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doing whatever was needed on shore. On the water he surprisedhimself with a mid-fleet finish in Lasers. “I’m stilllearning,” he said.The largest fleet, with 36 boats, was the MC Scow. Theyare a popular craft at the club and hold their MidwinterChampionship there each year. The winner was JamieKimball from Wisconsin, followed by Rob Terry fromMichigan and Stott Tillema from Missouri.The Flying Scot class drew 28 boats from throughout theSouth. The winner was the USA Rolex Sailor of the Year JeffLinton with wife Amy crewing.The fastest fleet on the bay when thewind picked up Sunday was the FlyingDutchman. The winner was Paul Hempkerof Ohio with Dave Ellis from St. Petersburgas crew.Saturday was more of a fishing day,with the wind nearly calm. Two races werecompleted, putting a premium on findingwhat wind there was.Sunday was blustery with several boatscapsizing temporarily and some torn sails.Most sailors reveled in the conditions.Nacra 2008 PerformanceMidwinter ChampionshipPensacola Beach, FL,March 7-9By Kim KaminskiOn March 7-9, the Key Team of Key Sailing on PensacolaBeach, FL, sponsored the 2008 Nacra Performance MidwinterChampionship. This regatta was open NACRA 20, Formula18, Formula 16, NACRA 17s, NACRA/Prindle Open andUS SAILING Open class boats. Twenty-five boats raced.The first day, March 7, was set aside as a practice racingday, followed by two race days. Seven races were plannedusing the prescribed course layout by the US SAILINGMultihull Council. However, due to weather, only five raceswere held. Five boats were required in order to have individualOne-Design class awards.Principal Race Officer Bert Rice had his hands full.Gale-force winds dominated the racecourse on the first daywith air temperatures between 43 to 53 degrees. A limitednumber of races were held, which did not allow for athrow-out race.In the NACRA 20 Class, the team of Alex Shafer andJohn Tomko earned four first-place finishes and one sixthplacefinish, ending with a 10-point total to win their classand the Overall Trophy. Second-place went to JohnMacDonald and Andy Humphries, who earned 18 points.Chad Schwall earned the first-place position in theOpen Class division by competing in all five races, earningtwo second-place finishes, two third-place finishes and onefourth-place win for a total of 14 points, earning him secondplace overall. The team of Mike Krantz and David Lenardhad an impressive run with four first-place finishes but didnot make the start of the very first race. Since this team wasunable to throw out its worst race, its final total of 19 pointshad earned the team second place in the Open class and afourth place overall.For complete results, go to www.keysailing.com orwww.gulfsailing.com.Conquistador Cup—Truncated but Done WellCharlotte Harbor, March 8-9By Morgan StinemetzSailing in the Conquistador Cup in Charlotte Harbor.Photo by Sue Cleverly.If there is an Entity in Charge of Everything, that entity suffersfrom a bipolar disorder as evidenced by the sailing conditionsfor the 15th Conquistador Cup on the waters ofCharlotte Harbor the weekend of March 8-9. The regatta ishosted by the Punta Gorda Sailing Club.The winds for the scheduled racing for Saturday couldbe summed up with two words: too much. Charlotte Harborwas roiled Saturday morning with 25-30 knots of wind, thekind you have to lean against to walk into.Race committee officials, who are responsible for boatersafety before anything else, decided to call off competitionon Saturday and send would-be racers back to some placewhere the sailors could pursue other activities in comfortand not hurt themselves or their boats.As the sailors representing 68 boats, the biggest fleet inConquistador Cup history, filed out of Harpoon Harry’srestaurant at Fisherman’s Village after the skippers meeting,there was, however, more relief than disappointment evident,though one sailor grumbled, “We could have done it.”Race chair Bob Knowles decided that the two fleet racesthat were scrubbed on Saturday would be replaced with onefleet race Sunday morning and then a pursuit (reversehandicap) race Sunday afternoon.Whereas Saturday was just plain ugly on the waters ofCharlotte Harbor—gusts to 30 knots and winds strongenough to cause race officials to call off all sailing—Sundaywas sweetness personified. The winds had lightened towhere the sailing was decent—less than 10 knots out of theSee SOUTHERN RACING continued on page 60News & Views for Southern Sailors SOUTHWINDS April 2008 57