Last month Ty Olsen from Zig Sailing Insider sat down with Todd Fedyszyn, Race Director at St. Petersburg Yacht Club and US Sailing PRO, to learn about St. Petersburg from a local’s perspective. He was fortunate to catch Todd just as he returned from Cartagena, Columbia, where he was busy on the water as the PRO for the Lightning World Championships.
My City: St. Petersburg WITH Todd Fedyszyn
Getting to know Todd
TCO: Todd, can you tell us a bit about yourself, your sailing background, coaching and your position as a PRO?
TF: Certainly, I have been working with the SPYC for the past 18 years, starting off originally as the Head Sailing Coach and gradually transitioning into a Race Management role. I keep busy overseeing all the One Design Classes at the Club, as well as overseeing the Junior Sailing Teams. All the while, I play an active role in coaching the Laser and Opti Teams.
As if that wasn’t enough to keep my days full, I help oversee all the active volunteers that help run what I like to call our first class regattas. These volunteers help make our regattas successful like smaller HS regattas, US Sailing Match Racing events , and all the way up to the Keelboat Nationals, the J/70 Worlds, Lightning Winter Championships, and the annual Valentine’s Day Regatta just name a few. I haven’t actually done the math to how many events that we run each year, but it’s a ton. We are very fortunate to be able to run so many regattas and to have such a strong membership base that wants to be actively involved.
TCO: As far as your involvement as a PRO, does your position require much travel?
TF: Currently, a lot of what I do as a PRO is local, but it certainly presents several different opportunities like going to South America to run the Lightning World Championships and running some regattas up in Canada. In addition, I have done a lot of events for the USODA, like their Spring Team Qualifiers, as well as their Team Trials. Over the years, I’ve been PRO for the Hinman Team Racing Championship for US Sailing and the College Spring Nationals. Being a PRO certainly has had its cool opportunities outside of the Yacht Club, which also helps with my certifications as well. You can’t just be locked into one Club; you’ve got to go elsewhere and work with other groups in order to gain knowledge and ideas.
TCO: I guess it helps to be able to stay close to home, especially with the new addition to your family! How old is your daughter Olivia now? Congratulations to you and your wife.
TF: Thank you! She has been a great addition to our lives! Olivia just turned 6 months old and is a joy to have around. For years I loved the excitement of the sailing world, but having her around, there is something exciting and new every day!
typical St. pete sailing
TCO: What are the typical weather conditions for St. Petersburg? Are the conditions about the same year around?
TF: Well, St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay are certainly not like many venues where the breeze blows from the same direction every day. We definitely have our seasons. Our area has a lot of incredible thunderstorms. We have the reputation of being the lightning capital of the world! The weather in St. Petersburg starts to transition around mid-October to more of a frontal pattern. When there is an 80° day with high pressure and blue skies, we get some nice sea breezes that come in from the Gulf. When a front starts blowing through, we start seeing some pre-frontal sea breezes which are then followed by northwest or northerly breezes. Then the front starts to exit and move to the north.
As far as conditions, I like to think that we are known for producing sailors that are extremely well rounded. Most people associate Tampa Bay with being a light air venue, but we have continually produced some of the more accomplished heavy weather sailors over the past several years. St. Petersburg is definitely a venue where you need to know how to sail in flat water and in shifty conditions. Then you need to know how to sail in big waves with big breeze. Not to mention we experience a lot of current so knowing how to manage currents is a must. All in all, Tampa Bay is a very well-rounded place for sailing. Overall, the bay can pose many different challenges for all levels of sailing.
TCO: In your opinion, what is the optimum time of the year to sail in St. Pete?
TF: I think that the late fall, winter and late spring are all great times, but a lot of it depends on the weather patterns coming in from the West Coast. They pretty much dictate our patterns. This year especially, since it is a El Niño year, the jet stream is dropping down a lot lower than it usually does which is providing us a much more regular pattern of cold fronts coming through.
Believe it or not, Florida can get a bit cold! We have been seeing lots of daytime highs in the low to mid 60’s passing through every 4 to 5 days, which is a bit unusual for us. Some winters are just more of a sea breeze type of pattern, but it is kind of diverse the way it happens. It all depends on what is happening to the north and west of us. Again, we are at the mercy of what Mother Nature is sending us from the north!
A first timers guide to St. Pete
TCO: For those traveling to St. Pete for the first time, what are some things that visitors should be aware of from a local, like boat storage, parking, anything on or off the water.
TF: As far as boat and trailer storage goes, we are fortunate that we have a big commercial storage area just south of us, as well as a lot of different marine businesses in the area. We work closely with many of them, and they are typically open to offer storage on a short-term basis for those who need to leave boats and trailers for a month or two at a time. We are also lucky to have some local sailors that have invested in some warehouse space close by, so those who are looking to spend a bit more money to store their equipment in an indoor space, there are options available that are convenient, but a little more costly. Additionally, the Clearwater Sailing Center is only about 14 miles away from us down in the Gulf of Mexico and has some great storage opportunities. They offer some affordable rates for local sailors and for teams that are coming in from around the world for training and competitions
Storage is one of the things that SPYC does not have because our Sailing Center is located right in the middle of the city. Unfortunately our property is not large enough to offer either short or long term storage between events for visiting athletes. We direct racers to locations in the area which offer competitive pricing,
TCO: Just on a side note, what types of boats does SPYC have in their fleet?
TF: So as a Club, we are very fortunate to have an amazing fleet of ten J/70’s. In 2016 we knew we had to replace our Club’s fleet of Sonars. After a serious amount of research, endless discussions, and after looking at about 7 or 8 different types of boats, we found that the J/70 would be the best boat for our needs. It would give the hot shot sailor a boat which can perform at high, competitive level. The J-70 is also versatile enough to be a comfortable day sailor. It fits the mold for all our sailors here at the Club.
TCO: With ten J/70’s in your Club’s fleet, wouldn’t that give you guys one of the bigger fleets of club owned J/70’s?
TF: I believe SPYC has the biggest Club owned fleet of J/70’s. The Coast Guard Academy has six J/70’s in their fleet, but I don’t know of any other clubs that matches our fleet. I know that other clubs have tried to do a member owned, lease-to sail type program, but SPYC maintains the largest Club owned and managed fleet. After all the research we figured the J/70 could give us the best bang for the buck.
TCO: What about the rest of the SPYC’s fleet of boats? For being such an active and competitive Club, I am sure that you have more to your fleet than J-70’s.
TF: We have over a dozen 420’s for our high school sailing program, about 35 Opti’s that we use for our learn to sail and intermediate sailing programs, and of course our fleet of coach boats. We also have Lasers and a few other classes. I believe that all together, The St. Petersburg Yacht Club owns just over 110 boats. This is great because it gives us plenty of opportunity to get everyone, at any level, out to sail. We have ample assets to successfully run the regattas that we host. The downside is when a hurricane is heading our direction. It is a real challenge to pack up 110 boats and make sure that they are all safe and secure! Thankfully, we are fortunate to have enough space in the parking garage and within the indoor portion of the sailing center to store the boats when necessary.
St. Pete on the water
TCO: Getting back to sailing a bit, what are some local tips that you would give to newcomers sailing for the first time on Tampa Bay?
TF: We’re lucky. We don’t have any commercial traffic like they have in the downtown area. Most of the traffic comes in from the south side of the bay and travels up the east to downtown. However, there are two sandbars sailors need to know about. One is just north of the downtown pier. It runs from the famous Vinoy Hotel Southwest to the Northeast, as far as you can see. The other sandbar is to the South. Sailors do not generally need to worry about this 2nd sandbar unless someone really wanted to push the limits and get too close on one of their reaches.
The sailing areas are typically 13’ to 27’ deep. We have enough space right off downtown that we can easily run four circles for one regatta. Even with the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta, we had enough room for four courses spread out across Tampa Bay.
The one thing that I try to do with all visiting sailors is to educate them on the tides. Many visiting sailors are not aware of how strong the tides can be in Tampa Bay. There is a very small opening to Tampa Bay, and Tampa Bay is a big estuary so there is a lot of water that flows in and out. A lot of sailors underestimate the effect that the tide has on the race course. Knowing which way the water is flowing is a huge advantage and factors in to how you plan your starts, mark rounding’s, lay lines, etc. The current plays a big part no matter the wind conditions. Generally, the currents are pretty even across the race course, but to reiterate, the currents are much stronger than people think that they are.
Off the water fun!!
TCO: So now for some of the fun stuff….where are some of the sailors favorite places to stop in for a bite to eat or grab a beer after a day on the water?
TF: St. Pete has some great restaurants and bars. In fact the list is truly endless! Downtown has so many choices of various restaurants and bars to choose from, whether it’s for dinner, a drink, or going to listen to music with friends. The brewery scene has recently taken off, and there are now dozens upon dozens of local craft breweries around.
One of my favorite go-to restaurants is BellaBrava. It always seems to be a big hit with the boaters and its locally owned right down on Beach Drive. It is also a great place for team dinners, they have the ability to accommodate large groups either indoors or on the outdoor patio. There are also lots of other smaller locally owned places. One popular place called Hawkers is known for its Asian Street Food. Three Daughters Brewery, just outside of downtown in the Kenwood District, is known for great food, local beers and crafted seltzers. They have also been great a sponsor for regattas, like for the J/70’s Worlds.
In addition, there are lots of delicious sushi restaurants to choose from for those looking for some fresh seafood. St. Pete and the West Coast is well known for grouper. When people visit, they typically come looking for their fill of grouper. You can eat fried grouper sandwiches, grilled grouper, blackened grouper, grouper bites and grouper chowder. You can get grouper prepared literally anyway you want, and a few that you probably would not think of. Some people just show up and want to have grouper for every meal!!
The City of St. Pete recently rebuilt the pier. The old pier had some major structural issues, so they built a new state of the art pier which has four floors and has really cool restaurants all the way from the bottom floor to the 4th floor all overlooking the water. We love sending people to the pier for regattas. It is such a cool place to have lunch or a drink and watch the races from a great vantage point. All the establishments are accessible by both car and by boat for a small fee. There are just so many cool spots to check out. The pier is great because you can boat over, dock, eat, watch the races and take your boat back to the Yacht Club for the after race festivities.
TCO: If a sailor has a day off from sailing, what do you recommend that they do? Where should they explore?
TF: We are really fortunate for families coming down to St. Pete with kids because there is so much to do. For starters, we have Busch Gardens in North Tampa which a really cool spot to go. They have great rides, a fun petting zoo, and tons of other things to do. It’s a perfect place for a family to spend the day.
We are also fortunate here in downtown St. Pete, because we are only about 15 mins away from the local beaches. St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island Beach are both less than 20 mins away from downtown.
Another super cool place to go for an afternoon is Fort De Soto State Park. They have beautiful beaches, and it’s a great place for the pups to get out and play. You will find that once you get out of Tampa Bay, the sand and water change color and you feel like you are down in the tropics really quickly. There are lots of areas to walk around near the beaches with cool shops, bars and restaurants. Kids can hang at the beach and look for seashells. The beach areas are super safe. All in all, it’s just a nice way to kill a day and have some fun on the water.
The downtown and beach areas are super accessible if you use the St. Pete Jolly Trolly. You can just jump on and take it as far as you want, jumping off at any stop that you want.
Sport fishing is another popular activity here in the area. It is a bit different than you see on the East Coast and Miami, where deep water fishing is popular. The Gulf of Mexico tends to stay relatively shallow for about 20 to 30 miles out. There are great options to grab a fishing charter and get some pretty big fish off the bottom out in the Gulf, or just stay in the bay and get some Redfish, Snook, American Snapper or Mangrove Snapper, all local favorites, just like the Grouper.
TCO: Todd, I am going to let you run because I know that you have a practice starting in a bit First, can you quickly tell us what you like to do when you are not at the Club or on the race course?
TF: Well ironically, I kind of got into fishing during COVID. My wife and I really got tired of just going to the sandbar and hanging out. So, we started watching some of the fishermen and studied a few YOU TUBE videos and gave fishing a shot. I have started to really enjoy it! In addition, my wife and I really enjoy mountain biking. There are some great singletrack trails in the area that many people don’t know about. A lot of people have the misconception that there is no decent mountain biking in Florida because there are no mountains. The truth is that Florida has some of the best trails in the country. So, we will head out an hour east and spend the day biking in the woods. A lot of times, especially since Olivia has been around, we enjoy just relaxing at home playing in the pool and exposing Olivia to everything that St. Pete has to offer.
Thank you, Todd and good luck to all of your teams for the 2024 racing season.
Keep an eye out for Todd in St. Petersburg, and see if he will give you any of his secret fishing spots!
-Ty Christopher Olsen on January 5, 2024