Memason, I am familiar with Kiel week. We spent a lot of years racing (small boats 25') before becoming cruisers. Racing really teaches a person how to sail. I sailed boats since I was 14 years old but never really sailed well untill I started racing around 30 something.
Regattas are a blast. Our club sponsored the Catalina 25 Nationals one year. We also use to Travel out to San Diego to watch the Americas Cub when Koch and Connor were racing. That was kewl. We bareboated a 37 foot cruiser out of Harbor Island and were able to get very close to the action. We saw Conner blow that famous GE spinaker up close. It sounded like a cannon going off. It was amazing the crew had a second chute up in less than 3 minutes, and didn't relinquish the lead.
We sailed The Great Lakes and although we never participated we did watch the starts and finishes a few years for the Chicago-Mac race.
In our first five years of retirement we moved aboard our boat. We cruised The Great Lakes, North Channel and then via the Erie Barge canal the East Coast and Bahamas for those five years. It was great fun. We were snow birds on the boat following the seasons.
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