News & Views for Southern Sailors - Southwinds Magazine

Crew of After You. Skipper John Gardner (holding the trophy) receiving the third-place
trophy for Cruiser B Class.
Erick Alejandro Coronado Martinez, a
fifth-grader at the Jean Piaget School on
Isla Mujeres, won the poster contest this
year. He was honored at the city council
meeting along with six runner-ups, where
next year’s poster was presented to the
participants and city residents. The artwork
will be used for all marketing and
promotional activities for the XLIV Regata
del Sol al Sol.
SPYC Commodore Tito Vargas, a first
time participant in his new boat, Bachue,
expressed the feeling of all the sailors, saying,
“The race was incredible.” Comments
from other competitors generally followed
the theme of “best racing and sailing we
have done.” The general feeling among
participants is they will come back to this
island paradise for years.
For complete results and more on the
regatta, go to www.regatadelsolalsol.org.
Crew of Spindra, Sportsmanship winner. From left to right, Joy Wissing, Kim and Jeff
Morello, Skipper Larry Wissing.
parties began.
No injuries were reported other than minor scrapes,
bruises and sprains. The boats did not fare as well. Several
spinnaker/whisker poles broke, and several spinnakers
were blown out. Numerous other repairs were required
from the tougher seas encountered as the boats entered the
Yucatan current. This was best expressed by Tom Glew: “I
can’t count on anything on the boat, but I can always count
on my wife”—who flew to the island.
Line honors and winner of the Multihull class, arriving
early Sunday afternoon, with an elapsed time of 51:26, went
to Cool Cat. The rest of the fleet began arriving in the predawn
hours Monday. By sunset Monday, all but a couple of boats
were in—with those arriving early Tuesday morning.
First overall and first in Cruising went to Munequita I
(St. Petersburg Yacht Club), finishing in 67 hours, 38 minutes.
Musica (TS Sailing Club), with 65 hours and 49 minutes,
was first in Spinnaker. In Non-Spinnaker, first was
Midnight Sun (Bradenton Yacht Club), at 79 hours and 33
minutes. The trophy for the most times participating went
to a boat that has sailed this race over 20 times, Anthie.
Bone Island Regatta,
Sarasota to Key West,
May 18-21
By John Lynch
The second annual Bone Island Regatta,
an event organized last year by Alice
Petrat to fill the loss when the Clearwater
Yacht Club decided to end the regatta that
they had held for many years, started
from Sarasota’s Big Pass on Wednesday,
May 18. A companion race from Naples
started out on Thursday afternoon.
The race was plagued by extremely
light winds both Wednesday and
Thursday evenings, and most of the 18
boats that started were unable to make the
169-nautical-mile sail from Sarasota by the Friday noon time
limit. Only four of the seven Spinnaker class boats finished,
with Relativity, Hall Palmer’s Beneteau 53, taking line honors
with an elapsed time of 38 hours, 16 minutes, for an
average speed of 4.4 knots. The second boat to finish, and
the corrected time winner, was Misty, Gregg Knighton’s
Ranger 33, the smallest and oldest boat in the entire fleet.
The hard luck award went to Orange Peel, Colin Curtis’
custom Hurley 40, which crossed the finish line about six
minutes after the Friday noon time limit.
The onshore activities were numerous and well run,
and as far as I know, no one got arrested. For some of us, a
highlight was the Saturday lunch at the just-completed
Stock Island Yacht Club in a redeveloped industrial area at
Safe Harbor. The awards were held at Dante’s in Key West
on Saturday.
Results (of those boats finishing in the time limit):
1, Misty (Ranger 33, Gregg Knighton); 2, Relativity (Beneteau 53, Hall
Palmer); 3, Prime Plus (Beneteau 44, Frank Hanna); 4, Mother Ocean
(O’Day 40, Rick Gress).
News & Views for Southern Sailors SOUTHWINDS July 2011 51