Rudy’s Bone Island Write-up

The Bone Island Regatta has been a significant event for many Fleet 6 members.  The 158-nautical-mile course begins at the Venice inlet jetties, rounds Smith Shoal, down the straights, around Tank island, and concludes at Key West.

Jay Nadelson, owner of the C&C 110, Playmobile, has competed in this race for many years alongside various Fleet 6 members, including Jan van Heek, Jim Nuzzo, Joe Onofrio, Rudy Trejo, and the late  Bob Sween.

This year’s race was a memorable one. Despite a stalled front north of Sarasota and an approaching low-pressure system, the team maintained a strategy to reach off the wind from start to finish as the winds continued to back.

In 2019, Playmobile set a course speed record of 28.5 hours, with line honors. this year, we surpassed that record by 6.5 hours, finishing just under 22 hrs.

Our progress was not without challenges. During the race, a snapped halyard sent our Code Zero into the water. After a quick recovery, Joe Onofrio climbed the mast without hesitation while under sail to run a new spinnaker halyard. Later, a brief literal 15 second 30-knot squall caused the halyard to break again, forcing us to continue through the night with only a jib and main. (At 3am, in pitch dark, he respectfully wasn’t ready to go back up the mast lol) 


Around sunrise, with backing winds getting close to 75 apparent wind angle, the crew executed a difficult sail change. With limited halyards available, we successfully transitioned from a jib to a spinnaker using only the jib halyard in 20knot winds. Raising a spinnaker of that size  without a jib blocking the wind is not an easy task. This maneuver increased our speed by nearly 3 knots.

 We ended the race, rounding the Tank island shoals, with a 50 degree left hand turn to the finish  bare headed, swapping the spin back to the jib successfully protecting our lead.


Jay Nadelson did an exceptional job executing our strategy and maintaining the team’s focus. It was a successful and memorable regatta for everyone involved and all who tracked our progress.

Flight # 1321

Flight # 1321.
First flight using Gaggle.
It’s a whole new screen layout and I haven’t found any way to modify the parameters.
I’m searching for rate of climb and decent.
Aborted first take off was perhaps too slow. Wing fell back into the prop wash and threatened to invert.
Trimmers were set 1/4 “ slow. There was no real wind at surface …. Half knot from the ENE that switched immediately to SSW. I landed opposite to the way I took off. Slow “downwind takeoff”.

Flight #1315

Finally ! A good set up and inflation. The wing spent the night in the garage which added a little weight that helped but the big thing was a serious chevron, a mild tuck of the trailing center edge and maybe the A assists.

I used zip ties were too light for the job. When under pressure both sides let go and the prop batted the cams. The clips were broken by the hit. No prop damage.

Another bad inflation #1314

The first attempt wend bad before I started to roll out. The prop wash caught the wing’s trailing edge. As the wing lifted and the wash got under the wing it flipped upside down. I drug it about 10 feet before aborting.

When I got home and watched the video I could also see that the was was slightly off center. Next flight I’m going to use A assists and make damn sure I’m centered.

The second attempt went better. It was 5 on the bump scale at different altitudes.

Coming back to land I saw Alvaro driving in and another guy setting up. He was a German fellow about to do his first launch out of school. He was a bit stressed out and called it after two aborted launches. His new motor was bogging down when he went to power.