Seventeen EC-12 skippers came to James Island County Park in Charleston, South Carolina May 23 & 24 to do battle in the 18^th annual Wisteria Cup Regatta. The weather was beautiful, clear skies, wind blowing 5 to 7, straight down the course, and for some unexplained reason, no gnats. The wind would shift to the port side later in the day, which made for some interesting moves up around the weather mark, but for the most part stayed steady for some great racing.

It was evident early that the race for first was between Danny Thomas and Reichard Kahle. Positions three through six were continually shifting between Rick Gerry, Joe Walter, John Bottensek, and Chris Kakavas. A boat breakdown late in the morning took Thomas out of the picture (a pair of eighteens is tough to overcome). One should never count Danny out and by the end of the day he was only a handful of points behind Rick Gerry who had moved into second.

Saturday evening the festivities moved to Dick Gerry’s home for an early happy hour and dinner of Frogmore stew, with most of the group retiring early to get some much needed rest. The day’s course had been long, three windward and two running legs of a bit over 400 feet each for each of the thirteen races sailed. Add the walk back to the start line and that’s a bit more that six miles, walking with transmitter in hand, looking at the boat, and getting whipped by the heat.

Sunday morning was a bit more overcast. The wind held its direction and velocity, there were still no gnats, and we got in another six races. Reichard held onto first, Danny managed to slip by Rick, and John Garver took the Wisteria Cup for an unprecedented fourth time. Scores below reflect one throw-out.