Sarasota Sailfest
Sarasota Fl
May 15-16
Sarasota's annual sailfest regatta was held on May 15-16, 1999.
Winds were out of the Northeast most of the weekend with 8-12 mph
on Saturday and a 3-5 mph puff on Sunday.
The first day we completed four races. Since I spent most
of this first day trying to catch up or keep up, I can only
summarize bits and pieces of the day.
Rod Koch sailed quick and smart up wind to win the first day,
having finishes in all top 4 positions. Charlie Clifton finished
out the first day in second, focusing very hard upwind and
sailing extremely quick off the wind these days. John Spray who
came out of retirement to join us for this weekend, proved he
still had some technique left in him. Dan Borrer, basically a
newcomer to the sunfish, is very quick in the boat. If you
blink you may miss him passing you by. Watch out once he
has more time in the boat. Jeff Olson, always a competitive
sailor---especially on Sarasota Bay,
rounded out the top 5 for the day. Paul Strauley, who you would
expect to be competition for the top 5, spent most of the day
trying not to be DFL.
Saturday night started out with the typical partying mode.
Many thoughts were shared about the four races we sailed that day.
Many drinks later, the conversation focused on how poorly Paul
Strauley is sailing these days. The final consensus was that no
one wanted Paul to hang out with them if he didn't start sailing
better. Well, on Sunday Paul showed all of us that he still has
it in him to win a race. Paul had to sail smart upwind to
move his way through the fleet. Second visit to the windward mark
(we ran windward-leewards twice around) he was leading the pack
with Mindy very close behind. Paul carried this to the
finish for first place by a bow-handle. Team Florida decided to
reinstate him to the team, although on probation.
Results:
Pl Skipper Sail # Club/City R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total
1. Rod Koch 76035 Davis Is. 1 3 2 4 5 15 2. Charlie Clifton 59115 SSS 6 2 3 2 4 17 3. Jeff Olson 88557 SSS 8 4 1 3 3 19 4. Dan Borrer 0 Davis Is. 3 1 5 6 7 22 5. John Spray 76347 Lake Tarpon 2 7 4 1 10 24 6. Dave Connolly 86429 Sarasota 4 8 6 5 6 29 7. Mindy Katz 84800 Dunedin 5 5 8 10 2 30 8. Paul Strauley 76685 Dunedin 11 6 7 8 1 33 9. Erik Erickson 22527 Sarasota 7 10 10 9 8 44 10. Jay Montero 78034 PGSC 9 9 9 11 9 47 11. Nate Vilardebo 78062 Davis Is. 10 11 11 7 11 50 12. Dottie Schell 77684 SSS 12 12 DNC DNC DNC 63