By Carol Newman
(At least according to Carol Newman) Here are the long awaited details of circuit stops one and two, for those of you not lucky enough to be there.... Clearwater showed her true colors this year. The Gulf was 76 degrees, air was in the 80's, and we had breeze from a variety of directions the whole time. First day was "condo breeze", easterly, so we had to dodge buildings at the top of the beat. Second day was southwest for the first race, steady 6-10, hiking a bit but nothing too exhausting. Race 2 a beautiful northwester came in for a tasty bit of planing on the reaches. Day 3 was north northwest, again steady, and still warm. The RC did a great job of escorting us in and out of the cut, and since there were only 19 boats the crash boat/competitor ratio was very high. George and I had excellent boatspeed and managed to post all bullets, then chose not to sail the last race. Jack Franco got a lot of satisfaction out of telling us later that the Zimmerman Trophy score counts ALL the races, so we had just given away 20 points. (I think he was just jealous he couldn't sail the whole circuit.) The race for second place came down to the final beat; Franco/ Mike Sturman had to put a boat between them and Hal Gilreath/Jeff Beck (who were sailing fresh-out-of-the-box #30000) to beat the new boat, so they drove Gilreath/Beck back behind a pack of boats that included Craig/Mimi Beardsley, Berger Jansen/Carinne Juliussen from Norway, and Gonzalo Diaz Jr/Eddy Vadia. By squeaking in ahead of the same pack to win the race, Franco/Sturman earned a comfortable margin for second. Shoreside highlights included the grapefruit party, followed as always by delicious pizza with the Welches on SAILS. This year's favorite video was the Australian 18 crash and burn tape. On to Miami (only one alligator sighting on the way), where the weather continued to be great. A bit of concern about a thunderstorm Friday am, but we finished one race (dominated by speed demon Peter Commette and virgin crew Erik Bernstein) in 15-18 knots before it hit. Double triangle, and the reaches were FUN! Second day was classic Miami dying northerly, with huge holes and puffs. George would be saying "hike" and by the time I moved to windward he'd want me back to leeward again. You know the drill. Three races in that stuff (to make up for one lost the day before) made for a long exhausting day for both competitors and RC, and Saturday night we drank about 10 pitchers (of water!) at La Carreta, Commodore Gonzo's favorite Cuban place, while dodging food fights. Sunday the breeze came back for Peter, and our final race was in a lovely building easterly. Peter and Erik won again, but Norwegians Birger Jansen/Carinne Juliussen kept the pressure on. And George and I managed to hang onto fifth place to win the series. Id and Anne Crook manned the blender ashore, a daunting responsibility this year. I'm sure Nassau will be just as much fun. Hopefully someone will post something afterwards for all us results starved Snipers. Any volunteers??