Southwindsjuly2004

July 2004For Sailors — Free…It’s Priceless

Key West Rendezvous Regatta

Gulfstreamer Race

News & Views for Southern SailorsSOUTHWINDS

S I N C E 1 9 7 7

FLORIDA’S LARGEST HUNTER, CATALINA, MORGAN, MAINSHIP & CALIBER DEALERSHIP

TWO LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU ON FLORIDA’S WEST COAST – IN THE HEART OF AMERICA’S FINEST CRUISING AREA.

The Massey Team of Yachting Specialists – experienced sailors one and all – are dedicated to helping other sailors make sound, knowledgeable decisions relative to yacht selection, ownership and custom outfitting.

2004 Hunter 36 – New Modelhull #116 loaded with electronics,stereo, flatscreen TV/DVD, bimini, RFmainsail & jib, elec halyard winch,refrig/freezer, Harken hardware andmuch more. Regular price $143,052Call for new yacht discount.

2004 Mainship 30 Sedan hull #198 – In stock and ready to cruise.Rum Runner edition, Yanmar 315 diesel, bow thruster, generator, air conditioning,enclosure, TV/DVD, stereo and much more. Regular Cruise Away only $180,895Call Massey for special new yacht discount.

CATALINA • HUNTER • CALIBER • MAINSHIPCustom Massey Outfitting Quote

in less than one hour with

Just pick your yachtand call with your options.

Catalina 310, 320, 34, 350, 36, 387, 400, 42, 470Hunter 306, 33, 36, 38, 41, 42CC, 44, 44DS, 456CC, 466Caliber 35LRC, 40LRC, 47LCR and Mainship 30, 34, 39, 40, 43

Call for ‘04 Model Year Clearance Price


Call for Discounted New Yacht Pricesand Delivery Information

One Phone Call

One Web Site

One Great Yacht Sales and Service Team

MONOHULLS45 ft. to 65 ft.

54 Endeavour ‘90 . . . . . $395,00048 Tayana ‘00. . . . . . . $398,00047 Catalina ‘00 . . . . . . $320,00046 Beneteau ‘97 . . . . . $199,00045 Morgan ‘94 . . . . . . $195,00045 Morgan ‘91 . . . . . . $194,50045 Hunter CC ‘99 . . . . . $219,00045 Hunter ‘97. . . . . . . $209,00045 Gulfstar/Hirsh ‘85 . . . $129,500

40 ft. to 44 ft.44 C & C ‘69 . . . . . . . $74,90043 Hunter ‘96. . . . . . . $164,50043 Endeavour ‘81 . . . . . $139,00042 Pearson ‘81 . . . . . . . $97,00042 Pearson ‘80 . . . . . . $105,00042 Hunter CC ‘97 . . . . . $189,50042 Hunter CC ‘96 . . . . . $169,90042 Catalina ‘01 . . . . . . $237,00042 Catalina ‘96 . . . . . . $119,00042 Catalina ‘90 . . . . . . $128,000411 Beneteau ‘01 . . . . . $174,00041 Morgan ‘89 . . . . . . $119,90041 Morgan ‘82 . . . . . . . $83,00040 Jeanneau ‘03 . . . . . $184,00040 Jeanneau ‘00 . . . . . $159,900

40 Island Packet ‘98 . . . $249,90040.5 Hunter ‘97. . . . . . $125,00040 Endeavour ‘81 . . . . . $84,00040 Caliber ‘96. . . . . . . $244,500400 Beneteau ‘97 . . . . . $124,900

35 ft. to 39 ft.39 C & C ‘73 . . . . . . . $58,90038 Shannon Ketch ‘79 . . $114,90038 Morgan CC ‘97 . . . . $125,000380 Island Packet ‘99 . . $245,00038 Hans Christian ‘83 . . $139,000380 Catalina ‘00 . . . . . $134,000380 Catalina ‘99 . . . . . $152,00038 Catalina ‘81 . . . . . . . $35,000376 Hunter ‘97 . . . . . . $121,00037 Jeanneau ‘96 . . . . . . $75,00037 Hunter ‘98 . . . . . . . $95,00037 Hunter ‘97 . . . . . . . $82,00037 Endeavour ‘83 . . . . . $52,50037 Beneteau Idylle ‘86. . . $61,900365 Pearson ‘76 . . . . . . $55,00036 Tashiba ‘87 . . . . . . $135,00036 Jeanneau ‘97 . . . . . . $89,00036 Catalina ‘94 . . . . . . . $85,00036 Catalina ‘90 . . . . . . . $71,500351 Beneteau ‘96 . . . . . $77,500350 Catalina ‘03 . . . . . $154,500

35 Island Packet ‘91 . . . $119,90035 Baba ‘84. . . . . . . . $120,000

30 ft. to 34 ft.34 Catalina ‘94 . . . . . . . $74,50034 Catalina ‘87 . . . . . . . $44,90034 Cabo Rico ‘90 . . . . . $122,000320 Catalina ‘96 . . . . . . $69,00032 Island Packet ‘90 . . . . $94,50031 Catalina ‘03 . . . . . . . $91,00030 Hunter ‘88 . . . . . . . $36,50029.5 Hunter ‘95 . . . . . . $46,900290 Hunter ‘00. . . . . . . $59,900

CATAMARANS44 Dean Catamaran ‘99 . . $285,00037 Prout Snow Goose ‘84. . $89,500

TRAWLERS/POWER43 Mainship Trawler ‘05 . .$504,25440 Mainship Trawler ‘05 . $378,45336 Krogen-Manatee ‘90 . . $219,00034 Mainship RR-Express ‘04 . $237,85834 Mainship Trawler ‘82 . . $79,90034 Mainship Express ‘00 . .$179,00030 Mainship RR-Sedan ‘04 . $180,89530 Mainship Pilot ‘01 . . . . $104,90029 SeaRay Sundancer ‘01 . . $79,95028 Carver Voyager ‘88 . . . . $29,900

2004 Hunter 41 New Modelhull #120 – Loaded with electronics,upgrade stereo, flatscreen TV/DVD, bimini,RF mainsail & jib, elec halyard winch,refrigeration/freezer, Force 10 stove,Harken hardware and much, much more.Regular Sailaway only $214,045.


YOUR SATISFACTION IS OUR MEASURE OF SUCCESSwww.masseyyacht.com • E-mail: [email protected]

Palmetto, FL 941-723-1610 • TOLL-FREE 800-375-0130 St. Pete, FL 727-824-7262 • TOLL-FREE 877-552-0525

Edward MasseyBrad Crabtree Scott Pursell Frank Hamilton Bill Wiard Mary Beth Singh Al Pollak David ColeDan Howland

Coming SoonNew Massey Ft. Myers location – Call for info.

http://www.masseyyacht.com

2 July 2004 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindssailing.com

Offer valid only with coupon July 1st through July 25th. Limited to stock on hand. Not good with any other offer.

SUMMER SAVINGS ON TOOLS, MARINE GRILLS & MORE!

MORE THAN 280 STORES • 1-800-BOATING • westmarine.comHURRY! PRICES GOOD JULY 1ST THROUGH JULY 25TH, 2004 Selection varies by store.

DECK CHAIRS, ANCHOR & RODE PACKAGES & ADHESIVE/SEALANT

SAVE ON BOAT SOAP, DRINKING WATER HOSES & MACERATOR PUMPS










SAVE 50%

999West Marine

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VHF500 FixedMount DSC VHF RadioModel 5469200 Reg. 179.99

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Pro GrillModel 3815420Reg. 179.99Mounts and propane bottlesold separately.

SAVE 40%

1799Igloo

36qt. MarineSeries Ice ChestModel 137278 Reg. 29.99

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3M

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From5999Seafit

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LowbackOffer valid only withcoupon July 1stthrough July 25th. Limited to stock onhand. Not good withany other offer.

http://www.westmarine.com

S I N C E 1 9 7 7

FLORIDA’S LARGEST HUNTER, CATALINA, MORGAN, MAINSHIP & CALIBER DEALERSHIP



2004 Hunter 36 – New Modelhull #116 loaded with electronics,stereo, flatscreen TV/DVD, bimini, RFmainsail & jib, elec halyard winch,refrig/freezer, Harken hardware andmuch more. Regular price $143,052Call for new yacht discount.

2004 Mainship 30 Sedan hull #198 – In stock and ready to cruise.Rum Runner edition, Yanmar 315 diesel, bow thruster, generator, air conditioning,enclosure, TV/DVD, stereo and much more. Regular Cruise Away only $180,895Call Massey for special new yacht discount.

CATALINA • HUNTER • CALIBER • MAINSHIPCustom Massey Outfitting Quote

in less than one hour with

Just pick your yachtand call with your options.

Catalina 310, 320, 34, 350, 36, 387, 400, 42, 470Hunter 306, 33, 36, 38, 41, 42CC, 44, 44DS, 456CC, 466Caliber 35LRC, 40LRC, 47LCR and Mainship 30, 34, 39, 40, 43



Call for Discounted New Yacht Pricesand Delivery Information

One Phone Call

One Web Site


MONOHULLS45 ft. to 65 ft.

54 Endeavour ‘90 . . . . . $395,00048 Tayana ‘00. . . . . . . $398,00047 Catalina ‘00 . . . . . . $320,00046 Beneteau ‘97 . . . . . $199,00045 Morgan ‘94 . . . . . . $195,00045 Morgan ‘91 . . . . . . $194,50045 Hunter CC ‘99 . . . . . $219,00045 Hunter ‘97. . . . . . . $209,00045 Gulfstar/Hirsh ‘85 . . . $129,500

40 ft. to 44 ft.44 C & C ‘69 . . . . . . . $74,90043 Hunter ‘96. . . . . . . $164,50043 Endeavour ‘81 . . . . . $139,00042 Pearson ‘81 . . . . . . . $97,00042 Pearson ‘80 . . . . . . $105,00042 Hunter CC ‘97 . . . . . $189,50042 Hunter CC ‘96 . . . . . $169,90042 Catalina ‘01 . . . . . . $237,00042 Catalina ‘96 . . . . . . $119,00042 Catalina ‘90 . . . . . . $128,000411 Beneteau ‘01 . . . . . $174,00041 Morgan ‘89 . . . . . . $119,90041 Morgan ‘82 . . . . . . . $83,00040 Jeanneau ‘03 . . . . . $184,00040 Jeanneau ‘00 . . . . . $159,900

40 Island Packet ‘98 . . . $249,90040.5 Hunter ‘97. . . . . . $125,00040 Endeavour ‘81 . . . . . $84,00040 Caliber ‘96. . . . . . . $244,500400 Beneteau ‘97 . . . . . $124,900

35 ft. to 39 ft.39 C & C ‘73 . . . . . . . $58,90038 Shannon Ketch ‘79 . . $114,90038 Morgan CC ‘97 . . . . $125,000380 Island Packet ‘99 . . $245,00038 Hans Christian ‘83 . . $139,000380 Catalina ‘00 . . . . . $134,000380 Catalina ‘99 . . . . . $152,00038 Catalina ‘81 . . . . . . . $35,000376 Hunter ‘97 . . . . . . $121,00037 Jeanneau ‘96 . . . . . . $75,00037 Hunter ‘98 . . . . . . . $95,00037 Hunter ‘97 . . . . . . . $82,00037 Endeavour ‘83 . . . . . $52,50037 Beneteau Idylle ‘86. . . $61,900365 Pearson ‘76 . . . . . . $55,00036 Tashiba ‘87 . . . . . . $135,00036 Jeanneau ‘97 . . . . . . $89,00036 Catalina ‘94 . . . . . . . $85,00036 Catalina ‘90 . . . . . . . $71,500351 Beneteau ‘96 . . . . . $77,500350 Catalina ‘03 . . . . . $154,500

35 Island Packet ‘91 . . . $119,90035 Baba ‘84. . . . . . . . $120,000

30 ft. to 34 ft.34 Catalina ‘94 . . . . . . . $74,50034 Catalina ‘87 . . . . . . . $44,90034 Cabo Rico ‘90 . . . . . $122,000320 Catalina ‘96 . . . . . . $69,00032 Island Packet ‘90 . . . . $94,50031 Catalina ‘03 . . . . . . . $91,00030 Hunter ‘88 . . . . . . . $36,50029.5 Hunter ‘95 . . . . . . $46,900290 Hunter ‘00. . . . . . . $59,900

CATAMARANS44 Dean Catamaran ‘99 . . $285,00037 Prout Snow Goose ‘84. . $89,500

TRAWLERS/POWER43 Mainship Trawler ‘05 . .$504,25440 Mainship Trawler ‘05 . $378,45336 Krogen-Manatee ‘90 . . $219,00034 Mainship RR-Express ‘04 . $237,85834 Mainship Trawler ‘82 . . $79,90034 Mainship Express ‘00 . .$179,00030 Mainship RR-Sedan ‘04 . $180,89530 Mainship Pilot ‘01 . . . . $104,90029 SeaRay Sundancer ‘01 . . $79,95028 Carver Voyager ‘88 . . . . $29,900

2004 Hunter 41 New Modelhull #120 – Loaded with electronics,upgrade stereo, flatscreen TV/DVD, bimini,RF mainsail & jib, elec halyard winch,refrigeration/freezer, Force 10 stove,Harken hardware and much, much more.Regular Sailaway only $214,045.







S I N C E 1 9 7 7

Call for your FREE “How to Prepare your Yacht for Sale” package.

47 Catalina 2000 . . . . . . . . . .$320,00046 Beneteau 1997 . . . . . . . . .$199,000 45 Morgan 1994 . . . . . . . . . .$195,00045 Morgan 1991 . . . . . . . . . .$194,50045 Hunter CC 1997 . . . . . . .$209,00045 Hunter CC 1999 . . . . . . .$219,00043 Hunter 1996 . . . . . . . . . .$164,50042 Hunter CC 1997 . . . . . . .$189,50042 Hunter CC 1996 . . . . . . .$169,90042 Catalina 2001 . . . . . . . . . .$237,00042 Catalina 1990 . . . . . . . . . .$128,000411 Beneteau 2001 . . . . . . . .$174,00041 Morgan Classic 1989 . . . .$119,90041 Morgan 1982 . . . . . . . . . . .$83,000 40-2 Jeanneau 2001 . . . . . . . .$175,500

40.5 Hunter 1997 . . . . . . . . .$125,00040.5 Hunter 1993 . . . . . . . . .$119,90040 Jeanneau 2000 . . . . . . . . .$159,90040 Hunter 1992 . . . . . . . . . .$115,00040 Catalina 1996 . . . . . . . . . .$134,90040 CC Beneteau 1997 . . . . . . .$134,50040 Beneteau 1997 . . . . . . . . .$124,900 38 Beneteau 2001 . . . . . . . . .$147,000 38 Catalina 2000 . . . . . . . . . .$134,00038 Catalina 1999 . . . . . . . . . .$152,000 38 Catalina 1981 . . . . . . . . . . .$35,000 38 CC Morgan 1997 . . . . . . .$125,00037 Jeanneau 1996 . . . . . . . . . .$75,000 37 Hunter 1997 . . . . . . . . . . .$82,00036 Catalina 1999 . . . . . . . . . .$115,000

36 Catalina 1994 . . . . . . . . . . .$85,00036 Catalina 1994 . . . . . . . . . .$66,20036 Catalina 1990 . . . . . . . . . . .$71,500 36 Jeanneau 1997 . . . . . . . . . .$89,000 35 Catalina 2003 . . . . . . . . . .$154,50035 Beneteau 1996 . . . . . . . . . .$77,500 34 Hunter 2001 . . . . . . . . . . .$97,50034 Catalina 1994 . . . . . . . . . . .$74,500 33 Hunter 1995 . . . . . . . . . . .$64,500 320 Catalina 1996 . . . . . . . . . .$69,900310 Catalina 2003 . . . . . . . . . .$91,00030 Hunter 1988 . . . .REDUCED . $29,90029.5 Hunter 1995 . . . . . . . . . .$46,900 290 Hunter 2000 . . . . . . . . . .$59,900

www.masseyyacht.com

1994 Morgan 45 • $194,500 2000 Catalina 470 • $320,000

1997 Hunter 40.5 • $125,000 1997 Hunter CC • $209,000 1994 Catalina 34 • $74,500

2001 Beneteau 411 • $174,000

All listings are Massey centrals

SOLDSOLDSOLD

SOLD

SOLD SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

One Phone Call

One Web Site





July 2004 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindssailing.com4

http://www.uksailmakers.com

http://www.garhauermarine.com

New OrleansNorthshoreGulf Coast504-782-7434

St. PetersburgTampaSarasota813-864-7633

MiamiFt. LauderdaleKey West800-537-0050

JacksonvilleSt. AugustineDaytona904-269-0027

http://www.sailtime.com/frac


SAILBOATS - NEW AND BROKERAGEBeneteau Sailboats Back CoverGulf Coast Yacht Sales 63,64Windcraft, Trimarans and Catamarans, Sail or Power 20Boaters Exchange/Catalina Sailboats 39,64Carson Yacht Sales/Beneteau Back CoverEastern Yacht Sales/Beneteau Back CoverFlorida Sailboats, Inc. 65Flying Scot Sailboats 66Hanse Sailboats 65Hunter Sailboats 10,11Massey Yacht Sales/Catalina/Jeanneau/Hunter/Mainship

3,9,14,22,31,32,IBCMasthead Yacht Sales/Catalina 24,68Murray Yacht Sales/Beneteau Back CoverRaider Sailboats 65Sailor’s Wharf Boatyard and Brokerage 57,60Sarasota Youth Sailing Program donated boats 62St. Barts/Beneteau Back CoverSuncoast Inflatables/ West Florida 59Tackle Shack/Hobie/Sunfish, St. Petersburg 54Tampa Sailing Squadron donated boats 62

GEAR, HARDWARE, ACCESSORIESAir Duck Hatch Windscoop 37Bluewater Sailing Supply, www.bluewaterss.com/ 55Boaters Exchange, boats, gear, etc. Rockledge FL 39,64BoatUS 17Bo’sun Supplies/Hrdwre/Rigging www.bosunsupplies.com 36Coral Reef Apparel Company 35Defender Industries, www.defender.com 67Fujinon Binoculars 35Garhauer Hardware/www.garhauermarine.com 4Glacier Bay Refrigeration/ www.glacierbay.com 40SSMR/Hood 55Hotwire/Fans & other products 67Island Marine Products/Davits,motorlocks,etc. 23JR Overseas/Moisture Meter 27Martek Dinghy Davits 67Masthead Ent. www.mastheadsailinggear.com 24,68Nautical Trader/buy/sell/consign 57Rparts Refrigeration, www.rparts.com 51Sailor’s Soap 15,34,49Tackle Shack/Hobie/Sunfish, St. Petersburg 54West Marine 41, IFCWhitney’s Marine 64,65,66

SAILS (NEW & USED), RIGGING, SPARS, RIGGING SERVICESAltlantic Sails 46Banks Sails/new, used, repair & canvas/ West Florida 56Nuclear Sails 16BoatUS 17Cruising Direct/sails online by North 8Dwyer Mast/spars, hardware, rigging 67Forespar 63Hood/SSMR 55Masthead/Used Sails and Service 24,68National Sail Supply, new&used online 45Nuclear Sails 16North Sails 20Porpoise Used Sails 68Sail Exchange/www.sailexchange.com 28,68Schurr Sails, Pensacola FL 47SSMR/Hood 55UK Sails, www.uksailmakers.com 4Ullman Sails/West Florida 15West Marine 41,IFC

CANVASBanks Sails/new, used, repair & canvas/ West Florida 56Sailcovers and More 68

USED SAILING/BOATING SUPPLIESDon’s Salvage, Clearwater FL 58Nautical Trader/buy/sell/consign, West Florida 57Scurvy Dog Marine/Used, Consign, Pensacola FL 48

SAILING SCHOOLSFlagship Sailing 60Sea School/Captain’s License www.seaschool.com 20St. Augustine Sailing School 68

ADVERTISER INDEX BY CATEGORY (See page 68 for alphabetical list)

(941) 795-8704 • www.southwindssailing.comP.O. Box 1175, Holmes Beach, FL 34218-1175New — Subscribe On-line on our Web site —

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MARINE ENGINESBeta Marine 23Fleetside Marine Service 66RB Grove/Universal and Westerbeke 43

RESORTS, MARINAS, RESTAURANTS, BOAT YARDSBob and Annie’s Boatyard 19Crow’s Nest Restaurant & Marina 29Sailor’s Wharf Boatyard and Brokerage 57,60

CHARTER COMPANIESFlagship Sailing 60Sailtime, Time-Share ownership 5

MARINE SERVICES, INSURANCE, NAVIGATION/WEATHER SERVICES,BOAT LETTERING, ETC.Aqua Graphics/Boat Names/Tampa Bay or buy online 56Beachmaster Photography 66Coast Weather Services 68First Patriot Inc, Insurance Agency, Paul Phaneuf 18Memory Map 67Sign Factory 56WeatherWave 43

MARINE ELECTRONICSDockside Radio 15 JR Overseas/Moisture Meter 27Sea Tech/Navigation/Communication 21

BOOKSBubba Stories Book 16Great Outdoors Publishing 58Gunkholer’s Cruising Guide/West Florida 58

Regional Sailing Services Directory 25Sailing Services Directory West Florida 56Subscription Information This PageAlphabetical Advertisers’ List 68

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NEWS & VIEWS FOR SOUTHERN SAILORS SOUTHWINDS July 2004 7

From the Carolinas to Cuba…from Atlanta to the Abacos…SOUTHWINDS Covers Southern Sailing

SOUTHWINDSNEWS & VIEWS FOR SOUTHERN SAILORS

13 From the Helm

14 Letters

18 Bubba Evens the ScoreBy Morgan Stinemetz

21 Boatek: Hook up Your StereoBy Stephen Sommer

23 Short Tacks:Upcoming Events and News of Interest to Southern Sailors

26 Key West Rendezvous Regatta 2004By Steve Morrell

33 Southeast Coast Sailing: Carolinas and GeorgiaJuly Sailing, Events and Race Calendar, Race Report

36 Gulfstreamer Race: Daytona Beach to CharlestonBy Jim Kempert

38 East Florida Sailing:July Sailing, Events and Race Calendar, Tybee 500,Brevard Challenge, Jetty Park Ocean Regatta,Snipe District 4 Championship Jacksonville

44 Southeast Florida Sailing:Events and Race Calendar, Southeast Florida Race Report

46 Northern Gulf Coast Sailing:July Sailing, Events and Race Calendar, Regata al Sol XXIII,Spring Regatta, Navy Cup Regatta

50 Florida Keys Sailing:Events and Race Calendar, Around the Island Race

52 West Florida Sailing:Events and Race Calendar, Clearwater Community Sailing Center,Corinthian Race, Jack Iron sails to the Mediterranean

63 Classifieds

70 Another True Sailing StoryBy Bruce Sanspree

25 Regional Sailing Services Directory56 West Florida Sailing Services Directory68 Alphabetical Index of Advertisers6 Advertisers’ List by Category6 Subscription Form13 Calendar Photo Contest

Key West Rendezvous Regatta. Photo by Steve Morrell. Page 26.

Gulfstreamer Race. Daytona Beach to Charleston. Photo by SteveMorrell. Page 36.

Cover: The Schooner Liberty sails off Key West during the Key WestRendezvous. Photo by Steve Morrell.

July 2004 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindssailing.com

Steve Morrell Gary HuffordNational/West Florida Advertising National/West Florida AdvertisingWest Florida Regional Editor [email protected]@southwindssailing.com (727) 585-2814(941) 795-8704

Florida KeysRebecca BurgRegional Editor/[email protected](305) 304-5118

The Southeast Coast:Carolinas and GeorgiaRona GarmRegional Editor/[email protected](910) 395-0189

The Northern Gulf Coast:Florida Panhandle, Alabama,Mississippi, Louisiana, TexasKim KaminskiRegional Editor/[email protected](850) 384-8941

Southeast FloridaArt PerezRegional Editor/[email protected](305) 380-0106

East FloridaRoy LaughlinRegional Editor/[email protected](321) 690-0137

SOUTHWINDSNEWS & VIEWS FOR SOUTHERN SAILORS

Southwinds Media, Inc.P.O. Box 1175, Holmes Beach, Florida 34218-1175

(941) 795-8704 (877) 372-7245 (941) 795-8705 Faxwww.southwindssailing.com

e-mail: [email protected]

VOLUME 12 NUMBER 7 JULY 2004Copyright 2004, Southwinds Media, Inc.

Publisher/EditorSteve Morrell

[email protected]

FounderDoran Cushing

Advertisers & Editors

Production ProofreadingHeather Nicoll Kathy Elliott

Contributing WritersSherry Beckett Rebecca Burg Dave EllisHal Gilreath Kim Kaminski Jim KempertRoy Laughlin Arturo Perez George RegenauerBruce Sanspree Stephen Sommer Morgan Stinemetz

Anne WisterContributing Photographers

Mad Cow Rona Garm Kim KaminskiJim Krippes Roy Laughlin Arturo PerezClaire Rees George Regenauer Someone walking

down the dockEDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS: ARTICLES & PHOTOGRAPHY:SOUTHWINDS encourages readers, writers, photographers, cartoonists, jokers,magicians, philosophers and whoever else is out there, including sailors, tosend in their material. Just make it about the water world and generally aboutsailing and about sailing in the South, the Bahamas or the Caribbean, or gen-eral sailing interest, or sailboats, or sailing in some far-off and far-out place.

SOUTHWINDS welcomes contributions in writing and photography, sto-ries about sailing, racing, cruising, maintenance and other technical articlesand other sailing-related topics. Please submit all articles electronically by e-mail (mailed-in discs also accepted), and with photographs, if possible. Wealso accept photographs alone, for cover shots, racing, cruising and justfunny entertaining shots. Please take them at a high resolution if digital, orscan at 300 dpi if photos, or mail them to us for scanning. Contact theeditor with questions.

Subscriptions to SOUTHWINDS are available at $19.95/year, or $37/2years for third class, and $24/year for first class. Checks and credit card num-bers may be mailed with name and address to SOUTHWINDS Subscriptions,PO Box 1175, Holmes Beach FL, 34218-1175, or call (941) 795-8704. Sub-scriptions are also available with a credit card through a secure server on ourWeb site, www.southwindssailing.com.

SOUTHWINDS is distributed to over 500 locations throughout 10 South-ern states. If you would like to distribute SOUTHWINDS at your location, pleasecontact the editor.

Read SOUTHWINDS on our Web site, www.southwindssailing.com.

8

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Buy now. Cruise Tomorrow. Save Thousands. New is Better.• New yacht discounts-all trades considered• New design, construction and performance• New electronics, A/C and gensets• New flat screen TVs and DVDs• New yacht financing at lowest rates• New yacht custom outfitting• Full factory/dealer warranties and on site service• Free yacht systems and handling orientation

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S I N C E 1 9 7 7

New CATALINA 400On Order

New HUNTER 410Hull #120 in stock

New CATALINA 350Hull #270 in stock

Call for Special New Yacht Discounts Call for Special New Yacht Discounts Call for Special New Yacht Discounts

New 2005 MAINSHIP 40

Call for Special New Yacht Discounts

New MAINSHIP 30 SedanHull #198 in stock

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New 4' 11" Wing Keel On Order

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One Web Site




Coming SoonNew Massey Ft. Myers location

– Call for info.


NEW 33NEW 33

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FROM THE HELM

SOUTHWINDSannounces the

2004-2005West Florida Racing Calendar

& Yacht Club Directory.

This calendar will cover West Florida racingfrom September 2004 through August 2005.

Call now to advertise in this publication:

Steve Morrell, Editor, (941) 795-8704,[email protected]

Gary Hufford, Advertising Representative,(727) 585-2014,

[email protected]

Contact Steve Morrell, Editor, to list yourupcoming races and regattas!

Photo Contest

for photos

for the

2005SOUTHWINDSCalendarSend your photo in! Go to our Website, www.southwindssailing.com

for more information.

Unfortunately, the government has indicted Peter Goldsmith and Michele Geslin for their actions in the Conch

Republic Cup race from Key West to Cuba (see more on this in“Short Tacks,” page 23.) This brings politics into sailing (al-though I am sure it has always been there some way.)

The Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that American citizens,in times of peace, have a Constitutional right to travel. Interna-tional human rights accords state that citizens of a countryshould have the right to leave their country and return withoutfear of prosecution when they return. It looks as if that righthas been violated in this country. It is actually true that youcan leave this country and return, be questioned in some smallgovernment room and be asked, “Where did you go and whatdid you do?”

You are guilty if you answer, “I went to Cuba and bought acup of coffee.” You can be indicted under federal charges, sentto prison and fined. Something wrong with this picture.

Although I believe that if this is taken to the Supreme Court,it will rule in favor of these two sailors, they have already suf-fered punishment through the indictment, intimidation, andquestioning by prosecutors. This could be the government’sstrategy. There should be punishment meted out to those when-ever it can be proven that that is the strategy (and let’s sendthem to prison), as I believe they will lose if it goes to the highcourt. I believe the government believes that, too, and the casewill be dropped—sad if this is proven to be the case. I havebeen told by someone who knows Michele Geslin that she saidthe federal prosecutors told her they were going after hersailmaking business. Let’s hope not. Destroy these two? Let’shope not. Send them to prison (one count is for up to 10 years)and fine them (one count is up to $250,000)? Let’s hope not.

They organized, with strong public support, a group of sail-

ors who sailed to Cuba carrying good will and friendship-alongwith humanitarian supplies. Is this a crime?

But can Peter and Michele fight this and not have their livestotally disrupted? Lose the sailmaking business? She owns asmall shop, which is hardly making her rich enough to fightthe federal government. Who has enough money to fight thefederal government?

I was contacted by one sailor, who is in the business ofsailing, who has been trying to set up some sort of defense fundto help Peter Goldsmith and Michele Geslin. Nothing yet, butperhaps something will come of this effort.

I have been involved in this magazine for two years andhave talked to many sailors. Some of these have been to Cubain one of the many races over the years, either from Tampa Bayor from Key West, and they have told me their opinions onrights of travel to Cuba. I have not yet met one (received a fewletters against travel to Cuba, but don’t know who they are),and I repeat, not one, who does not believe that they shouldhave a right to go to Cuba—especially by sailboat. This includesthose from the right, the far right, the middle, the left and thefar left-to name a few. I have heard from many who support thecurrent administration (which strongly supports the travel ban),and they believe they should have the right to sail there.

Where is the support for this travel ban? In the most im-portant sense, it really doesn’t matter, as this is a basic right totravel. We do not need the rule of the majority to have this right.When the majority takes away the rights of the minority, wecall it the Tyranny of the Majority. Maybe that’s what’s goingon here, but I believe this is the Tyranny of the Minority.

Steve MorrellEditor

PETER GOLDSMITH AND MICHELE GESLIN INDICTED IN RACE TO CUBA





“Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.” H.L. Mencken

In its continuing endeavor to share its press, SOUTHWINDSinvites readers to write in with experiences & opinions.

LETTERS

Cell Phone Calls in the BahamasA few months ago, we found some people interested in knowing moreabout cell phone use in the Bahamas. In May, I received a phone callfrom someone asking about crossing the state of Florida in theOkeechobee waterway canal and tilting your boat under a low bridge.I could not answer the call, but they left a message and then I calledthem back. To my surprise, they answered their cell phone on theirboat and told me they were anchored in the Berry Islands in the Baha-mas. (Since I had been there myself years ago, my mind’s imaginationimmediately went to the Berrys, and I held visions of them sitting intheir cockpit in this beautiful area.) I gave them the information theyneeded but also asked them about the cell phone. They told me thatthey had Cingular, which recently merged with AT&T, and the cellphone use was very good. The clarity of the call I was making withthem was as though they were across the street.

Editor

ANOTHER TYPE OF WATERMAKER, THE WATERLOGIn Stephen Sommer’s article “Watermakers for Small CruisingBoats,” we noted the omission of yet another category of re-verse osmosis watermakers, the towed watermaker.

The Waterlog watermaker needs no dedicated installationcabinet, no valves, no through-hulls, and-best of all-no electric-ity! It is a simple design, which uses its spinning propeller todrive sea water through a stainless steel prefilter, the membrane,and then up the towing cable to your boat and the container ofyour choice.

Made in England, the Waterlog has been popular on theother side of the pond for several years, and the American sail-ing community is only recently becoming aware of Waterlog’sexistence, simplicity, reliability, and affordability. Yes, the Wa-terlog watermaker is much less expensive than electricwatermakers, and replacement parts cost much less. Prices varywith the daily exchange rate of the British pound sterling, but amidsize Waterlog costs around $2,000.

It is available in the United States from our company,Hotwire Enterprises in St. Petersburg, FL. For further informa-tion, go to http://www.svhotwire.com/

Libbie Ellis and John GambillHotwire Enterprises

Empowering Energy SolutionsPh/Fax: (727) 217-9809

Libbie and John,I have heard of this through the grapevine but never really talked toanyone who has ever had one. I would be real interested in hearingfrom a reader who might have one and could tell us how they work,their actual experience towing one, maintenance, output, etc. Anyreaders out there who have experience with one, please let us know.

Editor

THE GREEN FLASH RETURNS We have been in the tropics for about 12 years and have seenthe green flash many times.

What the observer expects to see may be important. All ofour sightings were under clear conditions and looking overwater. The flash occurs as the upper limb of the sun sinks be-low the horizon. The size and intensity vary considerably. The


http://www.svhotwire.com


See LETTERS continued on page 16

green spot can be fairly intense and may be quite small. Wehave never seen anything more than about 1/8 of the apparentsun diameter. The duration is about one second. Binoculars area great aid in many cases, but don’t look until the sun has al-most completely set. About half of the time, we would not havenoticed anything without the glasses. Many, but not all of oursightings have been at sea, but there has been a reasonablepercentage viewed from land, both in the Pacific and in the Carib-bean. We don’t recall any sightings above about 20 degrees north.

We have known cruisers who claim to have also observedthe flash just prior to sunrise but think that it would be verydifficult to know where and when to look.

Donald and Judith KlineS/Y Daisy D

Donald and Judith,I was lucky enough to see the green flash for the first time while head-ing south in the recent race to Key West from Clearwater, FL. It was asmall, bulbous, intense round green flash that was much smaller thanI expected. It was definitely quick but made my day as I had yearned tosee it for many years-and I have been watching sunsets for most of mylife-being from the coast of California. This area is definitely above 20degrees north, and sightings of the green flash have been reported fre-quently on the west coast of Florida, which is in the high 20s. There isalso a Green Flash restaurant on the beach in Mission Beach, CA (justnorth of San Diego), that has many times been the location of manygreen flash sightings, and this is in the 30-plus degrees north area.

Editor

U.S. GOVERNMENT INDICTS PETER GOLDSMITH ANDMICHELE GESLIN FOR REGATTA TO CUBAWhat’s wrong with this picture? Osama’s still out there spend-ing his Saudi wealth. Corporate executives with multimilliondollar salaries are bankrupting companies along with thousandsof employees and investors who are dragged down in the pro-cess. Consumer credit card interest rates are at an all time highwhile the cost of money for the rich is at an all time low. Andthe U.S. Attorney General finds time to prosecute two sailorswho organized a regatta and carried humanitarian aid to Cuba.Peter Goldsmith and Michele Geslin are facing up to 15 yearson felony charges of “trading with the enemy” due to their rolein a sailing event from Key West to Cuba and return. The U.S.government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars pur-suing grand jury indictments and now criminal prosecutionagainst Geslin, a Key West sailmaker, and her partnerGoldsmith...and they likely will spend their life savings defend-ing themselves against a politically-driven show of force whichpanders to the wealthy extremist right wing element of Cu-bans living in South Florida. Ironically, it may just be a casesuch as this which forces legal review of the anti-Cuba policyand ultimately ends the failed embargo.

Doran CushingSt. Petersburg, FL

Doran,There is something wrong with this picture. American citizens havebeen indicted for traveling to a foreign country on their own boatswith their own money. I guess the current administration doesn’tbelieve it is their own money.

In our July 2003 issue, which is available online atwww.southwindssailing.com, we published a letter from Peter Gold-smith where he explained the conditions and situation that sailorswere sailing under in the trip to Cuba, and that the agents harassed



http://www.sailorsoap.com



LETTERS Continued from page 15

[email protected] Web site: southwindssailing.comPO Box 1175,Holmes Beach FL 34218 Fax: (941) 795-8705

them on their return, explaining that they had “changed their minds”about the export license. This is truly an unbelievably sad example ofgovernment wasting its citizens’ time and money. It would be evensadder if the agents felt proud of their actions. Maybe they were just“following orders.”

These indictments are an outrage, and let’s hope that people willrally to support Geslin amd Goldsmith, and that there will be no pleabargaining because of the intimidation presented by an indictmenthanded out by a government that has a prosecutor for every day of theweek and what appears to be unlimited funds. I have heard that MicheleGeslin believes she will lose her sailmaking business as they spendmoney and time on their defense. That would be a shame. The bestwould be that they will go to trial, and the law is proven unconstitu-tional, and they will be heroes and not lose their business. Anyonewho believes in the U.S. Constitution and the freedoms it protects willbe against convicting these people. Unfortunately, an indictment aloneis enough of a hassle to have the same effects as a punishment. Individualsfrom all political spectrums in this country should defend these two.

Besides, they are sailors trying to sail to the largest island in theCaribbean, and the closest one, too. Let me see, what were they carry-ing, besides their own good will? Humanitarian supplies. Doesn’tsound like a crime to me.

Editor

WILL OPENING CUBA BRING ABOUT MORE FREEDOMAND DEVELOPMENT? The fallacy that “people to people” relations brings about morefreedom and development is just a fallacy. Cuba has been “forsale” since they lost the subsidies from their colonial master indowntown Moscow a decade ago. Since then, all the “open-ness” has brought nothing more than more repression and ex-ecutions. Now as you well know, the country is known as the“Thailand” of the Caribbean for good reasons.

Go on and sail to other great destinations: North Korea,Libya, Somalia, etc., etc.

Sincerely,Frank Resillez

Frank,We are a sailing magazine and not a political magazine, but I do havea degree in political science, so I can’t resist too much. But I will limitthe length of my discourse here.

Got any successful examples where embargoes have worked? Ican name some places where we had embargoes. Let’s see. Iraq, NorthKorea —to name two. We traded and traveled with the evil empire.Remember them?

How about another perspective? Give us the freedom to not gothere and not trade with them if we so choose and the freedom to go thereand trade with them if we so choose. You don’t have to go and others can ifthey want. I won’t force you to go and you don’t force others from going.Freedom of choice. You can try and talk them out of it, though.

And Cuba has been for sale since the first sailors from Europestepped on this then-inhabited island.

I apologize to many of our sailing readers. I know we are a sailingmagazine, but I just couldn’t resist. But I will limit political discus-sions in the future that do not directly relate to sailing (kind of), although Ido believe that politics begins when two or more people get together.

Thanks for your letter and let’s keep the discourse open, althoughSOUTHWINDS might not be the appropriate place.

Anyone out there want to finance a new magazine? We’ll call itThe Politics of Sailing to Cuba.

Editor






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BOATEK By Stephen Sommer

SOLUTIONS TO ELECTRICAL, MECHANICAL, AIR-CONDITIONING, REFRIGERATION AND OTHER YACHT SYSTEMS

You ask a very good and frequently asked question. Afterall, if you already have a nice stereo and a good quality

source for stereo sound when you are watching a tape, whylisten to the single 3-inch speaker that comes with the 13-inchTV? This question comes up for a variety of sources includingportable DVD players, MP3 music players, and laptop com-puters that play everything from games to music, to DVDs tocompressed video on hard disc. I’ve even been asked how toget the SSB sound to go through the stereo speakers.

If you visit a stereo or electronics store, they will readilyoffer you two options.

They sell RF modulators, which are actually micro-powerFM stereo broadcast stations. You use your FM radio to receivethe signal to send to the speakers. An audiophile would notapprove because there is always degradation when the form ofaudio is put through extra conversions. This actually worksfairly well on boats, because one of the problems that has giventhis method a bad name is when strong local FM stations over-power the micro-power FM modulator. We rarely have strongFM stations in remote anchorages out in the islands.

The second method, which is commonly available in ste-reo stores, is a cassette tape adapter. This is often part of the“road kit” included with some portable stereos. This is a devicethat looks like a cassette tape with a wire attached to it. Thisworks okay, but the audio quality suffers from the conversionfrom electrical to magnetic and back again, which is needed toget the signal into the “play” head of the cassette player. An-other problem is that more and more automotive stereos havea CD player and no cassette player.

An audiophile would accept nothing less than a direct elec-trical interface. There are three ways that I know of to connectdirectly to an automotive stereo.

You can buy a stereo that has a line-level input. These areusually intended for plugging a portable device, like an MP3player, into the front panel. A few have rear panel inputs, whichmakes your installation much more professional-looking. Sur-prisingly enough, the cheaper stereos are the ones with the linelevel input. If your stereo has a few years on it, consider replac-ing it with one of these.

If you are using a CD changer, in addition to the basic ste-reo unit, check to see if your system uses a control cable and apair of familiar-looking RCA phono cables, between the changerand the stereo. You can put a switch box in line with the RCAcables and introduce your new sources of audio. The only catchis that you have to play a CD in the changer constantly, or thestereo will not accept the input and send it to the speakers. I’veseen many CD changers worn out doing just this for many hours.

Check with the manufacturer of your stereo to see if it hasan Aux input control unit. Some offer a box that you put be-tween the stereo and a CD changer (if you have one), whichactually interfaces with the control signals to give you addi-tional input selections on your stereo’s “mode” menu. I’ve usedone that even has a digital USB input to take data directly froma computer! These boxes are hard to find, because the majority

of auto stereo salesmen don’t know about them. Ask to see themanufacturer’s accessory book and look for yourself.

There is a drastic alternative to avoid the limitations inher-ent in using an automotive stereo, which is to use a householdstereo instead. There are two things wrong with this idea. First,the household stereo will be much larger. Most people don’twant a small home stereo. They spend a lot of money on it, so itshould be big and impressive. The second problem is that thereis almost no incentive for household stereos to be efficient withrespect to power consumption. With today’s inverters, it’s nota problem to provide power to a household stereo, but it’s a majorwaste of battery power if you like to listen to the stereo a lot.

Any of these methods will yield impressive results if yourstereo is relatively well situated around your TV, but it’s stillnot “surround sound,” unless you choose the household stereoapproach and manage to find a place for five speakers and asubwoofer in your saloon. This is totally subjective, but in myopinion, you get the most “bang for the buck” by just going fora clean interface to a simple, but good quality, two-speaker autostereo system.

You may have noticed that I have drifted from a simpleinterface to your VCR, to a host of other audio sources. That’sbecause it’s a natural progression. The new sources of musicand video fit right into a cruiser’s budget, both in respect to thecost and the space required. DVDs are much more compact thantapes and hard-disc-based music players are cheaper andsmaller than any other form of large music library. Your laptopcomputer can be your video screen, your music library, yournavigation computer and your e-mail handler! The one thingthat a laptop falls very short on is the speaker system. So hookit up!Stephen Sommer is a degreed electrical engineer with extensive expe-rience in electrical, mechanical, refrigeration and air-conditioningsystems and holds a USCG Masters license. He consults in all areasof yacht systems, which include all the equipment on board yachtsbeyond a basic hull and motor or sails.

Have a systems problem or question? Ask Stephen Sommer. E-mail: [email protected].

Hooking Up Your StereoSteve: I have a nice automotive-style stereo system installed in the saloon, where my TV and HiFi VCR are.Can I connect the VCR audio output to the stereo for “surround sound”?

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SHORT TACKSPeter Goldsmith and Michele Geslin Indicted by the Federal

Government for Organizing the Conch Republic CupOn June 10, a federal grand jury indicted the organizers of

the Conch Republic Cup, Peter Goldsmith and Michele Geslin,on two counts of providing unlicensed travel services to Cuba.This charge is for their actions in the 2003 Conch Republic Cupand for their actions in two prevous Cup races in 2000 and 2002.

The federal government indictments charge that the twowere providing travel services to other persons traveling to Cubawithout a proper OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) per-mit, even though they were warned, as stated in the officialgovernment press release (www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/Geslin.htm).

If convicted on the first count of the indictment, each per-son faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years and amaximum fine of $250,000. If convicted on the second count,each defendant faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10years and a maximum fine of $100,000.

Michele Geslin indicated that the federal prosecutors toldher they were going after her sailmaking business, GeslinSailmakers, a small sailmaking loft in Key West.

Is the Intracoastal Waterway in Danger of Closing Down?From the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center

Many boaters and marine organizations are totally unawarethat the United States Congress has allocated exactly $0 in fis-cal year 2005 for funding for dredging and necessary mainte-nance of the ICW from North Carolina to Florida. Already,Lockwoods’ Folly in North Carolina has shoaled to three feet atlow water, and commercial vessels are required to request per-mission for passage in advance. Cruisers returning north notedepths of six feet at high tide. The historic Dismal Swamp Ca-nal still carries six-foot depths, but due to lack of funding forthe locks in FY 2005, closure is a certainty without positive ac-tion. It won’t be long before many more areas of the ICW arerendered impassable to sailboats and, shortly thereafter, to ves-sels of all types, commercial and recreational.

One problem is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has de-clared the ICW a “low use” waterway, basing that decision oncommercial tonnage. No consideration is given to the thousandsof boaters who transit the ICW on their way south to Florida,the Bahamas or the Caribbean each year, the tens of thousandsof trips made by sport fisherman, and the heavy usage of theWaterway by local boaters. In fact, recreational boating is not

counted—at all! Recreational boaters are apparently not a fac-tor in this decision.

What are the ramifications of this decision? First of all, themany thousands of boaters who use the Waterway as their routesouth in the fall will be forced to either travel outside on theAtlantic Ocean ... or, far more likely, will curtail their travel south,at least by boat. This affects boaters from as far north as theGreat Lakes in Canada and the United States, and all of thenorthern states. It affects every single marine-oriented businesson the East Coast, as well as the many businesses catering totransients and local boaters on the Waterway, from boat towingcompanies to restaurants. Millions of dollars spent by boaterstransiting the Waterway will be lost to these businesses as aresult of this decision. And, not the least of considerations, avaluable and historic national resource will be lost to the citi-zens of the United States.

We are asking all boaters and marine-oriented organiza-tions and businesses to speak out against this decision. If westand together, we can prevent this disastrous decision fromdestroying one of America’s most important recreational boat-ing assets. Contact your congressmen and demand their sup-port of full funding for the Dismal Swamp Canal and for main-tenance of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in the Corps ofEngineers budget.

For further information, please contact Penny Leary Smith,Director, Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center, 252-771-8333,or e-mail [email protected]. Further resources:http://www.atlintracoastal.org/; www.dismalswamp.net.

U.S. Coast Guard Safety Alert –Prosar Technologies Products, May 25

The U.S. Coast Guard has issued the following Safety Alert.Recently during routine inspections, several U.S. Coast

Guard offices have discovered defective lifejacket lights madeby PROSAR Technologies. Some of these lights were found withvery noticeable deformations due to battery corrosion whileothers appeared perfectly normal but did not work when tested.Attempts to contact the manufacturer for repair or replacementof this equipment failed because the company is no longer inbusiness.

The U.S. Coast Guard is canceling all approvals forPROSAR Technologies lifesaving equipment because of thelights which have failed during testing and the fact that qualitycontrol of all their safety products cannot be verified.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/Geslin.htm


http://www.islandmarineproducts.com


SHORT TACKSA complete list of the models and the complete safety alert

with photo may be found on the Web: www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/moa/docs/prosar.htm.

The Coast Guard strongly recommends that vessel ownersand operators using any of the PROSAR Technologies equip-ment listed above replace those items with other USCG ap-proved safety equipment. For a complete list of USCG-approvedproducts, please visit our CGMIX Web site at http://cgmix.uscg.mil/Default.aspx and conduct a search for the prod-uct desired.

If similar problems are identified with other lights notmanufactured by PROSAR Technologies, or if you have ques-tions regarding this safety alert, contact Lt. Todd Howard ofthe Lifesaving and Fire Safety Standards Division [email protected] or (202) 267-6854.

Sail America Announces Renaming of All of its BoatShows to Strictly Sail

The five boat shows co-produced by Sail America and Na-tional Marine Manufacturers Association will now all fall un-der the Strictly Sail brand, according to a recent press releasefrom Sail America.

The Strictly Sail moniker, currently in use in Miami andChicago, will now also be used for shows in St. Petersburg, FL,Philadelphia, PA, and Oakland, CA, replacing the Sail Exponame used previously, Sail America said.

The change was made because show organizers say it willallow for more powerful branding of the events as a series of

the best all-sail shows in the country.“Our shows include the most comprehensive gatherings

of sailboats, gear and equipment in the country, and attractcrowds that are passionate about sailing in five of the highestconcentrated areas for sailing in the country,” said Sail Americaexecutive director Scot West. “The Strictly Sail name best re-flects those elements of each of our shows.”

The National Boat Show Committee—which includes rep-resentation from NMMA and Sail America—recommended tothe Sail America board that it use the Strictly Sail name goingforward, following the completion of surveys with exhibitorsand past show attendees.

Exhibitors showed no preference between Sail Expo andStrictly Sail, but when attendees were asked, they chose theStrictly Sail name at a ratio of 2-to-1 compared with Sail Expoand 5-to-1 over the next option, according to the associations.

“I am extremely pleased with this decision,” NMMA presi-dent Thom Dammrich said. “With all shows falling under theStrictly Sail banner, it will eliminate confusion for our exhibi-tors, allow us to communicate more effectively about the shows inconsumer and trade promotions and showcase these five events tosailors nationwide as the shows for everything sailing.”

Dates for the five Strictly Sail shows are:Strictly Sail St. Petersburg November 4-7, 2004Strictly Sail Philadelphia January 20-23, 2005 (Premiere event)Strictly Sail Chicago February 3-6, 2005Strictly Sail Miami February 17-21, 2005Strictly Sail Pacific April 13-17, 2005

http://www.uscg.mil/hg/gm/moa/docs/prosar.htm

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KEY WEST RACE

The Galleon Marina with regatta boats. Photo by Steve Morrell

This year 78 boats en-tered the race to KeyWest, sponsored by

the Clearwater Yacht Club.Traditionally, the race, nowcalled the Key West Ren-dezvous Regatta, left fromClearwater and Naples,and this year a third startwas added from off BocaGrande. Florida SailingAssociation’s Big BoatChampionship in KeyWest, and the Key West toNaples race on the returnare also part of the Rendez-vous. Entries have in-creased from 24 in 2000 to78 this year. Much of whathas made this possible hasbeen the support of Den-nis and Susan Reardenthrough the sponsorshipof Vox Vodka.

This year’s race was marked by a variety of wind condi-tions, some breakdowns and a few adventures—not surprisingwith this many boats.

The start off Clearwater was noon on May 19 with 12-15knots of wind. Spinnaker boats were required to round the MOAbuoy farther west, and many of that class took the rhumb linefrom there to Key West. Non-Spinnaker, Multihull, and TrueCruising were not required to sail that far west, and some boatshugged close to shore. Some went farther out. In 2003, windswere non-existent farther out, and many boats this year stayedcloser to shore in search of evening offshore winds.

As it turned out, winds were plentiful for almost everyoneexcept in the middle of Florida Bay on Thursday afternoonwhere many floated in the doldrums for hours-some for as littleas three hours and others for as long as 10 hours.

First to arrive in Key West in the Spinnaker monohull classwas Steve Mills and crew aboard the J/125, Velux. Steve sailedwith winds of 15 knots from the start and, except for severalhours when the winds died down, this condition held. Althoughfirst to arrive at 5:07 Thursday afternoon, Velux placed fifth incorrected time in the Spinnaker A class (Velux also was first tofinish in the recent Regata del Sol al Sol race to Mexico, althoughthe boat placed fifth in corrected time. Velux has a rating of -3.)First place in the class was taken by Intimidator.

To no one’s surprise, multihulls were the first to arrive inKey West from Clearwater. At 12:36 Thursday afternoon, Mer-lin, a trimaran designed by Peter Wormwood and owned and

19th AnnualKey West Rendezvous Regatta 2004May 19, Clearwater Yacht ClubBy Steve Morrell

skippered by Bob Buzelli, crossed the finish line with a totalelapsed time of 24 hours and 15 minutes. Merlin also took firstin the class in corrected time, followed by Key Lime in secondand Strider in third. All three arrived in Key West before themonohull Velux.

Doran Cushing, onboard Key Lime, a Corsair F-31 trimaranthat finished second overall and in corrected time in theMultihull division from Clearwater, stated, “The race was tac-tical only in trying to shorten the distance by not straying toofar from the rhumb line while staying in the breeze through thenight. Aboard Key Lime, we slowed to under five knots off thewind for an hour or so during the lightest part of the first night,but when the wind filled from the east/southeast, we wereclose-hauled and close-reaching at 10 to 15 knots all the wayacross Florida Bay to the finish. Merlin finished less than 30minutes in front of us, but we never saw them after the firstevening. Key Lime sailed with a crew of four including ownerKurt Gregory.”

Since most boats reported hitting the doldrums in themiddle of Florida Bay on Thursday from early afternoon on,it appears that the multihull and faster monohulls missedthese by passing through these areas earlier and a little bitfarther to the west.

John Hargraeves, on board the Hunter Legend 37, SpecialK, owned and skippered by Bob Klement, sailing fromClearwater in Non-Spinnaker, said they experienced steadywinds for most of the ride south till about 2 p.m. on Thursday


Blue Moon’s crew. From left to right, Julie Francis, Steve Bird, Linda Loetell,Nancy Baird, Isabelle Audet, Doug King, and Bobby Crawford. Photo bya mad cow.

when, in the middle of Florida Bay, winds came to a completehalt. This lasted till midnight giving them ten hours of dol-drums-drifting and seeking any light breeze to move them outof the heat and toward Key West. Twenty knot winds then car-ried them into the finish to arrive just before 6 a.m. Friday.

Children at Play, a Wavelength 33, in the Spinnaker classout of Naples, skippered by Jack Grafe and Brent Hamiltonwas about 40 miles south of Naples when the crew almost losttheir mast due to chainplate failure. They dropped out in windsgusting to 33 knots and had to motor back to Naples.

This year the start off Boca Grande began at noon on Thurs-day, and four boats, each having its own class, made the start-and four trophys were handed out. Each of the boats won intheir class, of course. It is hoped that next year this start willinclude more boats.

It was reported that another boat (SOUTHWINDS is sure ofthis story but unsure of the boat or departure location), be-lieved to have been out of Boca Grande, lost its rudder early onin the race and called a towing service who responded thatsince ocean conditions were rough that night, they would notcome out in those conditions, so the boat anchored offshoreand spent the night waiting till it was towed in in the morning.

Many boats have found the final leg into Key West downthe Northwest Channel to be a bit challenging—especiallywhen winds forced tacking down the channel. One of the boatsout of Boca Grande, Windig, an Irwin 43 owned and skipperedby Bill Hoffman, with a crew of three women, was forced totack as they approached the marker at the beginning of thechannel on Friday afternoon. After losing ground in rain andthree hours of tacking, they decided to motor in, knowing thattacking up the channel would probably put them in Key Westafter midnight. As it was, they came in at 8:30 that evening.

THE ADVENTURES OF THE SLOOPBLUE MOONThe boat that had the most adventurous journey was Blue Moon,a C & C 40 owned by Bobby Crawford and Nancy Baird.

Blue Moon left Clearwater sailing in the True Cruising withSpinnaker class (sailing with a gennaker, or cruising spinna-ker). They raised their gennaker shortly after the noon startand were sailing in good conditions and making about 7 knotsin 12-plus knots of wind. They had left most of their class com-petitors behind and were catching up and passing many in theNon-Spinnaker class. As the wind built up around sunset, theylowered the gennaker, which was raised and lowered in a sock.Unfortunately the halyard got stuck, and it couldn’t be low-ered, so with gennaker strapped to the mast part way up—and the top part flailing in the wind—they continued on theirway. In the early morning hours on Thursday they then hadproblems with the roller-furled headsail, and the jib came downwith the halyard also stuck at the top. By this time, they wereoff the Boca Grande inlet and knew that racing to Key Westwas not one of their best options. They discussed someonegoing up top to investigate and possibly fix the problem, butwith 4- to 5-foot seas, 18 knots of wind, and total darkness,they decided against that option but knew they needed to getrepairs completed under more controlled conditions. Know-ing Boca Grande pass is not the best inlet to enter unless condi-tions are optimal (especially in the dark), they made the deci-sion to motor down and go inside at Fort Myers Beach, a muchmore protected and easily accessible inlet.

They arrived at Ogden’s Marina around 9 a.m., where re-

pairs were quickly made, and they were on their way by 11:30a.m. They had restocked with ice and other refreshments andwere enjoying some noon beer-drinking while under way whenthe idea occurred to them that they could possibly join theNaples to Key West race, which departed from Naples at 7 p.m.(This could be proof that beer drinking can boost one’s bold-ness and creativity.) They contacted the race committee inNaples who were obliging enough to welcome them in thatrace, and they then proceeded to motorsail to Naples, and ar-rived two hours before the start time.

They started with 12-15 knots of wind on a close reach, raninto one nice rainstorm and some doldrums like many othersand then, at last, fighting an outgoing current with virtually nowind as they proceeded down the Northwest channel, theycrossed the finish line around 11:30 Friday morning.

I suggested to Bobby Crawford that they rename the boatTenacious after that endeavor (which would also be an appro-priate name), and we joked that the crew should receive a spe-cial award for their persistence, although it was rumoured thatthey enjoyed themselves along the way by drinking beer andother refreshment and always had good food onboard.

http://www.jroverseas.com


KEY WEST RACE

Mad Cow at the Galleon in Key West. Sleeping quarters were on deck on this J/24. Photo bySteve Morrell.

My hat goes off to owners Bobby Crawford and NancyBaird, and crew.

FIVE ABOARD A J/24: MAD COWTo sail a 24-foot boat from Clearwater to Key West non-stophas certainly been done many times before, but more than likelyboats that size are designed more for coastal cruising, and ac-commodations are probably more geared to a greater level ofcomfort than that offered by a J/24.

To do so with a crew of five makes such a trip a truly uniquefeat, and I can personally testify, having talked to the crew sev-eral times as I walked past their small boat at the Galleon docks,that they were in as jovial a mood as anyone there-and enjoyedthis race as much as others like myself, who had the comfortsof a larger boat. I marveled when one of the crew pointed to thedifferent spots on deck where crewmembers slept. What spaceon deck?

Owners Ed Ruark and Dave German had recently refittedMad Cow with new equipment and gear after two months ofwork and were using this race as their shakedown cruise (per-haps cruise is not the proper term here). They showed up earlyon Wednesday morning off Clearwater at the race start to testthe new equipment and see how it would all perform, and de-termined that all was well.

Sailing in the Spinnaker class, they rounded the MOA offTampa Bay and then headed closer to shore in search of winds,hoping to get to another rhumb line south—somewhere aroundVenice. They too ran into a thunderstorm and eight hours of

doldrums in Florida Bay—conditions experiencedby most on this trip.

To save weight and conserve space, their onlyrefreshment on board was water, and their mealswere MREs. Yes, that’s right; MREs. Meals Ready toEat. Food fit for war and other harsh conditions.

Deciding not to sail back, possibly because offear of eating more MREs, Dave’s wife broughtthe boat trailer down, and they towed the boathome to Tampa Bay.

I have been told that the crew on Mad Cow havesailed together for a long time, know the boat welland are an exceptional crew. I applaud them andanother special award and congratulations shouldbe handed out to them for their efforts. Few wouldmake a trip like this with this many on such aboat, and even fewer would go along for the foodand drink-all this while racing. Of course, doing

so on a leisurely pace would make the trip last longer. Could bean incentive to go faster.

AVE DEL MAR, A WESTSAIL 32, RACES TO KEYWEST—AND GOES FAST!Not known for its racing ability, Westsail 32s have carried manysailors over many sea miles in the cruising world. Ave del Mar,out of Naples and skippered by Jim Wylie, raced to Key West.Jim seemed to love the conditions and the race. He reported:

“The Naples/Key West race started with ideal weatherconditions for a Westsail 32. Winds were out of the west at about10-15 knots with relatively calm seas. As expected, during thenight, the winds died and then clocked around to the east at 20-25 knots and the seas built to 4-6 feet (Westsail weather). Wecould still see many of the boats in our class all around us, butwith our increased speed (7 1/2 - 8 knots) we appeared to beclosing the gap with the boats ahead of us.

“At about 3:00 a.m. Friday morning, I did my routine sailinspection and found that a seam in the main had parted, leav-ing a gaping hole from leach to luff. After an unsuccessful emer-gency repair, we decided to douse the main and continue withjust the jib and staysail.Our speed reduced to just over six knots,but at least we were still sailing and could hopefully finish the race.

“The final test would be tacking down the Northwest chan-nel against the wind with just a jib and staysail. I lost track ofthe number of tacks it took, but we finally crossed the finishline about 12:50 p.m., and to our amazement found that wehad taken a second-place spot just five minutes behind the first-place boat (in corrected time).

“Many thanks to the crew of Ave del Mar for their persis-tence and fine seamanship.”

ONBOARD DEBORAH: SNATCHING DEFEAT FROMTHE JAWS OF VICTORYDeborah, a Pearson 365, almost didn’t make the race from Naplesto Key West. Two days before the start, its third crewmember(rules require three minimum) canceled. Having already paidthe race fees and dockage, owner John Hodes made over 30calls trying to find crew to make the race. He had given up onthe race when he finally got a call the day before the race fromsomeone interested in going.

Back in the race, he hurriedly fuels up his boat and rushesto the skippers meeting to register and get his race packet. Hear-

See RENDEZVOUS continued on page 61

http://www.sailexchange.com


The Intrepid crew. Photo by someone walking down the dock.

I had the good fortune to sail aboard Intrepid, a J/40 ownedby Jeff and Susan Russo of St. Petersburg. They had cam-

paigned the boat in the 2002-2003 series of races in Tampa Bay

and won Davis Island Boat of the Year and WFPHRF Woman’sBoat of the Year, plus number two spots in the Tampa Bay YachtRacing Association Champions of the Bay series as well as theWest Florida PHRF series. This last season they decided to takethe year off from racing, but my previous experience with themproved they know the boat well and race it aggressively. Be-sides being the best of hosts, Jeff and Susan also pride them-selves in being dedicated cooks, and there is never a shortageof good food and drink on Intrepid.

The J/40 is not the typical J-boat that most people envi-sion-the racing “sled” design that is typical of J-boats. This is atrue cruiser/offshore racer with all the quality and features that

go along with J-boats, yet it carries comfortable accommoda-tions below and a large cockpit for enjoyable, above-deck cruis-ing. Under sail, especially in winds above 15 knots, the boatgives one the feeling of a powerful boat that always yearns togo faster-and loves it. It never seems to have enough wind tobe totally satisfied. With a rating of 91, many non-spinnakerboats need to be behind and out of sight for Intrepid to placewell-and this has happened often in its racing past, both withJeff and Susan as owners and under a previous owner. She haswon the Clearwater to Key West Race several times.

A crew of eight experienced sailors went along for the rideto Key West aboard this wonderful boat. The boat was beingsailed in the Non-Spinnaker class. The first day started out cross-ing the line on a beam reach, port tack with easterly winds, andwe were at the front of the pack for the first two hours as weheaded south to take the sea buoy off Tampa Bay to port. Anoutgoing freighter, seemingly perfectly timed to be on a colli-sion course with the lead boats, hailed the sailing yachts to con-firm their intentions to give way. Timing could not have beenmore perfect (or is it imperfect?) for an encounter. Several, In-trepid included, had to significantly alter course to avoid theoutbound ship. This cost Intrepid and others in the lead to lose someof the gains they had made in the first few hours of the race.

The rest of our day was sailed on a broad reach, wing andwing with pole up, keeping somewhat close to shore in search

Clearwater to Key West on Intrepid, J/40By Steve Morrell

http://www.crowsnest-venice.com


KEY WEST RACE

Jeff and Sue Russo, owners of Intrepid. The Coast Guard Cutter Eagle, inthe background, was in Key West during the Rendezvous. Photo by SteveMorrell.

of the land-effect offshore breezes that so often arise alongFlorida’s west coast as the peninsula heats up with the longerdays. Last year, in the 2003 race, Jeff and Susan, along withmany others, sailed offshore in search of winds yet ran intocomplete calm. Most of last year’s fleet ended up motoringinto Key West as calm conditions prevailed throughout thefirst night of the race, leaving many barely gaining any groundover a 12-hour period.

This year’s gamble to stick closer to shore definitelyended up differently. Just about every condition of sail wasencountered, except extreme cold-hard to find in late May—which no one claimed to miss. Late Wednesday evening, aseries of westbound thunderstorms marched across our pathas we headed south. As they seemed to be dissipating on theeastern edge, we had hoped to skirt behind them and left thewhisker pole up, desirous to maintain speed. We were doingfairly well in making time to Key West, but one cell capturedus, forcing the crew to take down the pole and 155 headsailin heavy shifting winds while getting battered with rain. Bythe time all was said and done, Intrepid had lost much groundgained earlier, and we continued along at 7+ knots undermainsail only in 17-18 knots of wind.

Sometime after midnight, the wind started to die down,so we put the headsail back up and were about to raise thewhisker pole when the wind shifted, and we began to sail ona beam reach in conditions that the J/40s were designed for.Reaching 9-10 knots, we sailed along in the early morninghours under clear skies in beautiful and idyllic cruising con-ditions. Those down below felt the surge, gave up on tryingto sleep, and came up top to enjoy what Intrepid does best: gofast. This continued through the early daylight hours till thewind slowly died down, whereupon we encountered sev-eral hours of doldrums. This lack of wind, of course, broughton the hot and humid conditions so typical of Florida whenno breeze or shade can be found, and some of us still won-dered if cold would not have been better at this point.

Making little headway and stuck in the middle of FloridaBay, yet attempting to get some movement by raising a smalldrifter and sailing in any direction except north to try andmove the boat, Intrepid seemed to have lost ground in its trekto Key West. As we slowly drifted 10 miles off our intendedrhumb line and no closer to Key West, we all wondered how

Shady Lady, Cal 34,Clearwater to Key WestBy Capt. Anne Wister

Motoring out of Clearwater Pass to the starting line, thewind was uncommitted, and we wondered if we would

be sitting becalmed or motoring to Key West again this year.Some of the early boats flew spinnakers across the startingline, and by the time the True Cruising class started, the windbegan to fill in, and we watched the colored chutes headingfor the southwestern horizon as we set our course for the Pass-A-Grille outer marker. Shady Lady, Steve Honour’s Cal 34, carried her 180 genoa

long this would last, and as the calm continued, we one byone gave up on reaching the Conch Republic for any late nighthappy hour-like celebrations. The fact that we did not turn toheavy beer-drinking under these thirsting conditions is trulyadmirable (one or two were consumed, nevertheless).

As all things do come to an end, so did the doldrums,and by late afternoon, the winds began to increase. We againsailed under beautiful conditions till early evening when thewinds picked up to 17-18 knots, whereupon we put a reef inthe main and continued on towards the Northwest Channeloutside Key West, planning to arrive at the channel’s outer-most light sometime after midnight Friday morning. Beforereaching that mark, we encountered a string of shrimpboats,which lay scattered across our path from east to west, ap-pearing like a series of brightly lit streetlights on the darkhorizon. Working our way through them, we managed toenter the channel around midnight. We were lucky with thewind as we earlier foresaw the probability of tacking up thechannel—not the most desired way to enter a channel whichis only a few hundred yards wide with lit red markers to star-board and mostly unlit green markers to port (one of whichwe saw up close). This under 17-18 knots of wind and at night.Although we did not have to tack, we did sail down the chan-nel close-hauled, making the approach all the more exciting.At last, we managed to cross the finish line in calm watersoutside the Galleon Resort and Marina around 1:30 a.m.—still enough time to have a few celebratory beers in the weehours of the morning but too late to meander down DuvallStreet for further excitement.

All in all, it was a truly exciting trip down, which en-countered all the fun and challenges of sailing. We’ll take thisover calms and motoring any day. The rest of the Key WestRendezvous 2004 (as they now call it) included lots of walk-ing and talking-with drinks in hand and good food all around.

I also was fortunate enough to have SOUTHWINDS’ Keyseditor and artist Rebecca Burg and her friend Capt. BillRobinson (local fishing guide, sailor and photographer) actas tour guides both on land and water during my short stayin the Conch Republic.

We’ll be back next year, but do we go outside or stay closeto shore for those ever-sought-after winds? We’ll see, as eachtime it is a gamble.

Local News For Southern Sailors SOUTHWINDS May 2004 31

and homemade, super-long pole as we kept the outer mark-ers to port and settled in at 172 degrees heading for Smith’sShoal. The wind held, and we breathed a sigh of relief as theSkyway Bridge slowly faded from view-especially after lastyear’s no wind and 14-hour Skyway watch. We watched thespinnaker boats disappearing westward on their way to MOA,some with chutes trimmed close to the starboard rail in theport tack southeast breeze. Sailing the familiar course (Steve’s15th race to Key West) at around seven knots, Shady Lady slidon by some of the other true cruisers who had had a betterstart and then started checking off some non-spinnaker boatsone by one. When I came up for my 11 p.m. watch, Craig was alone atthe helm. As I wiped the sleep out of my eyes, he said, “Lookslike a storm ahead.” I felt the wind freshen and heard Craigcall brother Steve from below with, “Storm on the bow!”

Steve called back, “Get the jib down!” and flew out of thecompanionway, harness on. He hooked in, ran forward andwe wrestled the 180 down onto the deck as the wind sprangfrom 10 to 20 knots. Diane Allen counted five drops of rain aswe sailed main alone till the storm front passed, then put upthe 150 and sailed on through the night.

It looked like a clear shot with good breeze, but by Thurs-day at 1:30 p.m. the wind had disappeared, and we started tosweat. We kept racing, looking for puffs, trying to skirt theholes and will ourselves to the mirage of wind lines aheadand managed a knot and a half for a bit, but finally came to adead calm and sat in the doldrums for four and a half hours.

The only consolation was the flat seas, after the 2- to 3-footchop of the night before. We dropped an anchor at one pointwhen the GPS read 54.2 miles from Smith’s Shoal after read-ing 54.1 a moment before. The anchor touched bottom, butShady Lady went forward over it so we pulled it back up ondeck and worked hard for our .5-2 knots for another three tofour hours. We did the math and knew we had to start theengine at 1:30 a.m. Friday to make it to the first party (a ShadyLady prerequisite) and waited patiently, hoping for wind, goodwind. The wind gods were with us, and at 11:30 Thursday nighta storm front came over, gave us a great gust, another quick180-150 headsail change (one minute bare-headed) and wewere off at seven knots in the fresh, and lasting, easterlybreeze. Watching the lights of five other boats through the night,passing two and jockeying back and forth with another, werounded Smith’s Shoal at daybreak, putting another few boatsbehind us, and sailed on a freshening 16-18 knot breeze rightup to the port beam of a Disney cruise ship. Three tacks andwe were over the finish line with silent acknowledgment, asnoise was prohibited till 9 a.m. Our slip wasn’t ready yet sowe rafted up at the Key West Bight dock, showered and gotready to party. It was a great race, and we won our class, butthe real reward was a weekend in Key West!

Captain Anne Wister runs charter sailboats for Dolphin Landingsin St. Pete Beach, www.dolphinlandings.com

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SOUTHEASTCOAST

GEORGIA

SOUTHCAROLINA

NORTH CAROLINA

Beaufort

Charleston

Savannah

Wilmington

SOUTHEAST COAST SAILINGCarolinas & Georgia

Racing News & CalendarNews for Sailors

SAILING IN JULYBy Rona Garm

Mid-May brought North Carolinasailors out in force. With the

warmest temperatures of the season,sunny skies and light winds, partici-pants in the Wrightsville Beach OceanRacing Association (WBORA) MichelobMini Series/WBORA Points 1&2/PHRFIntraclub Championship Races 1 and 2didn’t mind the races doing “tripleduty.” First place Racing went toCothran Harris on the J/24 Double Darewhile first place Cruising went to long-time WBORA sailor John Karlof and thecrew of Epsilon.

The following weekend saw therecord for the Albemarle 100 shatteredby nearly 90 minutes by the Bavaria 44Sea Ya owned by Colington Yacht ClubFleet Capt. Frank Silver.

That same weekend saw lightwinds for Southport’s Leukemia CupRegatta and the first races of the Caro-lina Yacht Club’s ocean series offWrightsville Beach. Bob Cowen aboardMurray Seidel’s J/24 Screaming Bansheetook first in the Spinnaker fleet while JimPike took first in Non-Spinnaker at theLeukemia Cup Regatta. Off WrightsvilleBeach, 41 sailors raced four five-leg racesfor CYC on Sunday afternoon. Jim Har-ris and crew took home the Lightningfirst. Top Laser finishers were GlennWalker and Jimmy Carter, and GregZack tied for the Sunfish first.

Southport’s Cape Fear Yacht Clubran the second race of its summer PHRFseries in great conditions in the CapeFear River, and it was won by ScottKaseman (Lucky Stumbler).

The 2004 Southeast Lightning Dis-trict Voodoo Regatta was held in light,light, light winds at Lake Norman withPete Marriott and crew Lauren andRandy Beauchamp in first.

Wrapping up the month of May, theWilmington Group Offshore Regatta ranfrom Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort.Robin Team and the Teamwork boysadded to their 1993, 1996, and 1999 winsof this race with another first in 2004. Sat-

urday brought roughseas and good winds tothe 22nd Annual NCState Championship Re-gatta in Beaufort whereTeamwork put together astring of bullets for a solidfirst in Spinnaker A. DevilDog (Gray) took first inthe Spinnaker B fleet, andthe Non Spinnaker fleet was won by theSan Juan 28 Kari’d On.

Upcoming Events,Racing & Non-Racing

July 1 - Independence DayRegatta at the Carolina Yacht Club,Wrightsville Beach, NCwww.carolinayachtclub.org

July 2 - Full MoonJuly 2-3 - Oriental, NC, hosts

Croaker Fest with a Croaker Queen Con-test, music, food and fireworks. Thisyear’s theme?Croakers in Paradise! www.towndock.net

July 2-5 - Southport’s first officialFourth of July celebration was recordedin 1795. It’s grown to a multi-day eventand is the Official North Carolina Fourthof July Celebration. With everythingfrom art shows to pancake breakfasts,games and entertainment for childrenand adults, and of course, parades andfireworks. The people of Southport in-vite you to join them and share amemory that will last a lifetime.www.nc4thofjuly.com.

July 3 - As part of the NC Fourth ofJuly Celebration in Southport, Cape FearYacht Club hosts its Commodore’s CupRegatta. www.cfycnc.com

July 3-4 - Lake Norman Yacht Clubhosts a two-day Independence Day Re-gatta with sailing, fireworks, dinner anddancing. Keelboats, centerboard dinghiesand juniors will all race on separate courses.www.lakenormanyachtclub.org

JulyPrevailing WindsSee page 62 forWindrose legend

July 4 - Charleston,SC, has a multitude ofevents celebrating ournation’s independence.Last year over 35,000people visited Ameri-ca’s National CarrierAviation Museum forthe Patriots Point Fourthof July Blast. Bands,

food, and fireworks launched from theaircraft carrier Yorktown. Fireworks willalso be launched at Brittlebank Park fol-lowing the Riverdogs baseball game.Nearby Summerville’s annual patrioticcelebration, “Red, White, and Blue onthe Green,” is an old-fashioned celebra-tion around Hutchinson Square whileFolly Beach launches its display fromthe ocean at dark. www.charlestonlowcountry.com

July 9-11 - The 39th AnnualHancock Regatta will be hosted by theHancock Marina, MCAS Cherry Point,NC. Due to increased security at thebase, early registration is encouraged,including names of crew members.www.nyra.orgE-mail: [email protected]

July 10-11 - In the winter of 1962, aRaleigh socialite and an Oriental, NC,dinghy dealer got together with a fewothers to plan a summer social to aug-ment the one sailboat in Oriental and cel-ebrate the socialite’s birthday. As therewere no motels or restaurants, everyonebrought a dish and everyone was wel-come. This event changed Oriental froma quiet fishing village to a coastal retreatfor the Raleigh workforce. Many of thecurrent residents are sailors who movedto Oriental as a result of the social. www.carolinasailingclub.org

July 16-18 - Summer SweatboxCruise, Wrightsville Beach, NC toSouthport, NC. www.wbora.org

July 22-25 - The Cape Fear BluesFestival brings exceptional live music todowntown Wilmington. www.capefearblues.com

Southeast Coast July Weather

JULY WATER TEMPERATURECape Hatteras, NC - 78°Savannah, GA - 85°AVERAGE JULY TEMPERATURESCape Hatteras, NC 74° lo - 85° hiSavannah, GA 72° lo - 92° hi

For Real Time SoutheastCoast Weather go to:www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Southeast.shtml

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Southeast.shtml

http://www.carolinayachtclub.org

http://www.towndock.net

http://www.nc4thofjuly.com

http://www.cfycnc.com

http://www.lakenormanyachtclub.org

http://www.charlestonlowcountry.com

http://www.nyra.org


http://www.carolinasailingclub.org

http://www.wbora.org

http://www.capefearblues.com


SOUTHEAST COAST SAILING

July 24-25 - Southeast Lightning District Regatta inCharleston, SC. www.sailsoutheast.org

July 25 - Coastal Jazz Sunday at the Hyatt.www.savannahga.gov

July 31-1 - The Blockade Runner Beach Resort holdstwo days of racing off Wrightsville Beach, NC. On Sat-urday, boats will compete in several round-the-buoyraces while Sunday is the traditional Solo Race.www.wbora.org

Rescued sailors at USCG Air Station,Eliazbeth City, NC. Photo by Rona Garm.

Several North Carolina sailors got morethan they expected during a trip from

Wrightsville Beach, NC, to Green Turtle Cayin the Bahamas. What was anticipated to bean uneventful three-day trip followed by afew days of snorkeling and bone fishingturned into a fight for survival.

In March, three experienced sailors setoff aboard Dulcinea, a Pearson 35. They wereBill Fuller, Sr. (owner) of Wilmington, NC,Brian Hovey (owner) of Charlotte, NC, andTim Balding (crew) of Wilmington, NC. Allthree sailors and boat had significant off-shore experience. Less than 12 hours aftertheir departure, the East Coast was as-saulted by a rapidly moving cold front,bringing 60 to 70 mph winds. Suddenly,their relaxing sail became a nightmare.

Although the crew had reduced sail asnight fell, the sudden gale force winds tookthem by surprise as the boat was laid over onher side for several minutes. Sails shredded as the crewstruggled to regain control of the vessel. Water fouled theengine leaving them without an alternate means of propul-

sion. Although the initial gusts subsided, winds remainedabove 25 knots, pushing the boat through 10-foot seas un-der bare poles.

After an endless night, the crew found themselves stillin high winds and caught in the Gulf Stream carrying themnorthward. Over 60 miles offshore, they were out of cellularand VHF range with no way of contacting help or obtaininga weather forecast. A lessening in winds that night gave thema reprieve well into Tuesday when they hoisted a light airgennaker, trying to work their way against the winds andseas toward the coast. The two crew members spent the dayattempting to repair the engine. Then, arcing electricity dam-aged the installed electronics. Throughout the day, the morefavorable winds propelled them toward the coast, and theyfelt they were making good progress. However, as the windsagain reached 30 knots, they removed sail, hove to and at-tempted sail repairs—with a needle made from a safety pin.Conditions worsened through the night, and the next dayfound them drifting northward, past their port of departure,around Frying Pan Shoals and towards Cape Lookout. Littledid they know that they were on the edge of a huge low pres-sure system rolling up the coast.

A meeting on their last morning aboard found them hop-ing that the afternoon would bring a more easterly wind that,along with the Gulf Stream, would bring them within radiorange of Beaufort, NC. The sailors huddled below, listeningto the increasing winds and building seas. When the 15-footseas began breaking, they worried that the boat would becompletely rolled. By afternoon, all were in agreement. Withwaves towering 15-20 feet, well over the deck of the boat,they triggered the last minute addition to their equipment - aPains Wessex SOS Precision 406 GPS EPIRB. Although theywere unaware, within minutes a signal had been interceptedby the U.S. Coast Guard and a call placed to the skipper’sfamily who anticipated that the sailors were well into the Ba-

Sailors Survive Storm Offthe Carolina Coast:Technology Aids RescueBy Rona Garm

Upcoming Events, Racing & Non-Racingcontinued

http://www.sailsoutheast.org

http://www.savannahga.gov

http://www.wbora.org



hamas after three days of sailing. Imag-ine the shock when, fifteen minutes later,the USCG called with their location - 90miles east of Wilmington, their startingpoint. At the same time, a USCG HC-130was launched from the nearest facility,into the storm toward the reported loca-tion. After three hours, the plane madecontact with the boat through the sail-ors’ handheld radio. With contact estab-lished, the HH60 Jayhawk helicopterCG6001 was put in the air with two pi-lots, Aircraft Commander Sherman andLt. Harkins, AMT2 Davis, the flight me-chanic/hoist operator, and Tim Kessel,the rescue swimmer.

Arriving at the boat, USCG person-nel reported wind gusts to 50 knots andseas routinely at or above 20 feet withsome as high as 40 feet. At this point thesailors had to leave the relative safety ofthe boat and leap into the seas for a 50-yard swim to the rescue swimmer. Coldand wet, they were whisked to theWilmington, NC, airport where theywere greeted by EMS and relieved fam-ily and friends.

Two days later a salvage effort wasattempted, homing on the continuing

Dulcinea departing Wrightsville Beach, NC.Photo by Bob Thompson

GPS locator beacon. No vessel wasfound.

June 1, the three rescued sailors re-lived one of the most terrifying weeks oftheir lives at the Wilmington Rotary Clubmeeting. Along with other Rotary mem-bers and guests, they were joined by theUSCG members who rescued them toview a multi-media presentation of the

rescue. USCG personnel re-viewed the capabilities ofthe rescue craft and theirmission, which includesnot only search and rescue,but also Medivac and lawenforcement.

The sailors and their rescuers re-called their experiences so that otherscould learn from not only their mistakesbut also their perseverance and skillsduring the days they were at the mercyof the sea.

When asked if they’d go again, allthree said yes, but...

All would do something different:bring additional equipment for them-selves or the boat. However, all were inagreement that the EPIRB saved theirlives. Specifically, an EPIRB with an in-ternal GPS receiver that broadcasts anupdated, accurate position every 20 min-utes. Once activated, the EPIRB trans-mits for a minimum of 48 hours. Theirs,borrowed from a neighbor on the morn-ing of departure, transmitted for over 72hours. They all hope that others will alsorealize that you can never be too prepared,too careful, when dealing with the sea.

SOUTHEAST COAST SAILING

http://www.coralreefsailing.net


Escaping what seemedto be a string of bad

luck the last time around,this fourth installment ofthe Halifax River YachtClub’s Gulfstreamer racefrom Daytona Beach, FL,to Charleston, SC, wasrelatively smooth sailing.

With more than 20boats starting and 18 even-tually finishing, not tomention winds that heldsteady for about the firsthalf of the race, it was a welcome relief to the organizers whosaw only three boats finish in 2002.

Co-hosted by the Charleston Yacht Club, the biennialevent is an increasingly popular point-to-point overnightocean race that takes southeastern sailors over 225 nauticalmiles, with most avoiding the rhumb line in favor of a bigswing offshore to take advantage of the Gulf Stream’s aver-age 3- to 4-knot northerly push.

“It was a good event overall,” said Charleston’s JimCondon, who sailed on Osprey. “This was my third one, andthis was the best weather of them all.”

Conditions ranged from a steady southeasterly in theteens building to the upper teens and gusting beyond 20 knotsFriday night that helped some of the speedier spinnaker boatspush 20 knots over ground once they hit the Stream, to a near-calm drifter for much of Saturday that was bearable only be-cause of the great gains made the night before.

The race has grown since its first running in 1998, de-spite a trend in most clubs toward shorter day races. This yearsaw three entries from Jacksonville, FL, up from only one,Angel’s Wing, in 2002. That boat’s skipper, Dave Doolin, saidhe found out about the Gulfstreamer after becoming inter-ested in racing to Bermuda.

“I was talking to a friend who did the Bermuda race, and Itold him I’d like to do that, and he said to try this one,” Doolinsaid. “He said it would take about a year to get everything ready,so I started then and raced in this one two years ago.”

The Morgan 30 took third in the Sprint in 2002 anddropped out of the rest of the race, but Doolin spread the wordback home.

“I went to the association and told them it’s a lot of fun,”he said. “In Jacksonville we don’t get any ocean races longerthan about 30 miles, but in this one you get to spend two orthree days.”

Race Director and HRYC Commodore Bob Ford, racing onperennial Gulf Streamer Last Mangas, said it took a lot of workduring the two off-years to build interest in the event.

“It’s tough to get these guys out there in these boats,” hesaid. Some of Ford’s efforts included ads in Sailing World andSOUTHWINDS that he says showed definite results, and a mail-ing to everyone who’s ever raced in or expressed interest in theevent. “Things went our way,” he said. “You learn every time.”

The race began with the traditional “Sprint” from a startline just outside the Ponce de Leon Inlet and up the coast 10miles to a turning buoy just off Daytona’s Main Street Pier.With the sea breeze steadily building, the fleet quickly splitby displacement as lighter boats shook off their momentumsoonest. Winds settled in the southeast at eight to ten knotsby the time the first boats reached the pier, making for a goodbroad reach for most.

First to turn the corner was Hunter’s Child, the 1990 WarrenLuhrs-designed 50-foot single-hander that finished second inthe 1994-1995 BOC under Steve Pettengill and showed up inDaytona fresh off this year’s double-handed Bermuda One/Two Race. Hunter’s Child went on to also take line honors inCharleston with an elapsed time of 31:57:28. But first place inthe Sprint in the spinnaker class went to Tigress, followed byObsession and Angel’s Wing. In the non-spinnaker class, Copper-head took first in the Sprint, followed by Lionheart, which even-tually dropped out of the race, and Daytona’s Last Mangas. Inthe cruising class, Outward Bound won the Sprint, followed bySweetwater, another later drop-out, and Sanity.

Special trophies went to Tigress for being first to finish with

OCEAN RACING

Gulstreamer Race: Daytona Beach, FL, to Charleston, SCMay 28, 225 Nautical MilesBy Jim Kempert

The crew of Knot Numb just before start. Photo by Steve Morrell.

http://www.bosunsupplies.com


a woman on board at 39:24:50 elapsed time and correcting tosecond overall, to Shenanigan for catching the largest fish, andto Celadon for finishing last in the cruising class despite anelapsed time of 40:15:29, which was tenth best of the 18 boatsthat finished. Celadon, it should be noted, was scored with aspinnaker rating of 88 despite declaring cruising class anddespite a long record of racing with a rating of 105 in Charles-ton. In a detailed post-race discussion Bob Ford explainedthat the race committee used its own system for determiningratings, arriving at a sort of average of various ratings avail-able for each boat.

Those who finished soon enough enjoyed a Bloody Maryparty late Sunday morning at ChYC, followed later by a ham-burger and hot dog cookout. Awards were presented before aLowcountry Frogmore Stew dinner at ChYC Monday night.See below for complete results.

Results: Corrected time in minutes:secondsSpinnaker Class 1. Obsession, 1676:11; 2. Tigress, 1779:50; 3. Angel’s Wing, 1790:42; 4.Hunter’s Child, 1804:58; 5. Shenanigan, 1878:18; 6. Hoodoo, 1933:25. Non-SpinnakerClass 1. Last Mangas, 1850:36; 2. Ricochet, 1880:35; 3. Absolut-Lee, 1895:40; 4. Twilight,2066:43; 5. Copperhead, 2213:47; 6. Knot Numb, 2282:10. Cruising Class 1. Sanity, 1781:24;2. Contente, 1788:06; 3. Special Delivery, 1918:43; 4. Outward Bound, 1928:46; 5. Osprey,1996:48; 6. Celadon, 2086:29.

Miss Too at the start off Daytona Beach. Photo by Steve Morrell.

Part of our day-of-race prep was scrounging a spinnakerpole, because it looked as if thewind was going to be nearly deadastern. The new skipper of MissToo, Bob Sowden, had never evenseen his spinnaker before therace. Bob and crewmember GarySmith found an old 15-foot boomat the local used marine partsstore, and bought some track andtackle at West Marine. During thetrip down the river to the inlet,the crew attached the track to the

mast using duct tape and heavy twine after we found that wedidn’t have the right tap for the screws we bought. The“claws” on the pole were some caribiners. This thrown to-gether right actually worked pretty well in the light windswe had.

The race started at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 28, at the PonceInlet sea bouy, ran up the beach for 10 miles, and then headedstraight for Charleston’s outer buoy. We had great conditionsat the start, about 10 knots out of the SE, and everyone in thespinnaker class put their chutes up immediately after the start.It was a nice run up the beach. At the turning point, someboats dropped their chutes and went hard on the wind straighteast for the Gulf Stream. Miss Too chose to harden up a littleand wait for the prevailing west wind to fill in as we divergedwith the coast (it ended up taking a lot longer than we ex-pected)! The wind built all evening until we had about 20knots out of the SE. Later in the evening, the wind switchedto south and SW. We dropped the spinnaker as dark ap-proached-we were a little overcanvassed and a little too closeto the wind to keep it up all night. Once we put the jib up, weheaded more easterly for the Gulf Stream. We finally reachedthe Gulf Stream about 1 a.m., and made a left turn to followthe stream as long as we could. Our speed over the bottomafter that was about 10-12 knots all night, giving us a 3-4 knotboost from the Stream.

After about 18 hours of good wind, the wind starteddropping at about 8 a.m. (and clocking from SW to N), andby about 2 p.m. Saturday it had dropped to zero. It was glassycalm, but there was still chop and swell (terrible conditionsto try to keep a fairly heavy boat moving in light air). Wehad been fighting the dropping wind for hours (spinnakerup, spinnaker down, trim in, trim out, change helmsman).What wind we’d had since breakfast was directly on thenose...the only wind direction that had not been forecast byanyone anywhere.

By about 3 p.m. we were still 55 miles from finish, therewas still no wind, and everyone was hot, tired, and aggra-vated. Skipper Bob Sowden just got fed up and asked, “Any-

The Gulfstreamer Race in Miss Too,a Hunter 37 from Melbourne Yacht Club

By Sherry Beckett

See OCEAN RACING continued on page 69


3

32

Melbourne

Daytona

Jacksonville

38

EASTERN FLORIDA COASTRacing News & CalendarNews for Sailors

SAILING IN JULYHurry Up and WaitBy Roy Laughlin

The rainy season started one day the first week of June onFlorida’s east coast and shows no signs of tapering. The

rains have not stopped sailing; it just makes planning a sailor club regatta after lunch a chancy proposition. On the coast,the sea breeze always blows for at least a few hours beforerain begins. If you’re lucky enough to make your own sched-ule, June zephyrs provide a few random hours each day ofwarm, relaxing sailing. But start as soon as you can each day.Evening sails, however relaxing they can be, are uncertainuntil later in the summer when a strong Bermuda high circu-lation pattern will blow storms inland.

The hyperactive spring racing schedule is winding down.Most east coast monohull sailors will relax and enjoy theevening club races when weather permits. July Fourth willbe a sailing day at several clubs. Cocoa Beach Yacht Club willhost the Firecracker Regatta over this holiday weekend. Manyother yacht clubs will have a social that will include racingwithout the hassle of a big event. Catamaran sailors are theexception. Two major beach regattas are scheduled for July.The Daytona Summer Sizzler, July 10 and 11, attracts beachcat sailors from all over the state for a weekend of sailingthrough the breakers as it was in the beginning of beach catsailing. (For information, contact [email protected], or seehttp://www.Fleet80.com. ) The St. Augustine Summer Siz-zler, July 31-Aug 1, just makes it into July’s schedule by aday. This is also the NACRA Inter 20 district 3 champion-ships. (Contact Cindi at (904) 641-6734 or visit http://www.fleet111.com. ) Both are well run regattas with high at-tendance. For beach cat sailors, these are among the best week-ends of the summer.

School is out and the evening westerlies are blowing.These are the golden easy days for cruisers to sail off the windfrom Florida to the Bahamas. Sometime in July, the Bermudahigh will strengthen over the central north Atlantic, causingstronger and more persistent southeasterlies. The easy tripto the Bahamas will be over, but the return will be a quick

daytime return passage to almost any place south of PortCanaveral. June and July are Florida’s best months for islandhopping with just a bit of blue water cruising thrown in forthe spice of adventure. If you’re planning a trip this year, allthe best.

In June, the hurricane season officially began. All weather-focused media focus on the hurricane season. It’s worth not-ing that storm lines along the sea breeze fronts here in Floridaroutinely generate tropical storm force winds lasting from 10minutes to as much as an hour. If you moor or berth yourboat in an exposed location, now is a good time to check thedock lines and mooring gear to make sure they’re in goodcondition. A hurricane may not pass over Florida this year,but each summer during afternoon storm winds, boats getpounded at docks. Beached catamarans and other sailboatsare blown over, or blown off beaches or docks. Checking andreplacing lines and other mooring equipment pays now morethan at any other time of the year.


Events CalendarTo have your sailing event, race, regatta, or club races listed pleasecontact [email protected] by the 10th of the month.Races listed should be open to anyone.

July 2 - Full MoonJuly 3-4 Firecracker Regatta, Cocoa Beach Yacht Club.

www.cbyc-fl.orgJuly 4 - Independence DayJuly 10-11 - Summer Sizzler, Treasure Island Resort,

Daytona Beach, Fl, [email protected], www.Fleet80.comJuly 31-Aug 1 - St. Augustine Beach Open Regatta &

Nacra 20 District 3 Championships, Fleet 111, Contact Cindi(904) 641-6734 or www.fleet111.com

July 31 - Moonlight Regatta, Rudder Club.www.rudderclub.com

Club RacingOpen to Everyone Wanting to Race

We Invite Yacht Clubs Along Florida’s east coast to send us yourClub Racing calendar you would like included:[email protected]

Eastern Florida July Weather

JULY WATER TEMPERATUREDaytona Beach - 80°Jacksonville Beach - 83°JULY GULFSTREAM CURRENT3.5 knotsAVERAGE JULY TEMPERATURESDaytona Beach 72° lo - 92° hiJacksonville Beach 74° lo - 89° hi

For Real Time East FloridaCoast Weather go to:www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Florida.shtml

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Florida.shtml

http://www.fleet111.com

http://www.cbyc-fl.org




http://www.rudderclub.com


http://www.funma.com


EAST FLORIDA SAILING

Sonnenklar-Casey Win the2nd Annual Tybee 500By Roy Laughlin

Jay Sonnenklar and John Casey, Team Casterol, won this six-day, 500-mile race by just a matter of minutes. On the final

day, in Tybee Island, GA, they did not cross the line first, andthey didn’t even cross the finish upright, but they crossed theline to post a time less than four minutes ahead of secondplace finishers, Team Tybee (Steve Lohmayer and Ken Pierce).Team Casterol pitch-poled on a sandbar less than a hundredfeet from the finish line on the beach at Tybee Island, andwon by pulling their Inter20 catamaran to the beach and thefinish line. It was a spectacular finish and Team Casterol’sfirst big win in a major distance race.

Other top finishers included Semp Toshiba (RobertoPandiani and Duncan Ross), a Brazilian team, in third place,Team Key Sailing (Kirk Newkirk and Glen Holmes) in fourthplace and Howard’s Pub (Doug Kirby and Andy Herbick) infifth place.

The Tybee 500’s course starts in Islamorada in the Keys,spans Florida’s east coast and ends on the beach at Tybee Is-

Team Casterol, Jay Sonnenklar and John Casey, finished first, the team’sfirst time in first place at a major distance regatta. Photo by Roy Laughlin.

land. The rigors of sailing hundreds of ocean miles on a beachcat can hardly be overestimated. In its second year, the Tybee500 race shows that such a quest holds surprises for even theseasoned sailors. A strong easterly wind had blown for weeksbefore the May 10-15 event, creating 6- to 8-foot swells alongthe whole Florida coastline. By the week of the Tybee 500, thewind turned southeasterly. It was hard for the racers to find apoint of sail that maximized their spinnakers’ efficiency whileriding off the backs of waves. It was a hard, pounding sixdays of sailing. Seasickness, a malady most of these seasonedsailors don’t usually experience, took its toll. Competition isalways fierce, and perhaps more so this year when sea condi-tions gave the less seasick an edge over those with perhapsmore sailing prowess. The lead was contested each day byTeam Tybee, Team Casterol and Team Semp Toshiba, a teamthat hit its stride in the second half of this endurance event.In the end, it was only minutes that made the difference forTeam Casterol between the agony after victory and the agonyof second place.

For more information, and photos, see:www.catsailor.comwww.tybee500.comwww.floridamultihullsailor.com

http://www.catsailor.com

http://www.tybee500.com

http://www.floridamultihullsailor.com

http://www.boatersexchange.com



Jetty Park OceanRegattaBy Roy Laughlin

Beach cat sailors are often a differentlot of sailors. When the winds be-

come summer zephyrs too low to enticemonohull sailors to a regatta, the beachcat sailors find plenty of wind and taketo the sea for a regatta. The Jetty ParkOcean Regatta, in its 32nd year and stillgoing strong with 36 catamarans, en-joyed a great weekend of racing in PortCanaveral, June 5-6.

Saturday’s races began at noon, justas a light sea breeze sprang up. Thewinds averaged 10 knots, enough fornimble catamarans to race. In light airs,strategy and a little luck are more valu-able than brute force for boat control. Therace committee held two races on Satur-day before a squall came in from the west. While southBrevard County experienced a severe thunderstorm, the areaoff Port Canaveral had just a short rain. The storm intensifiedover the ocean east of the port, leaving the beach largely un-scathed and without enough breeze for another race.

Sunday’s weather was clear, with an early southeasterlybreeze that held the entire afternoon, allowing the race com-mittee to hold four races and make up for the premature endon Saturday. It was about as picture perfect a summer after-noon’s race as ever happens on Florida’s east coast.

Team Tommy Ba-hama (Alex and Patsy Schafer) led theInter 20 fleet, with John Casey/Tina Pastoor and DaveIngram/crew in second and third, respectively. Chris Runge/Jerry Butz won first place in the Formula 16 and 18 classes,with Jennifer Lindsay/crew and Chuck and Mavis Harndenin second and third place, respectively.

The Jetty Park Ocean Regatta is notable because it alwayshas Hobie 16s as its largest classes (if you combine the A andB groups). The Hobie 16 is the icon of beach cat sailing, sothis regatta, at least on the beach, appears to have changedlittle in 30 years. But the sailors are new. Matt and GinaMcDonald won first place with a string of bullets. It was ahard contest for other positions in the scoring roster with Scottand Traci Corson in second and Mike Zoble/crew in third atthe final tally. In the Hobie 16B class, winners were MarkBozman/crew (first), Jamie Brown/crew (second) and David

Hudnell/crew (third). Competition in the 16B class was in-tense, with final places up for grabs until the end of the race.

There aren’t many beach cat regattas with a Hobie 18 class,but local sailors usually come out in force to make one at thisregatta. Joe and Deb Krivan won first place, with DaleBroadwell/Rebecca Lambert in second, and Diane Rodgers/crew in third place.

Rush Bird, four times National Champion in the NACRA5.5 Unirig class, won first place in the open class, high Ports-mouth rating, with Brian Bielfeld second and Scott McMillenthird. In the open class, low Portsmouth rating, Frank Rodrick,Jerry Wolf and Rick Ushold were in first through third place,respectively.

The Jetty Park Ocean Regatta is the first of three summerocean regattas held on Florida’s east coast. (The Daytona Sum-mer Sizzler and the St. Augustine Summer Sizzler are the othertwo.) If the Jetty Park Ocean Regatta sets the tone for the restof the summer, this is going to be a great season for beach catregattas.

Brevard Challenge —Just About Perfect SailingBy Roy Laughlin

The Brevard Challenge, one of Brevard County’s oldest sailing regattas, is one of the most familiar sights on the In-

dian River during May. The events consist of a 17-mile dis-tance race on Saturday and a rally format on Sunday. The re-gatta attracts members of multiple yacht and sailing clubs. Inthe past, it has included a sizable contingent of beach cat sail-ors, but this year, only one joined the event.

The weather was just perfect both days, with strong east-erly winds and no rain. Saturday’s course included some east-west sailing to round marks near the west shore off Rockledgewhere the water is deep enough to sail significantly away fromthe ICW. South of Rockledge, for about seven miles, the courseis just a straight run to the Pineda causeway and back.

The Melges 24 sailors were the hot rods of this regatta.They completed the course in less than three hours, in what

Hobie 16s in the Jetty Park Ocean Regatta. Photo by Roy Laughlin.

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appeared to be a fierce competition between three teams. Thisevent accepts applicants with any type of sailboat. Cruisersform the largest contingent, in sailboats from 16 to over 40feet. On the return trip, they are scattered like moths downthe Indian River. It’s a beautiful experience whether you’rewatching or sailing.

Sunday’s event is a rally. The race committee designatesan approximate 10-mile course. On the north end it is a sinu-ous path around marks for the ICW in the middle of the riverand the Brevard Yacht Club’s own marks near the east andwest shores. At the south end, the racecourse is a triangle thatall boats round three times. The course is a challenge no mat-ter the wind direction. But more than that, a team has to roundthe marks in the correct order and to port or starboard as des-ignated by the race instructions. Teams in dry boats resort towriting the course down on paper. The most successful teamson small wet boats such as beach cats write the course on thecrew using an indelible marking pen. It is not unusual forteams to be disqualified for the incorrect course. This for-mat, which is used only occasionally by yacht clubs else-where, is, in this writer’s opinion, one of the most challeng-ing and engaging types of race courses. The race does notalways, or even usually, go to the swiftest. It goes to the cleverand the careful. It is a couple of hours of the most intense

racing experience.The Brevard Challenge’s overall winner was Michael

Nulf in Immediate Impact, a Melges 24. He and his team alsowon the Rockledge Centennial Cup. The Indian River YachtClub, sponsor of the Brevard Challenge, won the CirripediaCup, a trophy given to the yacht club with the most and fast-est entrants representing them. The contest for the cup is usu-ally a triangle between the Indian River Yacht Club, theMelbourne Yacht Club, and the Eau Gallie Yacht Club. Evenin its home waters, the Indian River Yacht Club has no spe-cial lock on the trophy and so there was great joy in winningthis year. (For those who wonder, Cirripedia is the name ofthe group for barnacles in biological classification.) Com-plete race results are available on the Internet at http://www.sail-race.com/iryc/bcresults2004.htm

The Brevard Challenge is the final big spring sailing racein Brevard County. This year, it was a perfect end to a nearlyperfect spring of sailing on the Indian River

Snipe District 4 Championship,May 1-2, Florida Yacht Club,Jacksonville, FLBy Hal Gilreath

Florida Yacht Club (FYC), host of the 2004 North Ameri-cans, warmed up for the big event by hosting the District

4 Championship/Jacksonville Tea Party on May 1-2. Thirty-one boats convened from as far away as Milwaukee, St. Louis,and Newport. There was no lack of talent, with the currentWorld and National Champions in the pack. FYC provided abeautiful venue, skilled race management, drinks and lunchon the water, and a Saturday night dinner. The fleet sailedfour very competitive races in varying conditions. Early ar-rivals started off the regatta with a little practice Friday after-noon and then enjoyed an oyster roast hosted by Steve andDanielle Suddath.

Saturday started out sunny, with a nice southerly breezeto carry the sailors to the course. The first race started in ashifty southwest breeze, with varying pressure across thecourse. The approaching storms made for interesting racingas the positions changed constantly. Hal Gilreath and JamesLiebl jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.They were followed by Augie Diaz/John Kehoe and then byCharlie and Michele Bustamante.

The race committee tried in vain to complete another race.The fleet sailed the better parts of two races, but cancelledboth due to unstable winds. Booms of thunder and flashes oflightning led the RC to exercise caution and abandon the sec-ond try at the leeward mark, and the sailors called it a day,on the water at least.

That evening, the club relocated the dinner from a verywet outdoor location to the beautiful dining room overlook-ing the river. The sailors were treated to nature’s light showwhile feasting on Southern barbeque.

Sunday dawned more promisingly. A medium southerlybreeze of 8-10 knots filled in, and the fleet sailed a windward-leeward course. Gilreath and Liebl again led at every markwith the Bustamantes finishing second and Andrew Pimentalin third. The breeze began to build, and the course waschanged to an Olympic course for the third race of the series.Ernesto Rodriguez and Lynne Fitzpatrick of Miami came onstrong with the breeze. The front pack of sailors sheeted in

Getting wet in the Brevard Challenge. Photo by Roy Laughlin.

http://www.sail-race.com/iryc/bcresults2004.htm


EAST FLORIDA SAILINGtight, flattened their sails, hiked hard and madetheir trek upwind look effortless. The rest triedto keep up, but Gilreath/Liebl posted yet an-other bullet, with Rodriguez/Fitzpatrick in aclose second and Peter and Sheehan Commettein third.

By the time the fourth and last race startedin 12-15 knots of breeze, the only question waswhether anyone was going to beat Gilreath/Liebl in a race. Augie Diaz and John Kehoe cameout in winning form and managed to win the lastrace, with Rodriguez/Fitzpatrick again in secondand Gilreath/Liebl finishing third. They wrappedup the championship with a 5 1/2-point lead overAugie and John, who finished second.

The top junior award went to Max Hardageand Robert Gregory, who edged out Anna LeeBradley and Kate Hodges (both crews from At-lanta YC). Juniors who were crewing for seniorsincluded Morgan and Sheehan Commette, An-drea Griffith, Kelly Suddath and some local highschool students who sailed a Snipe for the first time. It’s funto see them enjoying themselves so much and getting goodenough to start beating the rest of us (for a lesson in how tohike, watch Andrea Griffith!).

The Florida Yacht Club (http://thefloridayachtclub.org)proved that it will run a first class event for the NAs, October15-17, and we hope to see twice as many boats!

Results (4 races - place, name, points);1, Hal Gilreath/James Liebl, 5.25; 2, Augie Diaz/John Kehoe, 10.75; 3, Ernesto Rodriguez/

Snipe District 4 Championship. Photo Courtesy FYC.

SUBSCRIBE TOSOUTHWINDS

Lynne Fitzpatrick, 20; 4, Andrew Pimental/Sara Jane McMann, 21; 5, Mike Blackwood/Jason, 30; 6, Lee and Andrea Griffith, 30; 7,Charlie & Michele Bustamante, 31; 8, ShawnBurke/Nancy Gilreath, 33; 9, Steve Suddath/Danielle/Kelly, 44; 10, Steve & Ashley Lippincott,46; 11, Ed Sherman/Diane Fowler, 48; 12, Gonzalo Diaz/Connie Commette, 48; 13, KryshaPohl/Morgan Commette, 53; 14, RD & Olivia Burley, 54; 15, Stephan & Monica Irgens, 59;16, George Gibbs/Leonard Doldren, 59; 17, Don Hackbarth/Pam Mercer, 60; 18, Peterand Sheehan Commette, 71; 19, Bob Foster/Jake Evans, 76; 20, Gary Beck/Mary Corbett,78; 21, John Hill/ Marie hompson, 89; 22, Max Hardage/Robert Gregory, 90; 23, Lee &Courtney Bradley, 92; 24, Brent McKenzie/Tucker Wan, 92; 24, Anna Lee Bradley/KateHodges, 95; 26, Ian & Blake Elliott/, 104; 27, Bob Panza/Mink, 106; 28, Michael Moore/Mike Hammer, 109; 29, Michael Palazzo/, 110; 30, Ava Moore/Anne Hammer, 118; 31,Tom & Kate Henderson, 119.

$19.95/YEAR$37/2 YEARS

3RD CLASS

$24/YEAR$45/2 YEARS

1ST CLASSSEE PAGE 4

http://thefloridayachtclub.org

http://www.rbgrove.com

http://www.weatherwave.com


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SOUTHEAST FLORIDA SAILINGRacing News & CalendarNews for Sailors

July Upcoming EventsTo have your sailing event, race, regatta, or club races listed, pleasecontact [email protected] by the 10th of the month. Raceslisted should be open to anyone.

July 2 - Full MoonJuly 2 - Abacos, Bahamas - The Great Turtle Cay Race.

Host GTYC. Tune-up race for Regatta Time in Abacos.July 3 - 11. Abacos, Bahamas - Regatta Time in the Abacos.

(305) 665-8316. Fax: (305) 665-0318, E-mail [email protected] site: www.rtia.net.

July 4 - Independence DayJuly 17 - The BBYRA “First Series” Award Party. With the

end of the seven-race series over, the best is yet to come. Tro-phies will be handed out at one of the participating yacht clubsyet to be named. The award presentations will give way to thetraditional night of festivities guaranteed to last into the latehours of the night.

July 27 - J/22 and J/24 Summer Series. Flat Earth Racing.The second of a five-race series for J/22 and J/24. Organizedby Flat Earth Racing. The series will last until September 11.Contact: [email protected]

July 31 -Aug. 1, Lime Cup. BBYCThe Lime Cup is back for another year under its traditionalformat. The race starts in Biscayne Bay, Miami, and windsthrough Stiltsville and out to the Atlantic Ocean. From thereit’s a straight shot north to the finish, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Sundaythe race goes in the opposite direction ending back in Biscayne Baywhere the finish line will be waiting for the competitors.

August Upcoming EventsAug. 14 - CGSC Single-Handed Race. Sailors test their skills

in single-handed sailing. Open to all classes.Aug. 15 - CGSC Double-Handed Race. For the more ad-

venturous, spinnakers will be flying in this two-person per boatrace. Open to PHRF and One Design classes.

Club Racing Open to Everyone Wanting to RaceWe Invite Yacht Clubs Along Florida’s Southeast Coast to send usyour Club Racing Calendar that you would like included:[email protected]

Legend Yacht Clubs & OrganizationsGTYC Green Turtle Yacht ClubCGSC Coconut Grove Sailing ClubCRYC Coral Reef Yacht ClubMYC Miami Yacht ClubKBYC Key Biscayne Yacht ClubBBYC Biscayne Bay Yacht ClubBBYRA Biscayne Bay Yacht Racing AssociationLYC Lauderdale Yacht Club

Sailing NewsNew Trailer Sailing Club Formed in MiamiThe Miami Macs Sailing Club is a club for owners of trailerablesailboats and is open only to owners of trailerable sailboats. Atpresent there are 27 members with 13 boats. They meet monthlyat the Pirates Den Restaurant at the Black Point Marina in southMiami. They schedule two group outings each month, a week-end overnighter and a Saturday day sail. They are the only clubin the South Florida area for trailer sailboats and are rapidlygrowing. They offer fun sailing adventures, new friends, andmembers who are willing to help out with boat repairs.

The Web page is still under construction, but it can be seenat www.miami-macs.com. Anyone interested in joining the funcan contact us at (954) 475-2718 or (305) 233-7423, or [email protected].

Castle Harbor Sailing School, Located at Matheson Ham-mock Park and Marina, in Coral Gables, FL, will begin offeringtheir sailing summer camp beginning June 21. Next dates areJuly 5-16 and July 19-30. Sailing Session will run for two weeks,Monday though Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. For addi-tional information contact the office at (305) 665-4994 or visitthe Web site at www.castleharbor.com/sailing.

Rigging Systems has recently moved to its new locationat 3470 N.W. 7th St. Miami, FL. Its owner, Frank Atkinson, hasserviced area sailors over the years with qualityworkmanship.For more info you may contact Frank at (305)649-1540 or e-mail: [email protected] .

Race Report

Hospice Regatta, LauderdaleYacht Club, May 22By Art Perez

The 8th Annual Hospice Regatta hosted by the LauderdaleYacht Club and Hospice Care of Southeast Florida, met on

May 22 with everyone’s expectations. The combination of tem-peratures in the low 80s and a light sea breeze provided idealconditions for some fun racing. The format, pursuit type rac-


Southeast Coast July Weather

JULY WATER TEMPERATURESMaimi - 87°GULFSTREAM TEMPERATURES3.5 knotsAVERAGE JULY TEMPERATURESMiami Beach 77° lo - 91° hi

For Real Time East FloridaWeather go to:www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Florida.shtml

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Florida.shtml


http://www.rtia.net





SOUTHEAST FLORIDA SAILINGing, provided an interesting twist to this year’s event. Morethan 80 boats from the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area registeredto compete in one of the seven classes. The highlight of the af-ternoon was the New England Clambake party and awardspresentation at Riverwalk where everyone had a chance to en-joy the festivities and make plans for next year.Results (skipper/boat ): PHRF1; 1 -Valeri Safuillin, Breeze;2 - Pat Cacace, Blackbird; 3- RickRahm, Sic’em; PHRF2; 1- Dan Myers, E-Ticket;2- Jim Wallace, Contrails;3- Dr. Ira Zaslow,Willowwind;Hobie 16;1- Danny Steyn;2- Bill Stolberg;3- Scot Corson;ARC;1- Dr. RomanGastesi, Risque;2- Tim Leonard, Meantime;3- Frank Brown, Phoeniz;Multihull;1- Brett Moss,A-Cat;2- Don Balthaser, Double Trouble;3- Brian Broad, Third Child;Cruising 1;1- RichardHeidelberger, Bedouin;2- Gery Hull, Arcadia;3- Scott St. Clair, Angelique;Cruising 2;1-Michael Limuti, Blue Highway;2- Jim Albe, Cruseder;3- Joesph Strycharz, Insanity.SpecialAward Winners: (trophy/winner);Robert” Skip” Hershberger Sportsmanship Trophy - LindaGreaber;Wes Holmes Cup - Patrick Mitchell, Judy MaePHRF; 1 Jim Wallace - Contrails;2- Dan Myers, E-Ticket;3- Tim Leonard, Meantime;Cook’sTrophy - Roy Rindom, Turnabout II;Yacht Club Challenge - CAT 44

Goombay Regatta, CoconutGrove Sailing ClubMiami, FL, May 29-30By Art Perez

Hey Mon, tis Goombay time down Miami way!

The CGSC hosted their Annual Goombay Regatta held overtwo sun-soaked days of typical South Florida weather. Part

of the Bahamian Heritage celebration, this year’s race returnedwith the true and tried pursuit format but with an added twist.Instead of the usual around-the-bay, rounding-government-marks-type race, the RC opted for a more competitive wind-ward/leeward 10-mile course. There would be no easy-goingreaches this year!

Almost everyone in the PHRF/ARC fleet was able to deci-pher the starting sequence and was off the line in pursuit ofvictory. The long windward/leeward legs provided competi-tors ample opportunity to work the wind shifts, a welcomechange from the shorter courses. Last year’s winner, Tiburon,sailing in the PHRF2 division, saw its fortunes fade early ondue to some erratic sailing. The contest came down to the“Comeback Kid of the Year,” Dave Berg, aboard Hot Air III andPat Cacace in Blackbird. Dave, now well into his retirement years,has come back this year with a winning attitude and finds him-self on the leader board for the BBYRA Annual Championship.In the PHRF 1 fleet, Gordon Ettie on Sazerac dominated, mak-ing him a favorite to win his class in the series.

The winds held steady throughout the afternoon with ev-

eryone managing to get back to the yacht club in time for thefestivities and awards ceremony.Race Results: PHRF 1: 1st Sazerac Gordon Ettie 2nd Group Therapy, Tom Seghi 3rd Sleeper,Malcolm Schwartz;PHRF 2: 1st Hot Air III, Dave Berg; 2nd Blackbird, Pat Cacace; 3rdCaraluna, Cai Svendson.;PHRF 3/J24: 1st FastTac, Iker Belausteguigonia; 2nd Mild to Wild,Russell Horn; 3rd Touchstone, Jaime Topp Stollman; PHRF 4: 1st Three Gimps, Karen Mitchell;2nd Blew Ba You, Kerry Gruson; 3rd Hot Streak, Jack King; ARC: 1st Finesse, Bill Beavers;2nd Marion, Albert Ivaldi; 3rd Night Moves, Mercedes Vingon; Etchells: 1st Pipe Dream,Scott Piper; 2nd Pipe Line, Tom Piper; 3rd Pipe Dream IX, Jeff Nehms;Lightning: 1st MachII, Bill Mauk; 2nd Bullet, David Kurtz; 3rd Gladiator, Dimitri; Flying Scots: Vladamir Stroleny,Being There; 2nd Enigma, Bud Price; 3rd Noname, David Boudreau; Snipe: 1st NolaPeto,Gonzo Diaz; 2nd I.C.U., Peter Commette; 3rd Danilu, Augie Diaz.

Biscayne Bay Yacht RacingAssociation #6 – Key BiscayneYacht Club Annual RegattaMiami, FL, June 5By Art Perez

BBYRA #6 in Miami on June 5. Photo by Art Perez.

Summer has arrived in Miami. Although the temperaturesweren’t quite in the 90s, the day turned out to be a hot one

in more ways than one. By race time the sea breeze had filledin from the southeast holding steady for most of the day.

The Goombay Regatta in Miami. Photo by Art Perez.

See SOUTHEAST FLORIDA continued on page 60

http://www.nationalsail.com


JULY SAILINGBy Kim KaminskiPhotos

Here we are halfway through the year, and where has thetime gone? Well, for the sailors here along the Gulf Coast

it has been a year filled with sailing adventures, races, raft-ups,and fun events. And yes, there are still more adventures to lookforward to throughout the rest of the year. As you can see, sailorsenjoy a year-round flurry of sailing fun in the Gulf Coast region.

Temperatures in July typically range in the mid 90s, withmoderate winds of 8 to 12 knots that fill in from the Gulf ofMexico generally from the south. The unpredictable summerafternoon weather conditions can keep the active outdoor en-thusiasts on their toes. But with careful planning and a watch-ful eye to the skies, outdoor activities abound.

July not only is a patriotic month for all of us, but also amonth where the lady sailors of the region take to the waters aswell as the youth of our community to demonstrate their loveof the sport we know as sailing.

For the patriotic enthusiast, the Fourth of July holidayweekend will be filled with sailing adventures, races and theUSA Junior Olympics. Yacht clubs from Texas, Louisiana, Mis-sissippi, Alabama, and Florida will have various raft-ups,barbeques and fun races scheduled for the long three-dayFourth of July weekend while they wait in anticipation for thevarious firework displays along the coastal region.

The Pensacola Yacht Club will also kick off the holidayweekend with the Junior Olympic sailing festival (the only jun-ior event of its kind scheduled from Houston, TX, to Tampa,FL). This Independence Day Regatta, scheduled for July 2-4, isone of the 30 to 40 U.S. Sailing-sponsored events that are heldthroughout the year across the country. It is a regatta that en-courages youths to explore the world of sailing, and you donot need to be a member of a yacht club to take advantage ofthis opportunity. Offered as a way to enlighten new youth tothe sport, the Pensacola Yacht Club will be hosting the festivalprogram that is organized by U.S. Sailing, with participationsponsorship by West Marine (official supplier of U.S Sailing)and Gill (official technical apparel supplier). Youths from ages8 to 18 will have five different boat classes to choose from in-cluding the Optimist Pram (Red, White, Blue and Green Fleets),Laser, Laser Radial, Sunfish, and Club 420. The regatta will startoff with an opening ceremony and competitor’s sailing clinicoffered by Optimist specialist Tom Coleman from Chattanooga,

TN, followed by two days of racing activities and three differ-ent racecourses (one specifically designed for the beginner).This is a fun-filled event the whole family can enjoy.

Besides the fireworks and the Independence Regatta Fes-tival, July would not be complete without the annual Blue AngelAir Show scheduled for July 10 over Pensacola Beach, FL. Thismuch-anticipated free event will see upwards of 150, 000 peopleconverging along the waterways, beaches and at various van-tage points along the coast to watch this incredible Navy Flightdemonstration team as they take to the skies and perform fortheir hometown family and friends. This awesome display ofaerial skill fills every spectator with patriotic pride and won-der. It is definitely an event you don’t want to miss.

July is a month for lady sailors...three different racing eventswill be offered for female sailors and their crews. Starting onJuly 17, the Point Yacht Club of Josephine, AL, will host theFast Women Regatta on the waters of Perdido Bay. On the fol-lowing weekend, the Navy Yacht Club of Pensacola will hostthe Bikini Regatta on July 24. And finally, the Pensacola BeachYacht Club will host the Gulf Yachting Association’s Women’sPerformance Handicap Racing Championship otherwiseknown as the Race for the Roses, a two-day racing event.

So, as you can see, the year may be halfway over, but thesailing fun continues along the coast. Check out these upcom-ing events as well.

NORTHERN GULFCOAST SAILINGFlorida Panhandle,Alabama, Mississippi,Louisiana, Texas July

Prevailing WindsSee page 62 forWindrose legend

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ALABAMA

FLORIDA

TEXAS

NORTHERN GULF

Pensacola

MobileGulfport

LOUSIANA

New Orleans

MISSISSIPPI

Racing News & CalendarNews for Sailors

Northern Gulf July Weather

JULY WATER TEMPERATURE85°AVERAGE TEMPERATURES -Pensacola, FL 75° lo - 91° hi

Gulfport, MS 74° lo - 91° hiFor Northern Gulf Weathergo to: www.csc.noaa.gov/coos/

http://www.csc.noaa.gov/coos/

http://www.atlanticsailtraders.com


NORTHERN GULF COAST SAILING

Upcoming Events,Racing & Non-RacingJULY

July 2 - Full MoonJuly 3 - Patriot’s Day Regatta - Pensacola Beach Yacht

Club, Pensacola Beach, FLJuly 3 - Horn Island Hop - Ocean Springs Yacht Club,

Ocean Springs, MSJuly 3-4 - Junior Olympic Festival -

Pensacola Yacht Club, Pensacola, FLJuly 4 - Independence DayJuly 10-11 - Melges Regatta - Fort Walton

Yacht Club - Fort Walton Beach, FLJuly 10-11 - Rhodes 19 Regionals -

Fairhope Yacht Club - Fairhope, ALJuly 17 - Fast Women’s Regatta - Point

Yacht Club, Josephine, ALJuly 17 - Biloxi Summer Series - Biloxi

Yacht Club, Biloxi, MSJuly 17 - Summer Regatta - Mobile Yacht

Club, Mobile, ALJuly 24 - Bikini Regatta - Navy Yacht

Club, Pensacola, FLJuly 24 - Summer in the Pass, Pass Chris-

tian Yacht Club, Pass Christian, MSJuly 24 - 25 - Junior Lipton Cup, Bay Waveland Yacht

Club, Bay St. Louis, MSJuly 31 - Weatherly Regatta, Gulfport Yacht Club,

Gulfport, MSJuly 31-Aug 1 - Race for the Roses Women’s PHRF Cham-

pionship, Pensacola Beach Yacht Club, Pensacola, FLJuly 31-Aug 1 - J22/Lightning Regatta - Pass Christian

Yacht Club - Pass Christian, MS

AUGUSTAugust 7-8 - Knost Regatta - Pass Christian Yacht Club,

Pass Christian, MSAugust 7 - Commodore’s Cup Race #4 - Navy Yacht Club

of Pensacola, FLAugust 14-15 - Round the Rig - Mobile Yacht Club, Mo-

bile, ALAugust 14 - 15 - Charles Galloway Sunfish/Laser -

Gulfport Yacht Club, Gulfport MSAugust 21 - Big Mouth Regatta - Pensacola Beach Yacht

Club, Pensacola, FLAugust 21 - Summer Swelter - Pontchartrain Yacht Club,

Mandeville, LAAugust 21 - Summer Splash - Buccaneer Yacht Club, Mo-

bile, ALAugust 28 - Lundquist Multihull Regatta - Pensacola

Yacht Club, Pensacola, FL

Open Entry Fun Sailboat Races - on the second andfourth Wednesday evenings of every month, from April toOctober - at the Pensacola Yacht Club, Pensacola, FL

Open Entry Fun One Design Races - Wednesday eve-nings - Pensacola Yacht Club, Pensacola, FL

For additional race schedules check the Gulf Yachting As-sociation Web site at: www.gya.org

The Regata al Sol XXIII:Pensacola, FL, to Isla Mujeres,Mexico, Pensacola Yacht Club,Southern Yacht Club, Club deYates de Isla Mujeres, May 12By Kim Kaminski

On May 12, the cruising fleet of the Regata al Sol departedfrom Pensacola, FL, for the Regata al Sol XXIII. The fol-

lowing day, the racing fleet made their start in the 550-nauticalmile race to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Tweny-five of the 35 sail-

Dominic Johnsonenjoyed sailing inan Optimist Pram atthe 2003 JuniorOlympics Festival inPensacola, FL. Thisyear between 40and 60 youthsailors are expectedto participate in the2004 event to beheld July 2-4.Courtesy Photo byJim Krippes.

http://schurrsails.com

http://www.gya.org


NORTHERN GULF COAST SAILINGboats entered completed the race (11boats officially had to retire from therace). The weather conditions werenot kind to these adventurers. Onesailboat, White Trash, owned by GregSmith of Fairhope Yacht Club, wasde-masted during the voyage, butthankfully every one of its membersarrived safely back home.

Another boat that returned toPensacola after approximately 90 milesinto the journey was Loafer’s Glory IIowned by Larry Bowyer of thePensacola Yacht Club. At 3:00 a.m. onThursday, May 13, the weather condi-tions (heavy rain and 15- to 20-knotwinds from the stern) forced the crewinto changing the sails. The boat ownerwent down below to change into hisfoul weather gear prior to the sailchange. While he was in the process ofputting on his gear, the boat wasslammed by a wave causing the ownerto lose his balance and fall. He lost con-sciousness for approximately two min-utes, and when he awoke, he wasaware of pain from his head to hislower torso. Woozy and lightheaded,Larry Bowyer gathered his crew (which included his familymembers) and made the decision to contact the Coast Guardand relay his condition. A helicopter was quickly dispatchedfrom the New Orleans, LA, office, and a medical diver waslowered to the ship. Upon examining the boat owner, it wasdetermined that his eyes were not dilating properly and nowhe was experiencing additional pains in his chest as well asnumbness in his left foot. The Coast Guard decided to removehim from the boat and transport him to a nearby hospital inPensacola.

The boat owner, not wanting to disappoint his crew, in-structed the remaining members of the boat to carry on with-out him. However, the group refused to leave the country with-out him and returned the sailboat back to Pensacola.

The Coast Guard was unable to get a basket to the sailboatdue to the weather conditions, so the diver and boat owner gotinto the 3- to 5-foot seas and were airlifted to safety. Upon ar-rival at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, FL, tests were run onLarry, and the doctors found everything to be okay. He wasdischarged from the hospital about the same time Loafer’s Gloryreturned to its home dock in Pensacola.

Of course, there were various other boats in the race that

experienced some difficulties of one kind or another. Severalboats blew out sails during the trip but still managed to arrivesafely in Mexico while others arrived with very little workingequipment. For instance, Kativa blew two Spinnaker sails.Jambalaya tore two sails and finished with its only working in-strument, a handheld GPS.

RESULTS: RACER A - 1; KATIVA; 2; MAD MAX I;3; PRETTY WOMAN;4; ANIMAL; 6; WHITETRASH ; DNF; RACER B - 1; PARADOX ; 2; MONDAY’S CHILD; 3; ATLANTIC UNION; 4;JAMBALAYA;CRUISER/RACER - 1;SAPPHIRE; 2;KANOLA; 3;FIDELIS; 4;ANTR SEA HORSE;5;AQUAVITE;6;SEA FEVER; 7;CHANGS IN ATTITUDES; 9;QUEST; DNF; CRUISING A - 1;RE-CESS; 2;LINDA GAYLE; 3;AVALON; 8;ESPRIT; DNF; 8;PARADICE; DNS; 8;LOAFERS GLORY;DNF; 8;DeADELAAR; DNF; CRUISING B-1;LANGOSTA; 2; RADIO FLYER; 3; ODIN; 7; BLACKFINN; DNF; 7; BIG SKY; DNF; 7; OH MY LOVE; DNF; CRUISING C - 1; CARIBBEANSOUL; 2;SECOND WIND; 3; WINDFALL; 6; SOUTHERNESE; DNF; 6; PELICAN; DNF.

Spring Regatta, Buccaneer YachtClub, Mobile, AL, May 15-16By Kim Kaminski

On May 15-16, 2004, one-design sailors traveled to theBuccaneer Yacht Club located on the west side of Mobile

Bay off the Dauphin Island Parkway in Mobile, AL, to partici-pate in the Spring Regatta. Flying Scots, Sunfish and PHRF boatssailed on the muddy waters of the bay in the second Gulf Yacht-ing Association’s Capdevielle race of the year. Twenty out ofthe 33 member yacht clubs managed to send their yacht club’sFlying Scot boat and club representatives who were ready tocompete and sail during this two-day event.Results (Place, Yacht Club):1, Bay-Waveland; 2, Pass Christian; 3, New Orleans; 4, Southern; 5, Buccaneer; 6, Pensacola;7, Pontchartrain; 8, Singing River; 9, Fairhope; 10, St. Andrews Bay; 11, Ft. Walton; 12,Birmingham; 13, Navy; 14, Mobile; 15, Gulfport; 16, Point; 17, Lake Forest; 18, Jackson;19, Biloxi; 20, Pelican.PHRF Class - First Place / Overall Geotechnical Perpetual Trophy - Holly II - David JefcoatSunfish Class - First Place - Tom Whitehurst (PBYC)Awards for first female and first junior; Lauren WhitehurstAward for first master; Tom Whitehurst

Mallory Buechler heads out to the race course during last year’s Junior Olympic Festival. Courtesy Photoby Claire Rees.



By Kim Kaminski

Thirty-three boats of various sizes and class deter-

minations participated in atwo-day sailboat racingevent in Pensacola, FL, at theannual Navy Cup Regatta.Over 130 sailors enjoyed aweekend filled with goodold-fashioned racing compe-tition, pitting yacht clubagainst yacht club in afriendly team sailing raceevent. Beautiful weather(sunny skies, moderate tem-peratures in the mid 80s andwarm tropical winds fromthe southeast at 10 to15knots) set the stage for theMay 22-23 contest. The NavyYacht Club of Pensacolaplayed host for the event,and its members offered uptheir hospitality by provid-ing refreshments for the sail-ors as they gathered for themorning regatta briefing.

The Performance Handi-cap Racing Fleet included theone-design Flying Scot class. This class raced in Pensacola Baywhile the smaller one-design classes, the Sunfish and Hunter17s, raced in Bayou Grande just off the shores of the club-house facility. The PHRF classes would enjoy two back-to-back races on Saturday and finish up the event with one raceon Sunday. The Flying Scot class only participated in two raceson Saturday and did not sail on Sunday. The smaller one-de-sign classes enjoyed multiple races on both days.

The unique aspect about the Navy Cup Regatta places eachboat that races not only in competition against each other butagainst other yacht clubs in the overall contest. This version of“team racing” places a fun aspect into the whole event. Racecompetitors who normally sail against each other throughoutthe year find themselves on their yacht club team cheering ontheir fellow club members. This year’s regatta was no different,and the comradery among its participants was high. Duringthe competition, a few official race protests were heard fromvarious racers, which eventually helped to determine whowould win the coveted silver trophy. Based on the overall pointtotal between yacht clubs, the 2004 Navy Cup was decided by amere two-point difference, and the Navy Yacht Club ended upcapturing the prize over the Pensacola Yacht Club and thePensacola Beach Yacht Club. Congratulations to all who puttheir time, energy and efforts into this fun annual event, fromthe sailors to the behind-the-scene support crew and the racecommittees. A special thank-you goes out to the members ofNavy Yacht Club, Race Chairman Brian Silk and his staff on ajob well done.

Dick Piatt, Fleet Captain of the Navy Yacht Club of Pensacola, accepts this year’s presentation of the perpetualtrophy from Commodore Bill Hayes. The Navy Yacht Club captured the win by a mere 2 points over the PensacolaYacht Club and the Pensacola Beach Yacht Club. Photo by Kim Kaminski.

RESULTS:SPINNAKER - 1, Phaedra, PBYC; 2, Applejack, PYC; 3, Forerunner,PYC;4, My Dixie Wrecked,PBYC; 5, Awesome,PBYC; 6, Beach Birds,PBYC;7, Soulshine,PBYC; 8, Antares, PYC;NON-SPINNAKER - 1,Delphina,PBYC; 2, Ez-Duz-It,PBYC; 3, Sundance,NYC; 4, WhiteLightning,NYC; 5, Mariah,PYC; 6, Intrepid, NYC; 7, Eagle,PYC; 8, Roka Dobi,PBYC; CRUISER - 1, Heather,NYC; 2, Sea Crest,NYC; 3,Foray,3,PYC; 4, Don’ Worry,PBYC; 5,Carpe Diem, PYC; 6,Kellie, NYC; 7, Miss Teak, NYC; 8, Dolphin,NYC; 9, Cinnabar,PYC;SUNFISH - 1, PYC - Lauren Whitehurst;2, PYC - Susan McKinnon; 3, NAVY - Will Walker/Vince Cook; 4, NAVY- Richard Smith;HUNTER 17- 1, PYC - Hunter Riddle; 2, NAVY - Ted Germain;FLYING SCOT - 1, PYC; 2, NAVY2004 Navy Cup Winner; The Navy Yacht Club of Pensacola.

Navy Cup Regatta,Navy Yacht Club,Pensacola, FLMay 22-23

NORTHERN GULF COAST SAILING



The Keys Sailing SceneWeatherCalendar of EventsHot Happenings

SAILING IN JULYBy Rebecca Burg

The harbor was chaos. Blue lights were flashing on numerous small police boats while

a steely-gray Coast Guard cutter slowly mo-tored forward. Sails rippling, a cluster of cir-cling schooners dashed toward the CoastGuard vessel and sprayed it with water can-nons. Overhead, small planes and a helicop-ter dropped rolls of toilet paper over the commotion below.The T-paper unrolled into long, undulating ribbons as itwafted downward. I couldn’t stop laughing. This recentlyhappened in Key West’s harbor. Every year the boats andplanes engage in a play sea battle as part of the ConchRepublic’s Independence Celebration. Of course, this monththe entire Keys will be commemorating America’s birthday.You just might be out there on the water to view the pyro-technics. The Keys are most fond of throwing a good party,and if there are no immediate reasons to have one, we’ll makesomething up. From turning local cuisine into a reason tocelebrate to playing a tune under the sea, local creativity ismost captivating.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a Disney set,” saidBill, a full-time salty Key West captain. “My boat and I arelike one of the stage props.” I understood what he meant whenI found a couple of friendly Japanese tourists posing and pho-tographing each other on the bow of my trimaran. “Hah-hah,now you’re part of the show!” Capt. Bill would say. Sailors,who know how to take a break from life’s too-serious side,easily adapt to the Keys’ lively and free-spirited ambiance.Soft summer winds or not, hoist those sails, join the partyand become part of the show for a while.

WEATHERThe weather and sailing atmosphere during the summer sea-son is far different from winter. Without those early seasonwinds to stir things up, the water becomes exceptionally clearin most areas. Abundant shallow tidal flats and the water’sshimmering jewel-like blue-green hues are reminiscent of theBahamas. Sailboats notice the easy summer breezes, whichaverage 9 knots from the east to southeast with periods of nowind at all. During storms, winds may gust as high as 40 knotsor more. Humid air and warm sea temperatures producehealthy thunderstorms most commonly in the afternoon andevening hours. Liveaboards secure extra sunshades over theircabin tops only to frantically remove them as a sudden squallgusts through. Boats offshore are especially vigilant since largestorm outflows from Cuba and from the mainland can be ex-treme during this time. The coconut fragrance of sunscreen,straw hats and sandals are fashion norms as the sultry tropi-

cal air harbors an average high of 89° F to alow of 80° F. Average sea temperatures are aninviting 87° F. As evening falls over the rip-pling sea, the summer sky in any direction isoften a dramatic display of distant, soundlesslightning. Safe in a slip or anchored out, manysailors relax in the cockpit and watch nature’s

nightly presentation.

Upcoming Events,Racing & Non-Racing

Every Saturday - Open House at the Key West SailingClub. 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

July 4 - Islamorada. Holiday Isle fireworks. A beautifulbeachfront, tiki bars and tropical atmosphere is a great wayto celebrate Independence Day. Village of Islands includesdaytime family fun for the kids before the fireworks show atnightfall. Contact: Eileen (305) 664-2321

July 10 - Big Pine Key. Annual underwater music festivalat Looe Key coral reef. (305) 872-2411

July 20-25 - Key West. Hemingway Days festival. Writer’slectures, fishing tournaments, “Papa” look-alike contest atSloppy Joe’s and events about the legendary author. (305) 296-2388 ext.21

July 25-August 1 - Florida Keys. Reef Awareness Week.Special events, tours and programs to foster public interest incaring for our area’s fragile underwater treasures for genera-tions to come. www.reefrelief.org or call (305) 294-3100 formore information.

July 28-29 - Lobster mini season in the area’s state andfederal waters. Atlantic side anywhere beyond three miles outand Gulf side anywhere beyond nine miles out. Special baglimit. Call 800-DIAL-FMP for more info.

July 30-August 8 - Key West. Summer food and wine fes-tival. Highlights the tasty range of cuisine available on theisland. (305) 296-6909

August 6 - Lobster season opens. Call 800-DIAL-FMP formore info.

Club RacingKey West. Wednesday Night Racing at the Key West SailingClub. Racing begins about 6:00 p.m. Bring your own boat orcrew on a club boat and join us in a series of social races aroundthe buoys with beer, soda and food after racing.

Key Largo

Marathon

Key West

Cape Sable

Dry Tortugas

7 39 5 44

FLORIDA KEYS SAILING

JulyPrevailing WindsSee page 62 forWindrose legendFlorida Keys July Weather

AVERAGE TEMPERATUREKey West 80° lo - 89° hiGULF WATER TEMPERATURESKey West 87°For Real Time eastern Gulfweather, winds and marineforecasts, go tohttp://comps.marine.usf.edu

http://comps.marine.usf.edu


FLORIDA KEYS SAILING

RacingCalendar

July - Key West Sail-ing Club’s traditionalHemingway Bell Regatta.All boats 20 feet and overare invited to play. Raceday to be determined.Contact: Fleet Capt. David(305) 296-7939

Upper Keys SailingClub - Upcoming Races.Mile Marker 99.5 (Bay-side) Key Largo, FL. Formore info call (305) 451-9972.

July 3 - FirecrackerRegatta - PHRF, skipper’smeeting 11:00 a.m. race12:00

July 4 - FirecrackerRegatta - Portsmouth, skipper’s meeting 11:00 a.m. race 12:00

August 14 - Dog Day Regatta - Portsmouth, skipper’s meet-ing 11:00 a.m. race 12:00

August 21 - Dog Day Regatta - PHRF, skipper’s meeting11:00 a.m. race 12:00. Beach party and picnic 4:00 p.m.

Keys Sailing ClubLocations & Contacts

Key West Sailing Club. In Key West off Palm Avenue toSailboat Lane. Sailing is out of Garrison Bight. (305) 292-5993

Marathon Sailing Club, Marathon Key. Web site pending.Upper Keys Sailing Club. Buttonwood Sound, Key Largo.

www.upperkeyssailingclub.com

Race Review – Florida Keys:Around the Island Race atthe Key West Sailing Club —30-year-old small boattradition, April 24th

Like some sort of avian courtship dance, the pack of smallsailboats waved their sails and swiftly circled near the com-

mittee boat. Starting just outside of Garrison Bight, racerswrestled with easterly 16- to 18-knot winds under sunny skies.A few boats fell over in the prestart scuffle while three othersmomentarily tangled together. In a multihued blur, the club’sHobie Cat hustled past the start and overtook the fleet. Pilotedby Eric and Michael, the twin-hulled rocket vanished into thedistance. The remaining racers, a vibrant mix of monohulls anda tiny trimaran, vied for second. The high speed dog fight wouldbreeze through Fleming Key channel, around Tank Island andback to Garrison Bight.

Young talents such as Abalyn in her frisky Laser and theNorseboat’s 10-year-old skipper proved to be spirited competi-

tors and kept the older salts on their toes. Commodore Tomwas in the spirit, his tongue-in-cheek hip-hop gangster garbbefitting his hot Laser ride, Mr. Big Stuff. Another local Laserace, Dr. Chapin, sprung toward the front of the pack and over-took Cheryl as she skillfully helmed The Exterminator. Wildlyflinging spray and also catching up to the front were Jessieand Heather on a sprightly 420. The Hobie Cat was nowhereto be seen. Approaching Tank Island, the wild pack of sailsfanned out and approached the tiny key from different direc-tions. Race veteran Bud and his slippery Sunfish squeezedaround the island one way while Walt powered Hunky Doryaround the other way. My trimaran, Troika, and I strayed toofar out, and we sailed around the wrong key. Strong gusts andthe harbor’s steep, choppy waves kept most participants thor-oughly wet. The larger boats such as Bob’s newly designedNorseboat and the club’s 17-foot O’Day, sailed by Jeep andSeaWolf, stayed slightly drier. The O’Day ended up being sur-prised by the Norseboat’s nimble windward performance andthe two were tight for the entire race.

“...we fought to keep her right side up on more than oneoccasion,” noted SeaWolf on the O’Day. “It was blowing likestink out there! The perfect race conditions.” All boats safelyreturned to the club, and soaked sailors enjoyed a social cookout.

Small boats mix it up in the Around the Island Race. Photo by Kellye McMullen.

See KEYS continued on page 69

http://www.upperkeyssailingclub.com

http://www.rparts.com


Cedar Key

St. PetersburgTampa

Fort Myers

Key West

Naples

Cape Sable

7

11

7 39

52

WEST FLORIDA COASTCedar Key to Cape Sable

Racing News & Calendar

Cruising

Upcoming Events Calendar

West Florida News for Sailors

Sailing Services Directory

SAILING IN JULYBy Dave Ellis

July’s windrose for the west coast of Florida and inland showsthat the wind varies in speed and direction. Just figure that

the wind speed and direction is for every day, not for the month.You are likely to get just about any direction. Wind speed willbe light, except when it is strong during storms.

If the Bermuda high is out in the Atlantic north of Florida,we will have our classic thunderstorms that are pushed west-ward to the coast and beyond.

If the high moves southward, the storms will build andmove north parallel to the coast and possibly get severe for theinland sailors.

If the high gets far enough south, over the Bahamas, thenwe will have a reverse storm situation where the coastal seabreeze will be substantial, and the storms will move eastward,away from us.

Since the high is the product of the heat over the equatorialregions flowing north and then descending at around our lati-tude, the high is more likely to stay north in the summer.

At the latitude of Florida, all around the earth it is desert, ex-cept here. Take a look at a globe. So, we need those thunderstorms.

On occasion, a tropical wave will move into the Gulf. Thoseare the sultry days with southerly winds, cloudy days and thun-derstorms, always thunderstorms.

The old timers used to tell us that when you get those heavy,sultry days and see the soaring ocean birds, the man o’ warhawks, frigate birds, flying inland, start preparing for a big tropi-cal storm or hurricane. Fiddler crabs filed in lines to higherground. But there are so few fiddlers left that they may not haveto line up anymore. Some less-domesticated dogs and cats seemto sense that something is coming and lay low.

Most sailors are prepared for the minor rain squalls thatare everyday occurrences in July. It is the lightning that we havethe utmost respect for.

Keep safe out there.

Events CalendarJuly 4 - Independence Day - Fireworks and various loca-

tions along Florida’s west coast.July 21 - Snooty the Manatee’s 54th Birthday Bash - South

Florida Museum, Bradenton. Featuring a Birthday Bash for the


West Florida July Weather

AVERAGE TEMPERATURESt. Petersburg 78° - 90° hiNaples 73° - 91° hiGULF WATER TEMPERATURESSt. Petersburg 86°Naples 87°For Real Time eastern Gulfweather, winds and marineforecasts, go tohttp://comps.marine.usf.edu

resident County mascot, “Snooty.” Punch and birthday cookiesfor the kids. Every child wins a prize at game booths. Reducedadmission to museum and planetarium. Coloring contest heldfor area children. So. Fla. Museum (941) 746-4132

July 22-25 - 11th Bi-Annual Nautical Boat Show & Sale -See the latest in boats and marine accessories and services fromthe area’s top boat dealers and exhibitors. There will be in-wa-ter boats as well as a large variety of boats from fishing, cruis-ing, power, sailing, personal watercraft. Private boat ownerswill be on hand with their used boats. Manatee ConventionCenter, Palmetto. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (941) 748-0411 x5353.

July 28-29 - Lobster mini season in the area’s state and fed-eral waters. Special bag limit. Call 800-DIAL-FMP for more info.

August 6 - Lobster season opens. Call 800-DIAL-FMP formore info.

Racing CalendarTo have your race, regatta, or club races listed, please [email protected] by the 10th of the month. Races listedshould be open to anyone.FLORIDA WEST COAST & INLAND LAKESThe races and regattas listed here are open to those who want to sail.Please send us your race schedule for publishing to [email protected].

July 3 - Cortez Yacht Club. Party 4-8 then fireworks at beachhouse on Holmes Beach. www.cortezyachtclub.com

July 4 - Sarasota Sailing Squadron. Firecracker Regatta 1:30warning. www.sarasotasailingsquad.com

July 9-11 - US SAILING Area D Semi-Finals. Bemis (Laser),Smythe (C420) Sears (J-24) Davis Island Yacht Club, host.www.diyc.org

July 11 - Race #3, Cortez Yacht Club, CYC Cup Series.www.cortezyachtclub.com

Club Racing Open to Everyone Wanting to RaceThe races listed here are open to those who want to sail. Please send usyour race schedule for publishing to [email protected].

Davis Island YC. Thursday evenings. Tampa. Windsurfers,dinghies, cats, PHRF, keelboat one designs. 6:30 start of firstclass, sailing around upper Hillsboro Bay. Lots of boats; Day-

http://comps.marine.usf.edu


http://www.cortezyachtclub.com

http://www.sarasotasailingsquad.com

http://www.diyc.org

http://www.cortezyachtclub.com


Local News For Southern Sailors SOUTHWINDS July 2004 53

http://www.nboat.com


WEST FLORIDA SAILINGlight savings time of year. Must be US Sailing member. Registerbefore racing, once for summer. An RC duty day may be inyour future. www.diyc.org

Davis Island YC - Wednesday Evenings Dinghy Series.First warning 6:30 p.m. Laser, Laser Radial, C420, Sunfish, Light-ning, Flying Scott, 470, Fireball. Andrew Sumpton [email protected] or Allison Jolly at [email protected]

Bradenton YC. Thursday evenings. Starts with daylightsavings. PHRF racing on Manatee River. For info call Bob Miller,(941) 795-4646

St. Petersburg YC. Friday evenings. 6:30 start off the Mu-nicipal Pier. PHRF, Snipes Starts May. Look for the RC boat atthe Pier if an easterly, a half mile downwind from the pier inother breezes. Course around nearby navigation buoys. Sail bythe RC boat to register. Anywhere from 10 - 25 boatswww.spyc.org

Treasure Island Tennis and YC. Friday evenings.7:00 startoutside of John s Pass in Gulf of Mexico. PHRF racing. StartsMay. Get together to go under the bridges. www.tityc.org

Clearwater YC. Saturday Afternoons 2:00 p.m. start nearthe Clearwater Pass buoy in the Gulf of Mexico. PHRF racingJune thru August. www.clwyc.org

Venice Sailing Squadron. Saturdays. First Saturday of eachmonth, PHRF racing. Start at mouth of Venice Inlet.www.venice-sailing-squadron.org

Sarasota Sailing Squadron. Friday evening. Begins April 9.Start at 6:30. Everyone welcome. www.sarasotasailingsquad.com

Edison Sailing Center, Fort. Myers. Sunfish and dinghyracing once a month, year-round [email protected]

Port Charlotte. Third Saturday of month, [email protected]

West Marine/BoatUS Free Seminars for July —Of Interest to Sailors (Call the store-reservations sometimes needed)BOAT U.S.Bradenton, 5627 14TH St West, (941) 755-9670, start time 2am

7/11/04 - Basic line splicing, 3 strand, Capt. Bob7/25/04 - Basic sail trimming, Capt. Bob

Clearwater, 11477 US Hwy 19 N, (727) 573-2678, Start time 6 pm7/14/04 - Gps basics, Klaus Gansel, 11 am7/31/04 - Saltwater fishing, 11 am

Tarpon Springs, 41286 US Hwy 19 North, Start time 7 pmTo be announced, call Clearwater store for details

WEST MARINEApollo Beach, 268 Apollo Beach Bvld, (813) 645-6144

Start time 7pm – To be announced, call store for detailsBradenton, 4569 14TH Street West, (941) 753-3585

Start time 7 pm – To be announced, call store for detailsClearwater, 1231 Cleveland, (727) 443-2280, Start time 7 pm

To be announced, call store for detailsClearwater, 18891 US Hwy 19 North, (727) 536-4002

Start time 7 pm – To be announced, call store for detailsCrystal River, 160 SE Hwy 19 North, (352) 563-0003

Start time 7 pm – To be announced, call store for detailsHoliday, 3346 US Hwy 19 North, (727) 846-1903

Start time 6 pm – To be announced, call store for detailsLargo, 10289 Ulmerton, (727) 586-7040, Start time 7 pm

To be announced, call store for detailsMadera Beach, 203 150 th Ave, (727) 392-4939, Start time 6 pm

To be announced, call store for detailsSaint Petersburg, 2000 34th st. (727) 327-0072 Start time 7 pm

To be announced , call store for details

http://www.diyc.org


http://www.spyc.org

www.tityc.org

http://www.clwyc.org

http://www.venice-sailing-squadron.org

http://www.sarasotasailingsquad.com



http://www.tshack.com


WEST FLORIDA SAILINGSaint Petersburg, 5001 34 th Street South, Start time 6 pm

7/27/04 - Preventing electrical fires aboardCapt. Charles Johnson, PE, JTB Marine Corp.

Saint Petersburg, 119 1st Ave North. (727) 822-6565Start time 3 pm – To be announced, call store for detatils

Tampa, 3905 West Cypress, (813) 348-0521, Start time 6 pmTo be announced, call store for details

Sailing News

Young Skippers Learn the BasicsBy George Regenauer

Photo by George Regenauer

Young skippers are learning the basics during the youth sailing camp at Clearwater Community Sailing Center on Sand

Island. There are many articles written about excellent youthsailing programs around the Tampa Bay area, but from time totime, one organization stands out among the crowd. ClearwaterCommunity Sailing Center has earned its 15 minutes of fameand deserves special recognition for its achievements duringthe past few years. Their motto, “Sailing for Everyone,” haslived up to its claim. CCSC has offered sailing camps for sev-eral summers, and the number of participating youth are grow-ing each year.

Dan Roeder, the director of the sailing center, stated thattwo years ago there were only 20 students interested in learn-ing to sail. Last year the attendance topped 200, and this year,he anticipates the number to be around 500. The large increasein the number of participants is due to the variety of programsavailable and the number of US Sailing-certified instructorsonboard this year.

CCSC offers weekly, half day and full day instruction frombeginning swabbies to advanced sailors on Prams, Sunfish andHobie Waves. Windsurfing I and II are also available duringthe summer schedule. Three age groups keep the training andcompetition fair. The age groups are 8-10, 11-13, 14-16 yearsold. For the younger folks ages 6-8, there is a Youth AdventureCamp, which includes sailing activities, fishing, crafts and fieldtrips. The sailing center also has boats specially designed andequipped for the physically challenged sailor through their“Sailability” program. Everyone having the desire to learn theart of sailing can do so through one of the programs offered atthe center.

It is impressive to witness the professionalism and dedi-cation of the instructors who provide one-on-one assistancefor those who are experiencing difficulty grasping the fun-damentals of sailing as readily as others. The instructors arethere to teach, and the participants demonstrated their ea-

http://www.bluewaterss.com


West Florida SailingServices DirectoryFrom Cedar Key to Cape SableSailing Services Directory starts as low as $96 a year.Call (941) 795-8704 or e-mail [email protected]

ADVERTISE IN THIS DIRECTORY3- line ads for $8 a month4-line ads for $10 a month

1" boxed in ads for $20 a month

Ads paid in advance for 1 year

Taller boxed in ads start at 2" tallfor $34 a month

See page 29 or call (941) 795-8704

SAILBOAT SERVICES AND REPAIRS

ELLIE’S SAILING SHOP ClearwaterLifelines, rigging, hardware, repairs

Serving small boat sailors Since 1958Sunfish Boats and Parts...........(727) 442-3281

SAILMAKING, REPAIRING & CLEANING

ADVANCED SAILS (727) 896-7245Quality Cruising Sails & Service

Closest Sailmaker to St. Petersburg MarinasKeith Donaldson.................... (727) 896-7245

Scuba Clean Yacht ServiceSee ad in Underwater Services

SARASOTAPORPOISE SAILING SERVICES

• New and Used Sails• Buy • Sell • Trade

• Furling Packages • DiscountSunbrella

(941) 758-2822 ww.porpoisesailing.com

Cedar Key

St. PetersburgTampa

Fort Myers

Key West

Naples

Cape Sable

SAILMAKING, REPAIRING & CLEANINGcontinued

SUNRISE SAILS PLUS WEST FLORIDAComplete Yacht Outfitting Service

Sails – New, Repair, CleaningComplete rigging service, masts, cushions,

canvas & more(941) [email protected]

SAILING INSTRUCTION/SCHOOLS

Adventure Cruising & Sailing SchoolA sailing school for Women and Couples• ASA • West Florida and Chesapeakewww.acss.bz .......................... (727) 204-8850


Deliveries • Gulf • Atlantic • Caribbean(866) 221-2841 .. [email protected]

FLAGSHIP SAILING/TAMPA BAY AREAASA Sailing Instruction –

Basic thru AdvancedInstructor Certification • Sailing Club

Bareboat & Captained Charterswww.flagshipsailing.com ...... (727) 942-8958

YACHTING VACATIONS SW FLORIDALive-aboard/non-live-aboard

ASA instructionwww.yachtingvacations.com .. (800) 447-0080

UNDERWATER SERVICES

Scuba Clean Yacht Service• Underwater Services • Canvas Shop• Sail Cleaning & Repair • Detailing

• Mechanical • Electrical • ElectronicsServing Pinellas, Hillsborough, Sarasota,

Pasco & Manatee Counties.(727) 327-2628

Advertise in this 1" tall adfor $20 a month.

See page 29 for detailsor call (941) 795-8704.

BOAT LETTERING – GRAPHICS

THE SIGN FACTORY FLORIDABOAT GRAPHICS

Screen Printing • T-shirts • Hats(941) 792-4830 ..... [email protected]

CANVAS & CUSHION SERVICES

Banks Sails TampaSee ad in Sailmaking

Scuba Clean Yacht ServiceSee ad in Underwater Services

CAPTAIN SERVICES


Deliveries • Gulf • Atlantic • Caribbean(866) 221-2841 .. [email protected]

COMMUNICATIONS

Dockside Radio – Pactor II/III modem sales &support; FCC marine radio license filing; SailMail& WinLink installation and trainingwww.docksideradio.com .........(941) 661-4498

RIGGING SERVICES

SSMR. Inc. 727-823-4800Complete Rigging Services

On-Site Swagging & SplicingCommisssioning Services

At Harborage Hi & Dry Dock • Crane ServiceFax 727-823-3270 ............. St. Petersburg


http://www.boatnames.net


http://www.acss.bz



http://www.flagshipsailing.com

http://www.yachtingvacations.com


http://www.docksideradio.com


http://www.porpoisesailing.com


WEST FLORIDA SAILINGgerness to learn.

There is more to it than just sailing. Each student must righis or her own boat, learn to sail it properly and when finished,wash it down, fold the sails and return everything to the properstorage area. Maintaining the boats and equipment is a majorpart of the learning to sail experience at CCSC. You may think,with this much activity going on, things would tend to get alittle hectic. It does, but the trained staff manages to keep theprograms running smooth. Many long hours of preparation andhard work from the staff contribute to the success and safe op-eration of the summer sailing programs.

Youth sailing is a wonderful program for the children. Itnot only teaches sailing techniques, but also, responsibility, team-work, safety on the water, and sportsmanship.

An article written by Mike McNulty, in the May is-sue of SOUTHWINDS, stated that his daughter Ashley wantsto become a certified sailing instructor. Go for it, Ashley,and you will be rewarded many times over. What youteach someone today will last a lifetime. My wife Patriciais an instructor, and she loves every minute of it. For more information on CCSC’s Youth Sailing Pro-grams, call (727) 517-7776. You can visit their facility at1001 Gulf Boulevard, Clearwater, FL, or visit the Website at www.clearwatercommunitysailing.org/youthcamp.html.

Singles Sailing Club

A new club is forming in the Port Charlotte/PuntaGorda, FL, area. Must be single, boat owner or non-

boat owner, with interest in sailing. Basic sailing lessonsavailable. Plans are to have daysails, social get-togetherson land and water, weekend charters, and more! Contact(941) 623-0337 or [email protected].

Sailing with SEA SENSEon the Amalfi Coast of Italy

An irresistible 7-day sailing class for women, departing fromSorrento, Italy, and sailing along the Amalfi coast to Naples

and the Isle of Capri is being offered this September by SeaSense, the women’s Sailing and powerboating school.

This course is designed to give women the opportunity tobecome competent and comfortable as both skipper and crew.Participants will learn sail trim, boat handling, docking Euro-pean style, as well as navigating in international waters.

The live-aboard course is scheduled from September 25 -Oct 1. departing from and returning to Sorrento, Italy. For moreinformation contact: SEA SENSE…The Women’s Sailing &Powerboating School, St. Petersburg, FL, (800) 332-1404 or (727)865-1404 or www.seasenseboating.com.

Tampa Bay Sailors Leaveon 18-Month Sailing TripAcross the Atlantic

On May 10, four sailors from Tampa Bay departed DiemensLanding at the St. Petersburg marina for an 18-month voy-

age. Along with Capt. Kent Dudley are Terry Clark, MichaelFunky, and Tim Ashe. Some of the crew are from Florida andsome from Colorado. The boat, named Jack Iron, is a center cock-pit cutter-rigged Corbin 39. The trip began by heading downthe west coast of Florida to Marathon where they waited for aweather window to head north along the east coast of Floridabefore they were off to Bermuda. From there, they will con-tinue across the Atlantic, stopping at the Azores. Then it is on toLisbon and then into the Mediterranean where they will cruise,making it as far as Turkey.

After leaving the Mediterranean, they will sail back acrossthe Atlantic to Brazil, head north into the Caribbean, eventu-ally making it back to the Tampa Bay area in the fall of 2005.

Kent resigned from a job in St. Petersburg after 20 years.

The Jack Iron crew on the day of departure. Photo by Mike Starr.

http://www.seasenseboating.com

http://www.clearwatercommunitysailing.org/youthcamp.html


http://www.nauticaltrader.net

http://www.sailorswharf.com


WEST FLORIDA SAILING

Massey Yacht Sales & Service hosted its first an-

nual All Cruisers Rendezvous& Boat Show this past May 21-23 at its Regatta Pointe Marina,Palmetto, FL, dealership.Massey wanted to show appre-ciation to all the area Catalina,Hunter and Mainship yachtowners. The boat show andseminars were open to allyachting enthusiasts.

There were some 300 plusattendees who enjoyed eight informative seminars, the Tropica Marine Elec-tronics boat show display, boat demo rides, and the Friday and Saturdaynight meals and entertainment. Factory representatives from Hunter andCatalina spoke at the seminars and answered questions before and after onthe boats. West Marine provided the featured Saturday night dinner doorprize, a $500 gift certificate. The Coast Guard Auxiliary kicked off their localboating safety campaign. A Gloria Rector Vessel Documentation representa-tive was on site. Each of the attendee groups received a tote full of gifts. Thewoven totes were supplied by Cruising World and Power Cruising magazines.They had items from Cruising World, Power Cruising, Latitude and Attitudes,SOUTHWINDS and logo caps from Sail. Catalina and Hunter supplied T-shirtsand other items for owners of those yacht lines.

There were over 60 sail and power yachts, new and pre-owned, avail-able for inspection. Those yachts were well reviewed. All new yachts wereboat-show decorated and had yacht purchase information on board. Thosein attendance were also given a full collateral package of services offered byMassey Yacht Sales & Service and information on the Catalina, Hunter andMainship lines of yachts.

First AnnualMassey Yacht Sales All CruisersRendezvous and Boat ShowPalmetto, FL, May 21-23

http://www.floridabooks.com



“The All Cruisers Rendezvous& Boat Show success wasbeyond our expectations.

“We look forwardto making this a

must-attend annual event.”

Ed Massey,president and CEO of

Massey Yacht Sales & Service

http://www.suncoastinflatables.com



Add to the mix a 1.5-mile windward/leeward course and a lotof eager racers itching to race, and you know that the actionwill be hot.

At the start for the PHRF 1 class everyone was maneuver-ing for position. With boats tightly grouped together and luffing,no one was backing down. When the gun finally went off, thefleet was still tightly-packed, sailing for the windward mark.At the top mark the difference was minimal, and it was stillanybody’s race. Rounding the chutes went up with everyonefighting for every ounce of air. It would remain this way untilthe finish when Mostly Harmless (SR33) opened up a 20-second

lead to take first place after completing the 3.8 mile course.The excitement in the PHRF 2 class was no less intense. At

the start Hot Air III (J/30) closed the gap next to the favoredend, forcing four other boats to bail out at the last moment.When the gun went off, Tiburon (Lindenberg 28), who hadwisely stayed clear of Hot Air was off the line at top speed. Achallenge up the course by Caraluna (C & C 99) went to noavail. A tacking duel ensued, but Tiburon forced Caraluna toshort tack on its approach to the weather mark, preventingits from making the mark. While all this was develping, Mis-tral (Beneteau First) was lurking in the shadows and made

SOUTHEAST FLORIDA (continued from page 45)

He left two hours after resigning—not as a surprise to everyonebut worked up to the end. His manager came to see him off atthe docks.

They are using the services of Winlink 2000(www.winlink.org) for weather planning services and to tracktheir voyage. Friends and relatives can locate them by input-ting their station call letters on the Winlink Web site, whichwill immediately take one to their location. With a link toMapblast, one can see their position. Their last reported posi-tion before SOUTHWINDS went to press was in the middle ofthe Atlantic on June 15.

Jack Iron and crew should be reporting in regularly. We didreceive an e-mail from them on May 24, and they were motor-ing in no winds not too far west of Bermuda. We should be hear-ing from them regularly.

Second Annual Corinthian Racefrom Tampa Bay to Key WestJune 2-5

Seven boats that sailed in the Corinthian Race, sponsored bythe Bradenton Yacht Club, departed from the mouth of the

Manatee River on June 2 at 8 p.m. Because of the possibility oflight winds that frequent west Florida, motoring is allowed inthis race to Key West. On the starting night, there were no winds,and the seven boats motored out the Southwest Channel andheaded south where they found winds later that evening offLongboat Pass. Official time starts were held at that time.

They enjoyed 10-15 knot winds from the southeast most ofthe trip, ran into six to eight hours of doldrums, and then goodwinds carried them into Key West. The first to arrive was thecatamaran, Sierra Hotel, about 5:30 Friday morning. All of theboats, except one, had made it into Key West by 4 p.m.

The one boat that did not make it experienced eight hoursof hand pumping after a thru-hull fitting broke-crew was un-able to plug the hole. They eventually were towed in. One crewmember, anxious to enjoy Key West with the others, drove downfor the festivities.

Boats were required to check in and log in with two otherboats every six hours.

Sailors enjoyed a Bloody Mary breakfast Saturday morn-ing and awards dinner on Saturday evening.

The Corinthian Race will be held again next year and isbeing limited to a small number of boats. Many that make thisrace do so because they cannot make the earlier Key West Ren-dezvous-some because of the school year scheduling. The racewill be held June 1. Contact the Bradenton Yacht club for moreinformation. The race is open to anyone who wants to race.Results: 1, Sierra Hotel, Lagoon 47; Seraphim, Mason 53; 3, Millertime; Catalina 36; 4, StarWake, Freedom 30; 5, Spring Fever, Catalina 34; 6, Sea Quest, S@ 9.2.

http://www.winlink.org

http://www.flagshipsailing.com

http://www.sailorswharf.com


KEY WEST RACING (continued from page 28)

ing that it is not required to be at the meeting, he leaves andgoes home in hopes of getting some sleep to make a 4 a.m.start from his inland dock. In John’s words, “My first mis-take. I should have stayed for the skipper’s meeting. I thoughtthat I would, of course, have plenty of time while off watchenroute to go below and read the sailing instructions. Besides,how hard can it be to find a committee boat, flags and orangebuoys in the channel by Galleon Marina in broad daylight.Right? That was my second mistake.”

But John Hodes and crew did not make too many mis-takes, as they raced well. In his own words:

“The 365 is designed to reach a 17-20 knot wind on thebeam and is ideal for this vessel. It is a seaworthy non-racingvessel designed for open ocean sailing and she thrives on thesewind speeds and sail point. Just need to add crew withhutzpah.

“Contrary to NOAA, winds were moderate and west-erly at first; predictable onshore effect. Aware that this wouldchange, we stayed alert for the veer, and later in the evening,the wind moved to the east, and we were ready with the jibewithout losing any boat lengths. Winds started to build to asteady 17 to 20 with no gusts, which are the dangerous thingsand force reefing. We did not reef anything (as most of theother boats did, I was told).

“Since I know that the 365 is very stiff and moves for-ward fast in these winds-not sideways-we had a full 150Genoa out, full main and mizzen (though fouled). I knowfrom experience that when I feel a strong weather helm, weare moving at our fastest speed. I used GPS speed over bot-tom only and steered a straight course in spite of sore shoul-ders. Since Craig, my crew, was too sick to go below, he helmedfor more than two watches and got real good at it. Also, thisavoided the change of helm weaving around and going abackthat often occurs when a new hand grabs the wheel in thesewinds. We noticed that a lot of boats were west of us off therhumb line, I suspect, attempting to find the wind, which waslacking earlier. Cost them time.

“Basically, we won by not reefing and pushing weatherhelm hard on for 17 hours as we watched the speed over thebottom increase, steering a straight rhumb line course. Acleaned bottom helped a lot, but primarily help came fromBill Shaw, the Pearson 365 designer. Also, seasickness helpedbecause the crew would rather helm than go below, and theygot real good at it.

“The speed over the bottom was the only fixation thatdominated me. Whatever makes that speed over the bottomnumber get bigger we do. Period! By capsize or mal de mer, itis immaterial. This is the way I choose to die-booking 8 knots

! We are seeing masthead lights too close ahead-these boatshad to give us five and a half hours on corrected time! Theyshoulden’t be this close. Hell. We are winning this thing!”

As Deborah and crew came down the Northwest Chan-nel, with wind on the nose, into Key West, they knew theywere doing well, but alas, there’s more surprises to come. Johncontinues as they cross the finish line, unbeknownst to him:

“As my CMCS (Calloosahatchee Marching and Chow-der Society) compadres and competitors screamed and wavedflags and stomped at us from the Galleon Tiki hut at the fin-ish, and while Fay Nicholson, regatta administrator, actuallyprayed, we proceeded to leave marker 24 to starboard (redright return after all)-the wrong side-thus brilliantly snatch-ing defeat from the jaws of victory. This was our third andfatal mistake.

“We read the amateur strip map as placing the finish linearound the corner by the fuel dock, so we proceeded to it.Attendants there saw us fast tacking in this narrow channeland rushed around wide-eyed, worried about being rammed,and trying to throw us a line, convinced we were out of fuel.Not my finest hour.

“Thus, I was looking at my watch every minute or so,and we crossed the Tiki Hut/marker 24 on the wrong side ofthe mark by one boat length at 12:15 p.m. A moral victory.Who cares about hardware, and awards dinner, peer acclaim,and legal finish line technicalities. NOT ME! Winning time iswinning time as I see it. (I can’t speak for my crew of course,who still suffer from peer acclaim addiction syndrome andneed therapy.)

“Yes, we went to great effort to convert a clear first placein the regatta True Cruising class to a DNF.”

Officially, John Hodes, who, in my opinion deserves amedal for something-perhaps a congratulatory bottle of cham-pagne at least-had one more thing to say, as he was proud ofhis performance in the race:

“In spite of wind on the nose in the Northwest Channelwhen we finished, after 17 hours of fighting seas and weatherhelm, we had the winning corrected time by 29 minutes inclass-the slowest boat in the fleet by PHRF law. Scoffed andscorned by the racing hot shot clique with their Kevlar sails,etc., awsome winning records, and hand-picked elite crews,the slowest boat in the fleet just KICKED their ass on cor-rected time. This is Rocky VI.

“All absolutely true.”Amen.

Go to www.clwyc.org/KeyWest04/index.htm for complete race re-sults

an attempt to run down Tiburon. At the finish, 15 seconds sepa-rated the two boats with Tiburon finishing first. Not bad for3.8 miles of racing.

The winners of the other classes had an easier time beat-ing out their competition with time differences of over fourminutes.

On Sunday, the one design fleet was out in force with atotal of five classes showing up for the start. With the forecastcalling for afternoon thundershowers, the RC started the racewith no time to spare. Unfortunately, the third race was calledoff because of the approaching rainstorms.

Results:.PHRF #1;1st Pl - Mostly Harmless/Chris Woosley; 2nd Pl - Triptease/Rubin Shellow; 3rd Pl -Sic’Em/Rick Rahm;PHRF #2;1st Pl- Tiburon/Art Perez; 2ndPl- Mistral/Craig Setzer; 3rd Pl-Hot Air III/David Berg;PHRF #3;1st Pl- Mild to Wild/Russ Horn; 2nd Pl- Touchstone/ Jaime &Vicki Topp; 3rd Pl- Tango/Jeff Parker;PHRF #4;1st Pl- Three Gimp/Karen Mitchell; 2nd Pl-Maiden/Lea Hume; 3rd Pl- Ibis/Trevor Gaffney;ARC;1st Pl- Free Bird/Ken Ellis; 2nd Pl-BlewBa You/Kerry Gruson; 3rd PL Trekka/Bud Price;J24;1st Pl- Blue Strip; 2st Pl- J Tripper/Casstleberry & Hansen; 3rd Pl- I’ll Go/Gonzolo Diaz, Sr;Etchell;1st Pl- Leading Edge/JeffreyDevers; 2nd Pl- Pipe dream XII/Scott Piper; 3rd Pl- Victory/Buddy Cribb;Flying Scot;1st Pl-Enigma/Bud Price; 2nd Pl- #2852; 3rd Pl- Being There/Vladimir Stroleny;Lightning;1st Pl-Mach II/Bill Mauk; 2nd Pl- #13861; 3rd Pl- Booby Trap/Fay Regan;Snipe;1st Pl- Danila/Augie Diaz; #29312/David Moorhouse; 3rd Pl- Por Una Cabeza/Gonzo Diaz, Sr;Westphal;1stPl- Shadow/Ray Hoffman; 2nd Pl- Sashay/Bill Zumpfe; 3rd Pl- Moon/David Crawfor;

http://www.clwyc.org/KeyWest04/index.htm


DONATEYOUR BOAT

Tampa Sailing Squadron is lookingfor boat donations for their

youth sailing program. Take a taxwrite-off and donate a boat to

YOUTH SAILING, INC.a non-profit organizationto help kids learn to sail.

Call Bud at 813-645-5704

www.tampasailingsquadron.org

Explanation of Wind Roses

Each wind rose shows the distribution ofthe prevailing winds in the area and

month. These have been recorded over a long periodof time. In general the lengths of the arrows indicate howoften the winds came from that direction. The longer the arrowthe more prevalent were the winds coming from that direction.The length of the shaft is generally to a scale to indicate the per-centage of the winds from that direction, but not as printed in themagazine, but the proportions are correct and as a general indica-tor, the diameter of the circle is a little over 15 percent.

The wind blows in the direction the arrows fly. When thearrow is too long to be printed in a practical manner, a number isindicated. In the sample here, that would be the number 32, whichmeans that 32 percent of the time the wind blew from the west.The number of feathers on the arrow indicates the strength of thewind on the Beaufort scale (one feather is Force 1, two is Force 2,etc. See below). The number in the center of the circle shows thepercentage of the time that the winds were calm. They all add upto 100 percent. In this example, 32 percent came from the Westand 9 percent were calms (a total of 41 per cent), so the remainingarrows add up to 59 percent. These symbols are used here to gen-erally show where the winds came from during that month, howstrong and how often.

In this example we can see that about a third of the time thewinds came from the West, about 20 percent of the time from theNE, Force 3, about 20 percent from the SE, Force 4, maybe 15 per-cent from the south, Force 2, about never from the NW, and 32 per-cent from the West, Force 3. It was calm 9 percent of the time. We hadsome winds from the East at Force 4 and the SW at Force 2.

Beaufort Scale (in knots): Force 1(1-3); Force 2(4-6); Force 3(7-10);Force 4(11-16); Force 5(17-21); Force 6(22-27); Force 7(28-33); Force8(34-40); Force 9(41-47); Force 10(48-55); Force 11(56-63); Force12(64-71 Hurricane)

Wind Roses are taken from Pilot Charts

http://www.tampasailingsquadron.org

NEWS & VIEWS FOR SOUTHERN SAILORS SOUTHWINDS July 2004

12’ 1981 Areys Pond, Catboat, monohull, 10”draft, gaff-rig, teak trim, bronze fittings, fiberglasshull, Shoreline trailer, all in very good condition.$5500 or best offer. (239) 218-6969. (7/04)

23' Southerly, excellent day and light weekendcruiser that can easily be raced. Several suits of sails.Also 4hp outboard Mariner to put in cockpit well.Proven PHRF jib and main winner. An excellent boatfor the family. Truly a boat to see and sail. $2800OBO (813) 503-6728. (8/04)

1982 Merit 25. Great condition. Stored out of wa-ter 8 of the last 9 years. Photographs and details athttp://www.intelligentstrategies.com/merit.$7,995. (770) 932-9382 [email protected] (7/04)

27' PacificSea-craftDana 24, 1987.Blue water boat.3’10" draft. Yan-mar diesel. Stay-sail. H/C pressurewater. Cockpitshower. Propanestove w/oven.Much more.Lying Miami.$47,500. (954)683-7372;[email protected] (7/04)

“In August, you began running an advertisement to sell my diesel engine in your classifieds section. I am pleased to advise you thatI have a buyer as a result of the advertisement. Please discontinue it. FYI, I have also had inquiries from West Africa and France asa result of the Internet ad you made available. I’m MAJOR impressed!! Thank you very much.” Capt C.T., St. Petersburg, FL

C L A S S I F I E D A D S

63

1. Classified ads for boats are $5 a month forup to 30 words, 3-month minimum ($15).Check or credit cards accepted.

2. Add $5 a month for horizontal photo (ver-tical photos $5 a month more), 3-monthminimum, ($30 for three month ad for boatwith photo).

3. Free ads for boats under $500 (sail anddinghys only), all gear under $500, andwindsurfing equipment. Add $5 a monthfor photo.

4. Boats must be for sale by the owner to

qualify for the above.5. E-mail ads (including art/photos to

[email protected]. Add $5 typ-ing charge for ads mailed in or faxed in (in-cluding free ads).

6. Photos not accompanied by S.A.S.E. will notbe returned. Photocopies of photos will notwork. E-mail or send actual photo.

7. Ads (and renewing ads) must be received bythe 10th of the month.

8. The last month your ad runs will be in paren-theses, e.g., (10/04) is October, 2004.

All ads go on the Internet, and your Web site or e-mail address in the ad will be linked by clicking on it.SOUTHWINDS will only be responsible financially for mistakes for a one issue period. Please check your ad. Let us know any mistakes by the 10th of the month.

CLASSIFIED ADS for $5 PER MONTH9. All other ads are $20 a month for up to 20

words. Add $5 a month for each additional10 words. $10 a month for a horizontalphoto. Frequency discounts available. Con-tact editor.

Now pay on-line at our Web sitewww.southwindssailing.com

[email protected]

PO Box 1175, Holmes Beach, FL 34218-1175(941)795-8704 (941) 795-8705 fax

DISPLAY CLASSIFIEDSAdvertise your business in a displayad in the classifieds section. Sold bythe column inch. 2 inch minimum.

(3 column inches is 1/8 page) Monthly Cost Minimum Total

Ads Per Inch Inches Cost

12 $17 2" $346 $20 2" $403 $23 2" $461 $27 2" $54

Accepting offers: 1978 Buccaneer 27’x8’, docu-mented, shoal-draft hull/rig. Interior removed. Zeroblistering. No sails. Most voluminous trailerable sail-boat built. Delivery possible. (850) 442-6510. BobBurnham. 392 East Lake Rd., Quincy, FL 32351.(7/04)

Cape Dory 27’ 1977, Yanmar 8hp diesel. Roller furl-ing, bilge pump, depth meter, full keel, 4’ draft. CarlAlberg design. Sleeps 4. Xlnt. $17,000. MadeiraBeach, FL. Call for appt. (727) 398-0796 (9/04)

27’ Stiletto, super nice, totally re-done. Outstand-ing fast sailer, goes from 14’ sailing width to 8’ totrailer. All gear, Yamaha OB, sail ready. $23,900.(727) 235-1173 [email protected] (8/04)

BOATS & DINGHIES

9' CAPTIVA ESCAPE with trailer, great fun, easy tosail, good for learning. $950 OBO. Call Nora at (727)397-4309. (8/04)

10-foot sailing dinghy, fiberglass, sail rig in goodcondition. $600. Eve. (850) 648-2241. Panama City(7/04)

Dinghy – 10' Quicksilver RIB and 5hp Nissan 4-stroke outboard, less than 10 hours on each. In-cludes trailer. $2500. (727) 379-0554. (9/04)

DISPLAY CLASSIFIEDSSTARTING AT $34/MONTH


http://www.gcyachts.com






Voyageur 30.5 LOA, cutter, AJA, 1981, traditionalcoastal/bluewater, 3.4 draft, Florida/Bahamas, 5sails, Yanmar 8 hp. 1/3 gal/hr, full keel, tiller, heavyrigging, custom teak topsides and below, gimblekerosene 2 burner w/oven, excellent ground tacklew/new lines,9 opening bronze ports, ideal for 3 orsmall family, asking only $29,500 for prompt sale,[email protected] (941) 794-1604 (7/04)

Baba 30 Offshore cruiser, beautiful, strong, high-quality cutter, great singlehander, well-equippedand maintained, 27hp Yanmar, Shaeffer rollerfurlings, Autohelm 4000, much more $49,000. Lo-cated Ft Myers. [email protected], (239) 560-6078. (8/04)

Catalina 30 1986 27hp diesel, boat has been com-pletely refreshened inside and out. New lines, newbottom, new electrical, etc. Must see in Southport,NC. Call (484) 955-9736. Asking $25,000. (9/04)

Bombay Clipper 31’ 1978 sloop 11.5' beam, 3.5'draft, 6’2" headroom. Furling jib. Well-maintainedwith new bottom job, batteries, alternator, stoveGreat for cruising. $24,995 OBO Details:www.bombayclipper.blogspot.com (321) 946-1275(7/04)

Hunter 31, 1986, 18hp Yanmar, Profurl, 150%,135%, working jib, spin, LOF #2, windlass, 80 ftchain, Bimini, Dodger, interconnect canvas, teakdoors, Mermaid Air & heat, cockpit table, refrig-eration, 3 batteries, microwave, wind, speed, depth,inst. TV, $29,500. Located 5346 Bay Point Ct., CapeCoral, (239) 549-0001 work, (941) 575-8834 home.(7/04)

27' Watkins, 10' beam, 3’8" draft. Ideal cruiser.Well-equipped. 20-20 Yanmar diesel, roller furling,new bimini, fully battened main, lazy jacks. (305)852-8158. Key Largo $14,[email protected]. (7/04)

1978 Tartan 27 full keel/centerboard, 3' draft, 6'headroom, 6 opening ports, 12 hp diesel, large v-berth, new marine head, stove, sink. stealthis $3000 in Melbourne. (321) 960-0235 (8/04)

28’ Bristol Channel Cutter 1993-94. 27 hp Yanmardiesel, ABI windlass. 300’ new chain, traditional lay-out with work bench. $135,000. For more infor-mation go to: http://bcc.fortworks.com [email protected]. (7/04)

1986 Hunter 28.5 New bottom, Autohelm 4000,Lazy Jack, Wheel steering, new batteries, All safetyequipment, Yanmar 16 HP diesel, Portable AC, Ex-cellent Condition. (504) 259-5740. $22,500 or BestOffer (9/04)


Island Packet 32, 1990. Fully Equipped, BeautifulCondition. Ready-to-cruise; just add food andclothes. Newly finished teak. Bimini and dodger.Yanmar 3GM-24hp. Maintenance records available.$91,900. (727) 409-1768. [email protected](7/04)

Pearson 33 1986 Hull #16 Draft 3’10' w/cb, per-fect for racing or cruising the shallow waters of Ba-hamas & Florida. A/C, davits, refrig., many extras;documented, $37,000. [email protected]; (239)549-2849 (7/04)

64

See Classified info on page 63

FILE PHOTO

http://www.whitneysmarine.com


http://www.jsyachtsusa.com



http://bcc.fortworks.com



http://www.bombayclipper.blogspot.com

http://www.rockledgeboats.com

http://www.gcyachts.com



1983 C & C 35 Mk III Great cruiser/racer, Yanmar,11 sails, bunks for 7, stove with oven, A/C (’00),refrig (’00), feathering prop (’03), self tailingwinches, Harken roller furler, bimini, covers for ev-erything, autopilot, new batteries, etc., etc. Thisboat needs nothing. $62K. (504) 392-0840 [email protected] (7/04)

1984 37’ Dickerson Cutter, Beautiful boat featuredin World’s Best Sailboats. Furling main and jib,staysail on boom. New ST6000 AP, new waterheater, lectrasan head. 4’6” draft. Perkins 4108 die-sel, new sailor prop. $77,000/Best offer [email protected] Cortez, Fl. 941-755-9316 (8/04)

Lagoon 37 1994. totally equipped for comfortable,safe liveaboard/cruising excellent condition. Origi-nal owner. $185,000 (239) 543-7208 or (239)898-9522 (8/04)

Endeavour 37 Well-loved, One owner 1979 A plan.New Main, Teak interior, new upholstery, SS ports,auto pilot, depth sounder, Origo stove/oven, re-frigeration. Rebuilt Perkins 4-108.Provision and sail! 39K. (305) 745-9030 (9/04)

39' Bristol Yawl, 1968, Westerbeke 4-107 diesel,hard dodger, ss 3 burner stove w/ oven, Aries windvane steering, auto pilot, depth sounder. contactBill at (907) 388-3035 [email protected] (7/04)

1996 Beneteau 40. 3 cabin, 2 head. Fullyequipped. New Caribe v-hull inflatable. Listed at$118,600 but see reduced price and photoswww.TheCruisingDVDs.com/Beneteau40 or [email protected] (8/04)

Endeavour 40, 1985. Center cockpit sloop.Perkins 4.108, roller furling jib, full batten main withMacPac, dodger, bimini. New epoxy bottom, freshbrightwork. All systems working. Good basic boat,ready to go anywhere. Asking $72,000. Call: (850)380-6236. (7/04)

1976 CT41 Cutter-rigged ketch. Come to Louisi-ana to see La Mouette, beautiful, seaworthy double-handed cruiser. Many improvements. Offered byliveaboard owners of 20 years. $80,000. (985) 781-5625 Details www.ct41ketchforsale.com. (9/04)

Catana 411 catamaran, 1995. Loaded for cruis-ing. SSB, Radar, Chartplotter, APs, generator, so-lar, wind generator, liferaft, EPIRB, much more. Sheis fast, safe, comfortable. Excellent condition.$265,000, Go to www.catana411.com, (949) 463-8287 (7/04)

Brewer 42’ 1986 Ted Brewer-designed sailboat. 80-hp Lehman/Ford, just rebuilt. Two staterooms, 2heads, full galley, 4.5 generator. Center cockpit,bimini & dodger. Ready to cruise. (727) [email protected] (8/04)

1989 Irwin 43 CC Sloop Raytheon ST50 Knot LogDepth apparent wind and speed, Raynav 520+plot-ter WAAS GPS, AP7000 auto pilot, radar RX20,ICOM dual station VHF, roller furling, Stack Packby Mac Sails, main 2 years old, Jib 4 years old. 2AC reverse cycle units, full galley with SS stove andoven, microwave, Adler Barbour freezer/refrigera-tor, 2 heads with separate showers, large saloonand large nav station. 8KW Genset, 66HP Yanmar

65

REDUCED


http://www.whitneysmarine.com

http://sailboatsFlorida.com


http://www.catana411.com

http://www.ct41ketchforsale.com



http://www.thecruisingdvds.com/beneteau40

http://www.gulfcoastraider.com


1500 Hours, fuel polisher, 3 anchors, 2 Plow 35 &45 and Fortress, 165’ chain and 300’ rode. Newcockpit cushions. Safety package and much, much,more. $137,500 or BRO. (941) 350-8113 (7/04)

1988 Brewer 44’ shoal-draft w/board. Center-cock-pit cutter, Perkins 85, sale by original owners, (941)962-7100 or (813) 671-0862 or [email protected]. (9/04)

45’ Columbia Sloop, 1973, 85 hp Perkins, R/F Mainand Genoa, completely new fuel system, hard topbimini, davits, windlass, solar panel, AC, comfort-able cruising boat, Jacksonville, FL, $35,000. (904)541-1585. (7/04)

51’ Airex foam Trimaran 1976. Cruising Equipped.4 cylinder 40 hp Isuzu diesel. Selling for medicalreasons. $60,000. For more info and photos.www.salinet.com (id#12820) or call (530) 647-2757. [email protected]. (7/04)


66

BOAT SLIPS FOR RENT

Florida Keys boat slip for rent, $450 per month/annual. Live in Dade and dock your boat in thebeautiful Florida Keys. MM 51. Marathon. Zoned,live-aboard community. Full utilities includingpumpout at dock. Easy ocean access. (305) 289-4338. [email protected]. (7/04)

BOOKS & CHARTS

Ocean Routing – Jenifer Clark’s Gulf Stream BoatRouting/Ocean Charts by the “best in the business.”(301) 952-0930, fax (301) 574-0289 orwww.erols.com/gulfstrm

BUSINESS/INVESTMENTOPPORTUNITIES

Construction/Real Estate investment Highly-ex-perienced, honest, licensed, responsible and reliablecontractor seeks investor/partner in new construc-tion/remodeling in west Florida. Perhaps a spechouse or purchase to remodel. Contractor is experi-enced in custom homes of all sizes, including veryhigh-end homes. Only interested in doing interest-ing and enjoyable projects. (941) 795-8711

Sailtime.com is looking for base operators on theFlorida coast. This may suit existing marine busi-ness owners who wish to add an additional incomestream. Sailtime is a unique business model that re-quires minimal capital and no staff. Tel. (813) 817-0104 or [email protected]

CREW AVAILABLEVisit SOUTHWINDS new boat and crewlisting serviceat southwindssailing.com

CREW WANTEDVisit SOUTHWINDS new boat and crewlisting serviceat southwindssailing.com

DISPLAY CLASSIFIEDS starting at $34/month [email protected]

ELECTRONICSSeaTech Systems – Computerized navigation &communication. Call for free Cruiser’s Guide to theDigital Nav Station and CAPN demo disk. (800)444-2581 or (281) 334-1174,[email protected], www.sea-tech.com

HELP WANTED

Ad Sales Reps wanted in the south for [email protected] or (941) 795-8704

Yacht Sales Person Wanted. Massey Yacht Sales hassales positions available for professional, successful yachtsales persons for the new Ft. Myers dealership location.Massey is one of Florida’s largest dealers for the saleand outfitting of Catalina, Hunter, Caliber and Mainshipyachts plus sells a wide range of pre-owned sail andpower yachts. Sales candidates need to be computerliterate, self-motivated with a good knowledge of thesail and power industry. Massey offers the best market-ing and sales support system with a large lead base forthe right candidate. Call Edward Massey for interviewappointment. (941) 723-1610. (9/04)

Looking for Salesperson for St. Petersburg ma-rina office location of Sailboats Florida, knowl-edgable in both sail and trawler/motoryachts. Alsonew boat sales for Hanse Yachts. We are expand-ing, so contact David Erdman at (727) 553-9551

Sales Representative for SOUTHWINDS magazineto call on national and southern advertisers. Canlive most anywhere for this job. Must have experi-ence. Commission. [email protected] (941) 795-8704.

MARINE ENGINES

MISCELLANEOUS BOAT GEARNEW & USED

NKE MAXI TOP LINE DISPLAYS AND PARTS Onemaxi and dual display with wired remote controland parts. All segments are good. Asking $500.(727) 321-5880 *3. [email protected] (9/04)

THULE CAR RACKS Two complete sets of 400gutterless series racks with locks. Go towww.thule.com for the fit kit for your car. Asking$150 per set. (727) 321-5880 *3. [email protected] (9/04)

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67

DINGHY DAVITSOnly $360.00

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727-686-5020

Automatic variable pitch propeller. Good condi-tion. Right-handed, was on a 37 Irwin, diameter16 3/4, shaft 1 1/8. $1495/OBO. (386) 423-8778.(9/04)

Wanted: Marine single-side band radio transceiver/receiver. (941) 235-1890 (7/04)

Bimini Top with front and side zip-in clear curtains.Approx size: 94" front X 72" sides X 45" height.Excellent condition. Dove Grey color. Call for ex-act dimensions and details. Asking $500. (850)624-0470 (8/04)

Mast Mate 42-foot – $125, Fortress FX23 anchor-$125, teak sailing seat-$100, Mark 15 Sextant withcase-$95. Life Sling $50, Deck Sun Cover, Sunbrella,for Hunter 31-$50, Signal Flags-complete set-$40.(941) 769-5794. (8/04)

www.southwindssailing.com

One 34’6" B&R Rig Mast complete with standingand running rigging - $2700 Also Lewmar winches,25s and 7s. Much more equipment for boats upto 30 feet. (985) 892-4133 or E-mail [email protected]

Wheels CustomLeathered –Satisfactionguaranteed, 1 yearwarranty. Free turkshead. Over 100satisfied customerslast year. ContactRay Glover atSunrise Sails Plus(941) 721-4471 [email protected]

TIRALO floating deck chair - a beach chair thatfloats in water and rolls easily on the sand. Looksgreat. Folds and fits on your boat or inside yourcar. More info: www.tiralo-usa.com or [email protected]

AC/DC Refer, 22# Bruce Anchor, Anchor Ball,Sospenders, Magma Grills, Mariner 9.9, MercuryLong Shaft 7.5 HP, Folding Bikes, Windsurfers,Metzeler Sailing Rig, Windscoop, Drogues, Lifesling,Type I Life Jackets w/strobe. Nautical Trader. (941)488-0766. www.nauticaltrader.net

NAVIGATION SOFTWARE


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Air Duck 37Aqua Graphics 56Atlantic Sails 46Banks Sails 56Beachmaster Photography 66Beneteau Sailboats BCBeta Marine 23Bluewater Sailing Supply 55Boaters Exchange 39,64BoatUS 17Bob and Annie’s Boatyard 19Bo’sun Supplies 36Bubba Book 16Carson/Beneteau BCCoast Weather 68Coral Reef Apparel Company 35Crow’s Nest Restaurant & Marina 29Cruising Direct Sails 8Defender Industries 67Dockside Radio 15Don’s Salvage 58Doyle Sails 12Dwyer mast 67Eastern/Beneteau BCFirst Patriot Insurance 18Flagship Sailing 60Fleetside Marine Service 66Flying Scot Sailboats 66Forespar 63Fujinon Binoculars 35Fun Maritime Academy 38Garhauer Hardware 4Glacier Bay Refrigeration 40Great Outdoors Publishing 58Gulf Coast Yacht Sales 63,64Gunkholer’s Cruising Guide 58Hanse Sailboats 65Hood/SSMR 55Hotwire/Fans and other products 67Hunter Sailboats 10,11Island Marine Products 23JR Overseas/Moisture Meter 27JS9000 PHRF Racer 64Memory Map 67Martek Dinghy Davits 67Massey Yacht Sales 3,9,14,22,31,32,IBCMasthead Enterprises 24,68Mid Island Marine Services 56Murray Yacht Sales/Beneteau BCNational Sail Supply 45Nautical Trader 57NBOA 53North Sails 20Nuclear Sails 16Porpoise Used Sails 68Raider Sailboats 65RB Grove/Universal and Westerbeke 43Rparts Refrigeration 51Sailboats Florida 65Sail Exchange/Used Sails 28,68Sailcovers and More 68Sailor’s Soap 15,34,49Sailor’s Wharf Boatyard and Brokerage 57,60Sailtime 5Sarasota Youth Sailing Program 62Schurr Sails 47Scully 20Scurvy Dog Marine 48Sea School 20Sea Tech 21Sign Factory 56SSMR/Hood 55St. Augustine Sailing School 68St. Barts/Beneteau BCSuncoast Inflatables 59Tackle Shack 54Tampa Sailing Squadron 62UK Sails 4Ullman sails 15West Marine 41,IFCWhitney’s Marine 64,65,66Windcraft Catamarans 20Weather Wave 43Yanmar Diesel 66Sailing Services Directory West Florida 56Regional Sailing Services Directory 25Calendar Photo Contest 13

INDEX OF ADVERTISERSCLASSIF IED ADS

68

See Classified information on page 63

OFFICE SPACE FOR LEASEOffice and warehouse space available for leaseto marine-related businesses. Great for boat bro-kers or sales representatives. High speed Internetaccess. JSI (727) 577-3220

LODGING FOR SAILORS

Ponce de Leon HotelHistoric downtownhotel at the bay,across from St.Petersburg YC.95 Central Ave.St. Petersburg, FL33701

(727) 550-9300FAX (727) 826-1774 www.poncedeleonhotel.com

PERSONALLive-aboard sailor looking for rich woman with con-nections to people who can acquire Micron 44 bot-tom paint. This bottom paint is not generally avail-able through the normal commercial channels. Badgovernment research has determined that Micron44 kills shellfish and other marine critters becauseof the tin content (TBT) in the paint. Because ofthe fact that Micron 44 is not readily available for aboat of Right’s Guard’s size, the woman I am seek-ing has to have some experience in the marinetrades and know how to solder electrical connec-tions. It would also help if she had an AmericanExpress platinum card, knew how to cook gour-met meals and was drop dead gorgeous. Tobaccochewing optional. Contact Bubba Whartz [email protected]

SAILING INSTRUCTION

SAILS & CANVAS

USED SAILS SAVE $$$ 1000s of headsails, mains &spinnakers. We ship everywhere, satisfaction guar-anteed. We also buy sails. Sail Exchange. (800) 628-8152. 407 Fullerton Ave. Newport Beach CA 92663www.sailexchange.com See Display ad in Index ofadvertisers

SERVICES FOR SAILORS

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http://www.sta-sail.com

http://www.sailexchange.com

http://www.coastweather.com


BUBBA (continued from page 19)

“Phyllis rubbed me the wrong way in Key West. Some women are born nice.Some women learn to be nice. Phyllis was born mean and learned to be meaner,”Capt. Whartz explained. “I had been in Key West and stayed in a marina where sheworked. She wouldn’t give me the time of day. I mean, literally. I asked her what timeit was, and she wouldn’t even bother looking at her own wristwatch to help me out.She said she was too busy. That was a first for me. This woman had all the personalwarmth of dry ice. Then, when I got my bill, it had charges for water, charges forelectricity, charges for cable TV, charges for a telephone hookup and also the normalslip rental charges. I told her that I didn’t order all that extra stuff when I signed in.She said I certainly did, and then she pointed to some agate type so small I hadn’tnoticed it on the bottom of the docking agreement. When I signed in, I never saw theparagraph that said that I had to pay for the extras, even if I had made no use of themwhile I was docked there.

“I complained that I was being railroaded. She told me that was tough. I hadsigned the agreement, and if I didn’t come up with the money, then she would call thepolice, and the marina would chain my boat to the dock and lock the chain. I thoughtabout it for a minute. I was between a rock and a hard place. Then, I had an inspira-tion. I apologized profusely to Phyllis, told her that I was all wrong and wrote her acheck on the spot for everything that she said that I owed. Then I left and went into theWaterfront Market at Key West Bight and made a couple of purchases. They came intwo containers, but I mixed the two together. Then I went back to the marina, apolo-gized again and gave her one of the containers and told her it was a present and therewere no hard feelings. Then I got on Right Guard, untied the lines and took off.”

“What was in the container?” I asked.“The one I gave her as a present?” replied Bubba.“Of course,” I shot back at him.“It was about half an expensive shampoo and about half Nair,” Bubba said.“Bubba, you put Nair in the shampoo you gave to Phyllis?” gasped Doobie.“Sure did,” said Bubba. “Apparently she used it. Works like a charm, doesn’t it?”“Bubba, you are the most devious, twisted, fiendish man I have ever met,” smiled

Doobie. “You get the next six beers on the house.”“Thank you,” said Bubba, ducking his head.You know, as God is my witness, Bubba was actually blushing at Doobie’s kind

words. And you thought that he never showed his sensitive side.

one object if we start the engine and go in? We could be at the dock with the airconditioning on by midnight.” Though I know a couple of the crew would havepreferred to finish the race, nobody dissented (too tired to argue, mostly!)

So we did. We didn’t actually make it to the dock until 3 a.m. Sunday morning.But once we quit racing, everyone relaxed, had a drink, and felt better. A little windin the cockpit (from motoring) felt really good. We felt really sorry for the boat wemotored past, with limp sails and a hot crew. We went into Charleston Harbor atnight-it was a little scary (the race organizer said... “unless you are familiar with theharbor, we advise you to wait until daylight.”). But we had charts, two GPSs, radar,etc. It took the whole crew helping out to make sure our fatigued skipper didn’tmake any mistakes, but we got to the dock safely.

The bulk of the rest of fleet started arriving at Charleston City Marina about 7a.m..

A good time was had by all. Miss Too performed well on her first ocean race,and the crew learned a lot about longer distance racing.

We slept a few hours, had breakfast, went and picked up the rental car, and thetransient crew took off about 10 a.m. for Melbourne. I don’t know how we wouldhave ended up in the race. Probably not first, as we were within the pack when wequit (and we were about the fifth lowest-rated boat). Bob said only about 17 boatsfinished out of 24 starters.

OCEAN RACING (continued from page 37)

Results: Corrected time placement: 1-Eric Pesty & MichaelBeavers, Hobie 16. 2-Jessie Combs & Heather Tidwell, 420.3-Commodore Tom Theisen, Laser. 4-Bud Case, Sunfish. 5-Sa.m. Chapin, Laser. 6-Jeff Serrie & Natalie Watson, JY15. 7-Nils Rydbeck, Sunfish. 8-Bobbie Combs & Daniel “the wineguy” Johnson, JY15. 9-Bert Bender & Haven, JY15. 10-CurtisCraig, Laser. 11-Dave Oatway, Laser. 12-Julie & Ed Gully, JY15.13-Jack Worth, Sunfish. 14-Craig Beavers, Laser. 15-RebeccaBurg, WindRider16. 16-Cheryl Bradley, Laser. 17-Jeep Caillout& SeaWolf, Oday Daysailer. 18-Walt Mathews, Cape DoryTyphoon. 19-Abalyn McMullen, Laser. 20-Larry Fagan, Victoria18. 21-Dolly Honsholder, Sunfish. Bob Willia.m.s and his new17' Norseboat, hull #1, did not yet have a rating. TheNorseboat finished in the middle of the fleet.

Marathon SailingClub, SunfishSummer Series

The Marathon Sailing Club Inc. an-nounced its First Annual Sunfish

Summer Series. The series will be gov-erned by the “rules” as defined in the2001-2004 Racing Rules of Sailing and theSunfish Summer Series Sailing Instructions.

Racing will be held off the east end ofSombrero Beach on the following Satur-days: July 10, July 24, August 7, August21, September 4 and September 18.Weather days will be announced asneeded. All Sunfish are eligible to sail.Competitors should register on the beachwith the organizing authority and checkin with the race committee on the coursebefore the start of each day’s racing. Noentry fee is required for Marathon SailingClub members. US Sailing members: $4/day of racing. All others: $5/day of rac-ing. PFDs (life jackets) shall be worn at alltimes when on the water. To request fur-ther information or a copy of the SunfishSummer Series Sailing call (305) 766-2737.

Instructions, contact Ridge Gardnerat [email protected] or as a lastresort, call (305) 766-2737.

Florida Keys Now aNo Discharge Zone

Effective June 19, all state waters of theFlorida Keys National Marine Sanc-

tuary are a No Discharge Zone for boatersewage. For information or a map ofpump-out facilities, contact (866) -NDKEYSO or www.co.monroe.fl.us/ndz/info.htm, Reef Relief, (305) 294-3100,www.reefrelief.org, or the Florida KeysNational Marine Sanctuary (305) 292-0311,743-2437, 852-7717.

KEYS (continued from page 51)


http://www.co.monroe.fl.us/ndz/info.htm

http://www.reefrelief.org


My friend and I had been sailing forseveral years together on his

Catalina 22. One of his last adventuresmay have been the cause of him sellinghis boat.

He commented one day that as hisdaughters were getting older, they werenot as interested in spending time withhim on his sailboat as they used to be.His two daughters would rather doother stuff that included phones, air-con-ditioning, and TV. Dad was determinedand managed to work family vacationsaround sailing and camping on the boat.As they got older, this was harder to do.He moved up to a Catalina 25 to enticethem with the extra room, but this hadno effect.

The girls stated during their teen-age years that they had become accus-tomed to air-conditioning and hot show-ers when Dad had this great idea. Hisdaughters were involved in the churchyouth group. The youth group was go-ing to have a long weekend at the beachnear Emerald Isle, NC. Dad volunteeredto take the group out to sea for a daystopping in at Cape Lookout NationalSeashore for a day exploring and thensailing back. Cape Lookout is the lowerOuter Banks of North Carolina and haswild ponies and other assorted animals

Remembering the Important Stuff:Another True Sailing Story

By Bruce Sanspree

as well as coastal wildlife. The ponies andgoats are remnants of shipwrecks frompast years that have survived on the wildgrasses and marsh water. There is no de-velopment along these barrier islands.

The plan was to get all the kids ex-cited about sailing and thereby endearhimself and his hobby to his daughters.Perhaps even get them interested in sail-ing again. The time came for the daylongsailing adventure in a 25-foot Catalina.There were four teenage girls and threeteenage guys as well as the skipper sail-ing out to sea that day.

The skipper knew his reputationwas on the line so he tried to think ofeverything, He filed a float plan,checked the weather, obtained water,ice, drinks and snacks. He double-checked life vests, extra lines and sails,anchor rode; he insured that the marineradio was operating. Even carried aphone on board. He made a list-checkedit twice.

All went well. Everyone loved thesailing to the Cape Lookout seashore.Birds were abundant and the weatherwas perfect. Dolphins accompaniedthem over to the island. He brought theCatalina over to the ocean side of theisland and anchored. He had done thison many occasions before in smaller

sailboats. They anchored the boat andused the dinghy to transfer the girls toshore. The boys braved the water andswam the 30 yards or so to the beach.

They had a great day on the island.Horses were photographed, and every-one was having a good time. Dad was ahero. Dad had thought of everything.Almost.

When they came back over thedunes, there was the sailboat over on itsside with the keel in the sand. The tidehad gone out.

The daughters said “Daaad.”The guys said “Coool.”The other teenage girl said, “ I have

to pee.”Nothing to do but wait until the tide

came in, which it did, and the boat re-floated. The trip was much longer thanoriginally planned. There was the em-barrassing phone call back to announcethey would be late arriving and why.

Some of the best trips can be ruinedor at least become awkward because oflack of pre-planning. It is the simplethings that can make you feel the worstbecause these are the things that couldhave easily been done and a crisis pre-vented. Although some sailors wouldsay that this day was just another day’sadventure at sea.

Southwindsjuly2004

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