Thomas takes the Sir Francis of
Graham back North
This year's edition was a
very interesting regatta. The 16 qualifiers were met
with pleasant weather and wind that for the most part
was cooperative. We got in 21 races over lengthy
courses. Boy was it fun to watch.
The
interesting part was that the top 5 boats in one race
would be found in the last five spots in the next race.
The boats in the middle sort of stayed in place but the
boat that was called last in the previous race would be
contending for the lead in the next race. Until late in
the regatta, the leaders were averaging over four points
a race.
Many people
took turns being the hot boat. Rick Hawley quietly put
together an early string of good finishes to be in or
close to the lead. Ivor Walton and Joe Walter just
sailed well through the entire weekend. Rock Star Ricky
Gerry made run before running into some unfortunate
situations. One of Ricky's best moves was a celebration
of his victory which came a lap early. Oops, he managed
to win the race but the margin was not as comfortable.
Even though
Danny Thomas and Reichard Kahle finished first and
second, they really didn't race near each other that
much. Reichard got the early lead but Danny finally got
going after a DNF and then took complete control early
on Sunday. Reichard had to switch his attention from
catching Danny to holding off Joe Walter who finished
just two points back.
John Rowley
could not really figure out which end of the fleet he
wanted to be in. He was quite fast at times and had
some good results. John Bottensek was making some moves
falling just short of hardware in 6th place. Harry
Strunk took a race going away after a one race sit
down. Bob Dudinsky sailed as long as his body would
allow. It was quite nice that he stuck around to take
pictures for us.
Papa Dick
Gerry had his boat moving but Ricky always seemed to get
in his way. Gerry Cobley focused on sailing rather than
helping run the event and sailed well. Carter Cain may
have peaked a bit early with several bullets on the
practice day. He kept up the speed on Saturday for
while though.
Al Sellers
was making an early statement with some good finishes
and finished in 7th. Hal Slentz-Whalen dressed in lime
green and orange was highly visible and put up a fine
effort in his first Champions Regatta. Now as far as my
friend, Marky Mark Rinehart, can you say rusty? As the
layers of rust feel away, Mark's results improved. He
nearly took a race but Danny "just tacking on headers"
Thomas made sure that didn't happen. Because of that
race, the headline for this article became one of the
topics of discussion at a post regatta dinner on
Sunday. Even the waitress kicked in to help. Danny was
present but speechless.
Marks
suggestion...Vulture picks apart fleet
Crowd
favorite with help from waitress...Captain Comb Over
crushes Kahle
Running any
regatta takes help. Running one 600 miles from home
takes lots of help. We have to thank our hosts from
Charleston, Dick and Rick Gerry for opening their home
for the Saturday dinner and Reichard Kahle for
logistical support and losing to Danny. Thanks also go
to Joe Walter of the Florida Association for arranging
the shirts and having to deal with me.
The Race
Committee included Bob Kjellberg handling the starts and
the dinghy, Sir Francis himself and his wonderful wife
Linda taking care of the scoring. With help like that,
my job was easy. All of these people not only spent
their entire weekend helping, they came hundreds of
miles to do it. Thank you.
|
Skipper |
Score |
1 |
Thomas |
57 |
2 |
Kahle |
81 |
3 |
Walter |
83 |
4 |
Ivor Walton |
116 |
5 |
R. Gerry |
124 |
6 |
Bottensek |
136 |
7 |
Sellers |
140 |
8 |
Hawley |
146 |
9 |
Rinehart |
146 |
10 |
Strunk |
151 |
11 |
Cobley |
151 |
12 |
Cain |
184 |
13 |
Slentz-Whalen |
188 |
14 |
D. Gerry |
205 |
15 |
Rowley |
208 |
16 |
Dudinsky |
262
(sailed sat. only) |
|