1995 SNIPE DEAD of WINTER
Hosted by the St. Petersburg YC, St. Petersburg, Florida
December 30, 31, January 1, 1995
Sailed on Tampa Bay
The Dead of Winter Regatta is an annual event which is generally held
on the first weekend of January. This was the 8th annual (I think).
Forty-two Snipes competed in the 1995 "First is Best" Dead of Winter
Regatta in St. Petersburg, Florida. Despite consistently light
breezes, the Race Committee managed to hold three very fair races.
The competitors sailed out to the starting line on the first day only
to meet with a light dying breeze, reminiscent of last year's regatta.
After drifting around a while, the Race Committee hoisted AP/A and
starting towing the boats back to the dock. The breeze finally picked
up to 5-8 knots and a windward/leeward course was completed with the
Mendelblatt brothers, of St. Pete, taking 1-2 and Snipe newcomer Ned
Jones, the current coach at Kings Point third. Due to the lateness of
the hour, the day's racing was complete after one race.
An awesome buffet dinner was prepared by the St. Pete Yacht Club,
followed by a rousing game of "Snipe Pictionary". The group was
divided in two and moderated by Ray Gauthier, with Past SCIRA
Commodore Wayne "Little Jesus" Soares of Bermuda making a guest
appearance as Judge. All of the phrases used in the game were related
to sailing and, in particular, to Snipes. The most difficult phrase,
missed by both teams was "Zephyr", which no one could adequately
represent in pictorial format in one minute! The game came down to a
sudden death round.
The fleet was met on Saturday morning with dense fog, forcing a
shoreside postponement until about 11 am. When the fog cleared enough
the fleet left the dock while the committee boat scouted the wind
situation. A windward/leeward course was started in a 5-8 knot breeze
from the east. Hal Gilreath passed Dave Chapin and Alex Pline on the
last run to win the race followed by Chapin and Pline. The breeze died
after most of the competitors finished and did not reappear for the
rest of the day, getting the group back to shore for a few Blender
Drinks before the evening's festivities.
New Year's was celebrated with another great buffet at SPYC. In order
to allow time for the competitors to participate in the City of St.
Pete's "First Night" Celebration, New Year's was celebrated at 12:00
GMT (7:00 local time). The club was teaming with New Year's Eve
celebrants, in addition to the Snipe Crowd. SPYC is a very
hospitable club for visiting sailors, and always does a great job.
It's one of those clubs where you can hang around the bar in shorts, a
t-shirt and flip flops on New Year's Eve (a big event at SPYC) next to
a guy in a tux and have neither person feel uncomfortable!
Again on Sunday morning the fleet arrived at the club to find not a
breath of air. After a 4 hour shoreside postponement the sea breeze
started to fill in slowly and another windward/leeward race was
started which was won by Mark Mendelblatt, clinching the series for
him. Again, due to time limitations, only one race was completed.
Many thanks to Sherry and Bill Welch from the St. Pete fleet for
organizing and executing an excellent event.
An interesting side note is that the majority of the teams in this
regatta were male/female and generally made up of couples.
Complete Results:
Pos Sail# Skipper/Crew 1 2 3 TotPts Pos
1 27732 Mark Mendelblatt/ Casesa Sakama 2 7 .75 9.75 1
2 28810 Birger Jansen/ Carine Juliussen 5 4 3 12.00 2
3 28655 Hal Gilreath/ Casesa/Funsch 4 .75 8 12.75 3
4 27273 David Mendelblatt/ Holly Kickliter .75 6 7 13.75 4
5 28450 Dave Chapin/ Alan Capellin 13 2 2 17.00 5
6 28852 Ned Jones/ Bell Hughes 3 5 12 20.00 6
7 24600 Craig Beardsley/ Mimi Pritchard 7 11 9 27.00 7
8 27103 Dirk Kneulman/ Kathy Ogilvie 9 9 10 28.00 8
9 26460 Ethan Bixby/ Trudy Bixby 10 13 5 28.00 9
10 26926 Alex Pline/ Lisa Pline 12 3 16 31.00 10
11 24702 Jerry Thompson/ Dee Schilling 19 10 4 33.00 11
12 2777 John Hagman/ Dawn Mitray 6 20 14 40.00 12
13 25066 Keith Crum/ Betsy Crum 20 8 13 41.00 13
14 27270 Chris Klotz/ Jeremy Terr 16 14 19 49.00 14
15 28728 Ray Gauthier/ Joni Palmer 17 17 17 51.00 15
16 23625 Richard Hand/ April Franklin 14 21 20 55.00 16
17 28677 Bill Buckles/ Nancy Gilreath 21 12 22 55.00 17
18 28571 Don Hackbarth/ Dustin Kays 15 22 21 58.00 18
19 27872 Bustamante/ Bustamante 8 46PMS 6 60.00 19
B20 28030 Thomas Foyen/ Inger Foyen 18 18 25 61.00 20
21 25951 Paul Silvernail/ Shell Kimble 24 15 23 62.00 21
22 24605 Tarasa Davis/ Sherry Welch 11 46PMS 15 72.00 22
23 26900 Ken Voss/ Kay Voss 25 19 30 74.00 23
B24 27772 Welch/ Carrier 31 29 18 78.00 24
B25 25677 Kimble/ Kimble 26 28 28 82.00 25
B26 28101 Dunn/ Robinson-Dunn 29 24 29 82.00 26
27 27444 Terry McSweeney/ Stacey Brinker 30 26 27 83.00 27
28 25235 Jimmie Lowe/ Lori Roberts 27 46PMS 11 84.00 28
B29 25172 Hackstaff/ Hackstaff 28 30 26 84.00 29
B30 28212 Woodworth/ Spoelman 32 23 34 89.00 30
B31 27469 Peter Ilgenfritz/ Megan Panek 34 25 32 91.00 31
32 4196 John Sepanski/ Mark Aljets 23 27 42DNC 92.00 32
33 27271 Steve Lang/ Debbie Lang 39 35 24 98.00 33
B34 27600 Lynn Bethell/ John Swope 36 31 33 100.00 34
35 27788 Robert Dull/ Nancy Haberland 46PMS 6 42DNC 104.00 35
B36 26108 Rob Finicle/ Rich Kohlacinski 37 34 35 106.00 36
37 22478 Pete Benjamin/ Cherry Jones 40 32 36 108.00 37
38 26397 Bob Foster/ Franklin/Growney 33 46PMS 31 110.00 38T
39 25659 Ray Schmit/ Dave Dickstein 22 46PMS 42DNC 110.00 39T
B40 19091 Dave Butler/ Nancy Butler 38 33 42DNC 113.00 40T
B41 26105 Mike Renolds/ Chris Sneiter 35 36 42DNC 113.00 41T
42 28282 Leo Murphy/ Joe Murphy 42DNC 42DNC 42DNC 126.00 42
B - "B" Fleet. Trophies for 1st, 2nd, 3rd awarded. There was a single
start for both fleets.
PMS - premature start = # of registered boats * 10% of # of registered boats
DNC - did not compete = # of registered boats
===============================================================================
--Alex Pline
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