an update:

Over 100 registered!

A very few charter boards are still available.

Online registration closes on Wednesday, October 5.

[gvogelsang]

That is a great number for Kona participation.

I am saving my money to participate in the Bronze fleet!

[konajoe]

[quote="gvogelsang"I am saving my money to participate in the Bronze fleet![/quote]

I don't get it........

I'm a little confused about the "silver fleet" mentioned in the notice. Does anyone have more details?

The last time I went, there were a little over 100 participants. You had to qualify for gold fleet during the first few days of competition.

Out of those people, I'd say that about 80 were hotshot racers. So, not all of them made it to gold fleet. (A lot of it was dependent on the conditions during qualifying races.) BUT, they got to race the same number of races on the same course as the gold fleet. Being told to sail shorter, easier courses because you just missed qualifying for gold fleet sounds kinda harsh.

These races CAN be intense at the start line and at marker roundings. Folks who were't going for medals held back at the start and rounded marks wide, but still enjoyed the full races.

[DanWeiss]

Silver fleet is voluntary, at least to the point where fleets split, if at all this year.

[konajoe]

I just don't want to get bumped down to silver fleet and have to do boring, North Texas style sub-planing reachy races. I'm sure lots of others would agree.

I've spoken with a few people who were interested in the silver fleet. But it was only to stay out of the way of more serious racers. They still wanted full length courses with long windward legs, and long downwind runs. Just not as much intensity.

[DanWeiss]

I hear you. I would think that the PRO will be open to suggested courses to Silver, although I also suspect that once a sailor selects Silver there's no going back if Silver will be used as the drop-class when/if Gold splits. We shall see, as I have zero control over what will occur.

[DelCarpenter]

At the 2014 Kona Worlds at the same venue the courses sailed by Gold & Silver fleets were the same.

In 2014 I was in the Silver fleet from the start which was the correct place for me. For the 2016 Kona Worlds they've asked for volunteers for the Silver fleet and I've volunteered. I've heard they might suggest having all of the oldest sailors choose to be in the Silver fleet to make the senior grand master competition as strong as possible. I'm one of those by age and I would like that even though that would strengthen the competition I would be directly racing against.

[gregnw44]

See you guys there
I brought one of my sailing buds to Corpus Christi last May for the US National's. And now I'm bringing different one, to the Florida Keys for the Kona World's. I've never been there before... it should be a cool vacation!!
Although I feel so bad for all the devastation in the SE... from Hurricane Matthew. I wonder how it affected the beach and hotel at Islamorada ...

Anyway... the last time I was on a Kona, was last May (for 3 light wind days). Prior to that, my only Kona One sailing was last summer ('15)... when I got 4 slogging days and 1 planning day. So that means my total # of days on a Kona One is 8, LOL
And the avg wind for those 8 days of Kona sailing... was about 5 knots of wind.
So I hope they have a "copper class" for me
Greg -

[konajoe]