34 Teams Tie for First in the Tenth Annual Dead of Winter Regatta, St Pete 1-1-97
The tenth annual Dead Of Winter Regatta was a party; it was a beach party, several blender parties, and a New Year’s Eve party. A huge high pressure area settled over the Southeastern United States creating balmy temperatures and cloudless skies. The Chamber of Commerce was tickled pink with such fabulous tourist weather, however most of the snipe sailors would gladly have given up a few degrees of temperature for a few knots of breeze. The competitors were greeted each morning with fog and flat water, neither of which managed to dampen their spirits. The Snipe-psyche endured and Mandatory Beach Volleyball was the order of the day. The fleet retired to Spa beach near the Pier and fought bravely in four-on-four volleyball for the daily prizes of regatta T-shirts and Snipe Fleet 801 caps. Snipers waiting their turn to play sat on the seawall cheering (booing and hissing were discouraged) and gazed in amazement at the mirror-like surface of Tampa Bay. In spite of the mandatory volleyball participation announcement, some of the more serious (notice we politely did not say anal) Snipers, elected to stay at the Sailing Center to WORK ON THEIR BOATS! However, with the weatherman’s prediction that we were not likely to see anything resembling wind, and with the subsequent announcement that trophies might have to be awarded on the basis of the volleyball performance, those diligent Snipers decided to abandon their boats and pound sand with the rest of us at the volleyball tournament! A few snipers also took time out for golf, tennis, and museums, and quite a few took to rollerblades and terrorized our quite city. But the true champions were on the beach, spitting sand and working up BLENDERSIZED THIRST! The blender party began just after volleyball on Saturday and Sunday and continued until sundown, when it was time to be at the SPYC flag lowering ceremony, which signaled it was then time to go to the next party, for dinner at SPYC. On Monday, when we were done waiting for wind, it was unanimously decided not to award the trophies based on the volleyball scores, even though it was the highest quality of competition this side of the Olympics, but to save them to be awarded DOW 1997; with the engraver adding 1996/97 to each trophy, next year’s winners will have actually won for two years straight! And, Fleet Capt., Bill Welch proclaimed that those who return for the next DOW Volleyball Tournament, will receive a $20 rebate on their entry fee. It was also decided that for DOW ’97, there will not be a point penalty for splashing your Snipe (it was considered this year), since if there is too much breeze for volleyball, we might have to sail. However, if you splash before breeze causes cancellation of the volleyball, you will definitely be penalized by sitting out the first round of blender drinks. Keep this in mind for 1997! The Heroes of the Regatta were of course those eager and amazing volleyball players. Some were more eager than amazing, and some were amazing, but not specifically in an athletic way. However, Darryl Waskow was the Super Spiker - tall guy on the court! And Peter Ilgenfritz turned out to be the Super Server - very reliable dealer. Shinichi Uchida & Ken Yoshino provided a lot of dash and energy. Steve Burns was a front row maniac. The Kimbles, Commettes, Bixbys, Beardsleys & Irgens were the formidable teams of couples. Other single stars were Alex Pline (they would have been the Dynamic Duo, but Lisa was doing the family X-mas thing) and Woody was pretty good, but he was mostly appreciated for bringing Janett. And of course, Bill Buckles was most appreciated for the rainbow Blender Drinks, at which we all excelled!
Three days with NO WIND ! Unbelievable! But true. However, because of the vast experience, patience, and self control of our R.C. Chairman, Pat Seidenspinner, competitors from all over the this country, Canada, Japan and Switzerland, spent their vacation days playing beach volleyball, tennis, golf, going to museums, and rollerblading, instead of drifting around on Tampa Bay and being towed in & out of the Sailing Center, in utter frustration. In fact, most of the racers never even got their boats wet! Everyone ejoyed the warm and sunny days, although most of the sailors would have gladly given up a few degrees of tempurature for a few knots of breeze. But it was not to be, so we partied instead; on the Welch’s boat every afternoon when there was no longer hope of wind, and at SPYC every evening. As the Snipers have learned to expect, SPYC hospitality was fantastic and the dinners were the best on the regatta circuit! Thanks from Snipe Fleet 801 to the entire staff of SPYC who made it great in spite of the wind deficit! And thanks to our terrific R.C., who stood by daily, waiting and watching for wind ; the Seidenspinners, the Cowans, Bob & Carol Johnson, Carol Bardes, Larry Fowler, Bob Tausinger, Gene Hinkle, Dave Ellis, Wilson Barnes.
MOST QUOTABLES FROM THE ’96 DEAD OF AIR REGATTA!
Bunny Kimble:
I think this is the best regatta I’ve ever been to! Nobody yelled at me. I don’t have any bruises. I got a tan. I got to read my book. I won a prize for Beach Volleyball. I saw a terrific museum exhibit. And we went to great parties!
Shinichi Uchida:
Peter Commette is leaving?! Ahhh, Nooo!! (you don’t suppose Shinichi was eager to go head to head with the U.S. National Champ or anything, do you?)
Mike & Maggie Delaney:
Our first race in our Snipe, and we don’t sail! Maybe it was better this way. We sure did get to know a lot of great people!
Sherry Welch:
Ned Jones is packing up his boat? As in leaving???!!?? Surfing?! Where in the Dickens does he think he’ll find waves big enough to surf with the isobars a thousand miles apart!
Bill Welch:
Where is J.T. , you ask! He has been kidnapped by alien marsupials, last seen in New Zealand, dangling from a bridge by a bungy cord.
1996 DOW RESULTS R.C. Pat Seidenspinner SCIRA Reps: Id & Ann Crook SAIL # SKIPPER’S NAME CREW’S NAME FINISH 23625 DICK HAND APRIL FRANKLIN FIRST 24020 TOM PARKS BONNIE ROBERTSON FIRST 24600 CRAIG BEARDSLEY MIMI BEARDSLEY FIRST 25122 MATT BRYANT LAURA BRYANT FIRST 25172 GORDON HACKSTAFF CINDY HACKSTAFF FIRST 25677 JERRY KIMBLE BUNNY KIMBLE FIRST 25948 ETHAN BIXBY TRUDY BIXBY FIRST 25951 TONY McCOY BEN GIVENS FIRST 26109 JOHN SMOAK REBECCA KILLOUGH FIRST 26397 BOB FOSTER CARLY FRANKLIN FIRST 26398 JOHN IRVINE LESLIE IRVINE FIRST 26917 BLAINE McCLESKEY ADRIENNE McCLESKEY FIRST 26926 ALEX PLINE MICHELLE MORPHEW FIRST 27027 JOHN HAGMAN DAWN HAGMAN FIRST 27270 CHRIS KLOTZ MONI LAMPE FIRST 27271 SCOTT LANG MARK LANG FIRST 27273 MARK MENDELBLATT HOLLY KICKLITER FIRST 27364 CARR MOODY GREG ENOS FIRST 27444 MIKE DELANEY MAGGIE DELANEY FIRST 27469 PETER ILGENFRITZ SHERRY WELCH FIRST 27734 DARRYL WASKOW SHELL KIMBLE FIRST 27772 BILL WELCH JENNIFER BEAM FIRST 28045 STEVE LANG DEBBIE LANG FIRST 28050 DOUG CLARK MARCI GIRARD FIRST 28142 HAL GILREATH PHIL CASESSA FIRST 28470 STEPHAN IRGENS MONICA IRGENS FIRST 28852 NED JONES KARI WARREN FIRST 29003 SHINICHI UCHIDA KEN YOCHINO FIRST 29014 DON HACKBARTH DUSTIN KAYS FIRST 29017 JOHN SEPANSKI CHRIS STAHL FIRST 29092 STEVE BURNS LAWREN CARRIER FIRST 29090 BILL BUCKLES CHRIS RUSSICK FIRST 29114 PETER COMMETTE CONNIE COMMETTE FIRST 29200 WOODY NORWOOD JANETT KREFTING FIRST
This first edition of the St. Pete Fleet’s SINGLE HANDED SNIPE REGATTA was sailed on a blustery New Year’s Eve Day (Okay, 2 - 5 Knots is not blustery, but after Dead of Winter Regatta, it felt great!). Twelve competitors lined up at the start of the first race. It was tense, as the single snipers jockeyed for position on the short but sweet line set by our imported Canadian R.C., Id & Ann Crook. Sherry Welch nailed the favored pin end start and took the early lead, but was rolled by Shinichi Uchida, our Japanese entry, just before the first weather mark. Shinichi held his lead throughout the race. Sherry gave up her second place to Matt Bryant on the second reach, but regained it on the home stretch! Race two was delayed by a general recall - it was blatant, and couldn’t be ignored, even in the spirit of the day! Woody Norwood, from Atlanta, took the second race with ease, and who knows how well he might have done in race #1, had he not insisted on racing with Janett (all the guys want to sail with Janett). He promised she wouldn’t really crew, just sit there, but was determined to sail with her once, since she came all the way from Norway! Now we grant you that his score in race #1 could have been effected by Janett’s added weight, but we truly believe it was a concentration thing. Scottie Lang got off the line well, and had a second place going for him, but was rolled by half the fleet just before the first mark, and never recovered. Shinichi, who did not have a concentration problem, pulled the second place for race #2, with David Mendelblatt taking third. Race three belonged to Woody again, with Shinichi performing very consistently to claim regatta honors, and David Mendelblatt nailing second spot in the race and third in the regatta. Some paddling was observed by the R.C. in the back of the fleet in race #3 (we won’t mention any names Matt) but no penalty was awarded since he couldn’t pass Sherry even paddling and the R.C. felt sorry for him. (It was pretty close though!) Competitors and hangers-on then retired to the St. Petersburg Yacht Club Bar for the awards presentation. Some left the Sailing Center in time to see the Wringling Brothers Circus arrive, with a parade of elephants, giraffes, zebras, ponies, dogs and one rhinoceros parading down the street with clown escorts. A fine salute and a fitting end to another week of intense competition in St. Pete! In the bar, the Captain Bligh hopefuls were met by the real article, in true life costume! He awarded trophies, made by Matt & Laura Bryant, from pieces of wood taken from the futtocks (look it up, Matt swears it is a real word) of the HMS BOUNTY. There was much pomp and circumstance by the Captain, much toasting of each other and the fine weather, not to mention the elephants. And at some point in the festivities, the Champion Captain Bligh of the day, Shinichi Uchida was dressed in the true Captain Bligh’s coat and hat (the breeches and shirt would never have fit anyway) and many photographs were taken to record this historical moment, posed on the SPYC front steps.
CAPTAIN BLIGH ADMIRATION CUP RESULTS PL CAPTAIN SAIL # RACE 1 RACE 2 RACE 3 SCORE 1 SHINICHI UCHIDA, Japan 29003 1 2 3 5.75 2 WOODY NORWOOD, Atlanta 29200 6 1 1 7.50 3 DAVID MENDELBLATT, SPYC 27273 5 3 2 10.00 4 STEVE LANG, SPYC 28045 4 4 4 12.00 5 SHERRY WELCH, SPYC 28687 2 6 10 18.00 6 MATT BRYANT, SPYC 25122 3 5 11 19.00 7 JOHN SEPANSKI, Illinois 29017 10 7 7 24.00 8 DICK HAND, Ohio 23625 9 8 8 25.00 9 KEN YOSHINO, Japan 27772 12 9 5 26.00 10 TONY McCOY, SPYC 25951 7 11 9 27.00 11 STEPHAN/MONICA IRGENS 28470 11 12 6 29.00 12 SCOTTY LANG, SPYC 27271 8 10 12 30.00