2000 Florida State Sunfish Championships
The 2000 Florida State Sunfish Championships were hosted by Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa, Florida, on October 28-29. Fairly light winds made for short windward-leeward legs, but the race committee was able to get off 8 races for the 25 competitors.
After a sunny day of racing, the sailors chowed on steak and brauts Saturday night around the fire pit, followed by s-mores, followed by a tip-over time that must have been about 8 pm. So much for the midnight raid on Ybor City!
Out-of-towners Tom Whitehurst and Clinton Edwards gave the depleted local fleet (Joe Blouin and Bill Wingrove were among the local fellas missing -- something about a big-boat regatta) a real run for the money. And it wasn't just the way-cool winnebago. With no throw-outs: Tom's 4th -place finish included a 26-point hit brought on by a red-flag incident Saturday afternoon at the windward mark.
Hometown boy Jeff Linton took first place by 12 points. Gail Heusler took the "Top Opposite Gender" (also earning the most bullets!), while Eric Erickson won the masters (over 50) division, and young Jeffrey Willis took the top juniors. (As a note for Clinton, there were just a handful of non-masters at the regatta, and one junior! Yipes!)
Results:
1. Jeff Linton, Tampa (5,2,5,3,1,1,6,2) 25 2. Jamey Rabbit, Tampa (9,3,4,2,2,6,2,9) 37 3. Rod Koch, St. Petersburg (4,10,2,4,4,7,5,3) 39 4. Tom Whitehurst, LA (1,1,3,26,5,4,3,5) 48 5. Gail Heausler, Tampa (11,9,1,1,8,16,8,1) 55 6. Clinton Edwards, Bay St. Louis (6,8,9,5,7,2,9,11) 57 7. Paul Strauley, St. Petersburg (2,14,10,8,11,3,4,10) 62 8. Tony Elliott, Ft. Lauderdale (18,6,15,14,3,5,1,12) 74 9. Mindy Strauley, St. Petersburg (21,4,7,6,12,10,14,7) 81 10. Eric Erickson, Sarasota (3,7,6,7,10,15,18,16) 82 11. John Spray, Tarpon Springs (20,16,8,13,6,8,7,8) 86 12. Rick Pantall, Punta Gorda (8,20,11,9,15,9,19,4) 95 13. Pat Hamilton, So Fla (16,5,14,19,9,11,10,21) 105 14. Joel Heyne, Gulfport (12,13,17,12,18,13,15,13) 113 15. Dave Kaighin, Sarasota/the Islands (23,17,12,15,19,21,11,6) 124 16. Fuller Moore, Clearwater (22,12,13,17,13,20,13,15) 125 17. Edward Carney, South of here (15,22,19,11,21,18,12,18) 136 18. Mark Rother, St. Petersburg (10,15,21,16,16,12,20,26) 136 19. Cindy Kaighin, Sarasota/the Islands (19,11,18,10,22,19,21,19) 139 20. Joe Creaney, St. Petersburg (7,23,20,26,14,14,16,20) 140 21. Jeff Kensinger, Tampa (14,19,22,22,17,17,17,14) 142 22. Lois Blodgett, Boca Raton (17,18,16,26,20,22,22,17) 158 23. Bonnie Sevier, Tampa (24,21,23,18,24,23,24,22) 179 24. Greg Meritt, Tampa (13,25,24,21,25,26,26,26) 186 25. Jeffrey Willis, Tampa (25,24,25,20,23,26,23,23) 189