Ready, set…. go! The 2006 racing season is already upon us and the annual Calema Midwinters racing event recently took place at Merritt Island, Florida. MauiSails had representation at the event with Phil McGain in the pro division, and Rick Whidden and Paul Cronin in the amateur fleet.

The event was attended by over 160 enthusiastic windsurfers looking to get back on the water after a long winter, and a hand full of pros wanting to establish credibility early in the season.

The top seven competitors from the recent Formula World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, attended the event. Included were the World Champion Antoine Albeau, runner up Wojtek Broszowski, and third place Gonzalo Costa Hoevel.

Five races were completed over the three day event, with the best winds of 10-18 knots on Saturday. Antoine established himself once again as the World’s Best formula racer, while Wojtek and Gonzalo finish second and third respectively. Phil McGain, who had a long absence of eight months from racing in Formula events, finished a credible sixth place behind Jimmy Diaz in fifth, and Devon Boulon in fourth place.

“It was great to be back on the race course with all the boys. I was able to get a good feel for the TR-2 as the event went on, eventually finishing my best race in fourth at the end of the day on Saturday. The new F2 board I was using took some getting tuned, but once I got it going it was really encouraging. I sailed the 11 meter for four of the races, and it proved to be really fast and pointed super high against the other guys”.

More photos from the event at calema.com