Southwinds Sailing June 2004 - Southwinds Magazine

EAST FLORIDA SAILINGbut Tom Hicks won the tiebreakerto take third place,with a win in Race #5.Six boats competed inthe Flying Scot class.Chuck Tanner walkedaway with first place withwins in five of six races.The fleet had great funsailing. Winds were boisterous,yet the water relativelycalm in the protectedwaters of the IndianRiver.The Multihull fleetcomprised three International20s, 2 Hobie 16s, aNacra 5.2 and a P182. TheFinish Line committeeboat really enjoyed seeingthe multis screaming intothe windward mark andlaunching those bigchutes. There were acouple of spectacularnon-launchs too! At theend of six races, Terry andRick Loewen in their Inter20 were tied on pointswith Chuck Pickering in aHobie 16. Team Loewentook first place by virtue ofthree firsts in the last threeraces. It took them a whileto get “dialed in,” but oncethey did, third place wentto Richard “Gilligan”Uschald in a P182.The most unusualone-design class was theRaider fleet. These aredelta-shaped boats with aLaser-like rig. Some folkscame all the way downfrom Georgia and NorthCarolina to participate inthe seven-boat class. CarlSaylor and his daughterAshley, both from Georgia,battled it out for firstand second in nearly everyrace. Carl ended uptaking first with more consistenthigher places. JohnMacNeill of Melbournewas a close third in a borrowedRaider.The Portsmouth fleetwas a disappointing twoboats. Last year’s winner,Mike Barile, in his 30-year-old Daysailer, wastrumped in every race byJames Cook in a Vanguard15.Ashley Saylor and crew in a Raider, hiking mightily. Photo by Sherry Beckett.The Regatta party Saturdaynight featuredmass quantities of exceptionalMexican fajitas,and lots of free beer. Ingeneral, a great time washad by all.The second weekendof the Melbourne YachtClub Spring Regatta featuredPHRF and big boatone-design racing. Theweekend was kicked offwith the traditional Fridaynight Rebel Rally, areverse handicap nonspinnakerrace. The earlyfinishers in this race finishedin the middle of aspectactular sunset, whilethe tail-end boats finishedin the dark. Nineteenboats competed in the Fridaynight race, with theJames Liebl Hamming takes another first place finish in his Sunfish. Photo by SherryBeckettLindenberg 28, Five Speed,finishing first overall, followedclosely by Sea Turtle, a Beneteau 38, and Slot Machine,an SR-Max 21.Saturday morning dawned, another spectacular spring day;clear blue skies, and winds 15 knots out of the ESE... it doesn’tget any better than this! When registration was completed, theSpinnaker boats were divided across four classes; Melges 24,Lindenberg 28, Spinnaker A, and Spinnaker B. The Lindenberg28 sailors were ecstatic to be given their own class, and declaredthe regatta the “Lindenberg 28 World Championships.”In the Melges 24 fleet, Ray Laguna in Mr. Hyde took firstplace, with a consistent string of second places. Second wentto Mike Nulf in Immediate Impact, and third to DuncanMacKenzie in Moving Target.Gary Smith in Five Speed walked away with the42June 2004 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindssailing.com