Twenty 505s, with teams from California, Texas, the Midwest, New England, Mid Atlantic and Florida participated, up from 12 last year. The 505 fleet included Olympic contenders in the 470 and Europe Dinghy classes, as well as the usual intercollegiate all-Americans, intercollegiate sailors of the year '94 and '95, past 505 North American and World champions, National Champions in other classes, and so on. The 505s will probably be the largest fleet at St. Pete's next year, as several teams could not make it this year but promised to make it down next year. Eager for warmth, sunshine, and sailing, several teams arrived days early to practice.
Several boats were borrowed or chartered for this event, allowing several people to get some great 505 experience. Dave Blessing lent 7569, Les Crane lent 7571 (and managed to sell it to the growing Texas fleet), George Iverson lent his brand new Lindsay, and long time 505 supporter John McNeil lent his immaculate, mint, always stored indoors, vintage Parker, 5482. Did you know that 5482 has a honeycomb cored floor and is VERY stiff despite being built in 1975!
There were eight FDs, and 23 OD 14s, though ten of those were from Sweden (including Krister Bergstrom's brother Rasmus!) as the OD 14 "international" Championship (only IYRU International classes can have an official World Championship) was a week later in Key West.
Seven races, rather than the twelve scheduled, were held due to light air Friday and Saturday afternoons and no racing on Sunday due to thunderstorms. In retrospect, we should have rigged and gone out sailing on Sunday with Ethan and Steve, as planing around in 30 plus knots would have been much more fun than derigging in the rain and driving home into the worst East Coast blizzard in 70 years.
In the first race, those who started at the pin were clobbered. Tyler Moore/Ryan Cox - who started near the boat - led at every mark, with Ethan Bixby/Steve Lippincott close behind. Ali Meller/Allan Johnson passed Bixby/Lippincott on the 2nd (tight) reach. Bixby/Lippincott worked the right side of the last beat to the finish, were forced out right by Meller/Johnson several times, but were able to come back on the layline and shoot the boat end to take 2nd.
Nick Trotman/Mike Mills decided the pin was not the place to be for the second race, and won the boat end and the race. Bixby/Lippincott were 2nd again. Trotman/Mills continued their winning ways in the 3rd race, which became painfully light for most of the race. The time limit after the first boat finished was only 15 minutes, and only seven teams were able to finish inside this time limit. Local Optimist ace Chris Tuggle and George Saunders raced a great race in vintage Parker 5482, passing many boats on the second reach, to get in touch with the leaders, but just missed the time limit for the race. Chris Museler and Mike Buczkowski sailed a great race to take 2nd (in a borrowed boat). Moore/Cox were 3rd, Zani/Alarie 4th, Henry Amthor/Doug Amthor 5th and Bixby/Lippincott 6th. Racing was adjourned for the day, and the fleet sailed in for some well deserved food, beer and fun.
Saturday morning started off much like Friday, with a breeze that died off. Trotman/Mills won again (their 3rd win in a row!), with Meller/Johnson 2nd, Europe Dinghy Olympic campaigner, Carisa Harris (with Dave Shelton crewing) 3rd, and Bixby/Lippincott 4th. In the 5th race, Moore/Cox won, with Meller/Johnson 2nd again, Trotman/Mills had a solid 3rd, Macy Nelson/Tuttle 4th, and Mike Zani and Peter Alarie (sailing Michael (Walter) Breault's boat) 5th. Race 6 was another painful light air race, with a big shift to the right on the middle beat, that put Henry and Doug Amthor in front for good. I would claim this was a fluke, except that some of the best light air 505 sailors went deep right looking for just that shift. Trotman/Mills were 2nd, Moore/Cox 3rd, Nelson/Tuttle 4th, Zani/Alarie 5th, Bixby/Lippincott 6th, Harris/Shelton 7th, de la Rie/Richard were 8th, and Graham Alexander/Brett Davis 9th. After waiting for the wind to shift around and rebuild, the fleet got off a 7th race which became another light air drifting match. Moore/Cox pulled off a horizon job on the fleet (well, they were not that far ahead in distance, but in time.....!). Nelson/Tuttle sailed smart to take 2nd, with Zani/Alarie, Meller/Johnson, Trotman/Mills finishing in that order close behind Nelson/Tuttle. The fleet sailed in for more free food, dinner and fun!
After listening to the Sunday morning sailing radio show, hosted by St. Petersburg Sailing Center's Dave Ellis, with guests Marshall Saffer of the OD 14s, a Tornado Olympic hopeful, and the 505 class's Ali Meller, discussing high performance sailing, the fleet rigged up in a strong breeze looking forward to some exciting rides! Unfortunately a series of storms could be seen on the radar, and after several postponments racing was abandoned for the day, leaving the results the way they stood after Saturday afternoon.
This left Trotman/Mills in first, winning the tie breaker over Moore/Cox in second, a clear victory for the recent intercollegiate racing graduates over the Old Guard except that Nick Trotman has being sailing 505s for five years, and Tyler has been at it for at least two! The Old Guard promises to return! Meller/Johnson were 3rd, just one point ahead of Zani/Alarie and three ahead of Bixby/Lippincott.
Unfortunately we were not organized enough to award Classic Division prizes, but Chris Tuggle - first time in a 505 - and George Saunders sailed 5482 to victory in Classic Division after a very close battle with the Cole brothers in 4596. The Classic Division boats beat a Lindsay and a recent Parker overall, and had some great races!
A rush to packup ensued, as the Texas contingent had to build supports to get their two new boats (they bought Les Crane's Parker and Mike Zavelle's Lindsay) home, and Barney Harris/Rene de la Rie; and Ali Meller/Monty Schumpert had to put together Barney's double (soon to be triple) trailer, and Ali's double trailer with boat on the roof. Kudos to Barney for delivering three boats to the regatta, and to George and Ali for bringing 3 boats from the Mid Atlantic region, and then getting another from the East Coast of Florida. George and Ali single handedly delivered 20% of the fleet! A picture of the Jeep Cherokee with a boat on the roof and two behind could make a great advertisement for Chrysler! Departures were perfectly timed to hit the great East Coast Blizzard of '96, and lots of adventures were had by those driving home (while those flying enjoyed the St. Petersburg area and the airport bars for a couple of extra days).
Not having to pack up their boat allowed Bixby/Lippincott to go out for a blast with Ethan's son Dylan along for the ride. Dylan returned a short while later talking about a wild fast ride. Steve Lippincott was quoted as saying, "i have never gone so fast in a sailboat!"
All in all, a great event, with everyone returning home enthusiastic. Several interesting ideas were discussed between races. One being setting up a 505 Southern Circuit with several events about two weeks apart. Sailfest, the current Midwinters, and maybe another event a week or two later were mentioned. Please think about this and provide your thoughts to Ali. Another idea is to build multi-boat trailers. The 8 boat One Design 14 trailer, and Barney and Ali's double trailers showed their worth. Imagine fleets having 6 or 8 boat trailers to get more boats longer distances! Apart from increasing the turnout next year, we should look around for more boats that can be borrowed or chartered. With a little work, we could have some European 505 sailors fly out for some events - several have expressed an interest - as well as bringing in some more prospects.
Nancy Graham and the SPYC do an incredible job for all three classes. The 505s are very popular with the organizers, and to quote Nancy's husband at one of the dinners, "we love you nancy!"
Next Year, 25 plus 505s!
Team sail R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 Final Nick Trotman/Mike Mills 7318 5 1 1 1 3 2 5 1st Tyler Moore/Ryan Cox 7876 1 4 3 5 1 3 1 2nd Ali Meller/Allan Johnson 8263 3 5 7 2 2 10 4 3rd Mike Zani/Peter Alarie 8060 4 3 4 8 5 5 3 4th Ethan Bixby/Steve Lippincott 8018 2 2 6 4 6 6 6 5th Macy Nelson/Larry Tuttle 8191 6 8 DNF 6 4 4 2 6th Henry Amthor/Doug Amthor 8012 7 6 5 7 9 1 11 7th Carisa Harris/Dave Shelton 8??? 13 9 DNF 3 7 7 8 8th Jonathan Phillips/Monty Schumpert 8015 10 7 DNF 10 8 16 9 9th Chris Museler/Mike Buczkowski 7571 15 11 2 12 13 15 7 10th Graham Alexander/Brett Davis 7685 9 13 DNF 9 11 9 10 11th Barney Harris/Dave "bruce" Smith 7772 8 10 DNF 15 12 11 13 12th Rene de la Rie/Merv Richard 8085 11 16 DNF 12 14 8 14 13th Barry Kuehl/Bruce Tilley 8311 12 12 DNF 14 15 13 12 14th Tom Taylor/?????? 6882 14 14 DNF 11 10 12 DNC 15th Dan Treadwell/Scott MacKay 7606 17 19 DNF 16 15 17 17 16th Chris Tuggle/George Saunders 5482 18 17 DNF 17 18 18 15 17th Andrew L. Cole/Edward Cole 4596 16 18 DNF DNS 17 14 DNF 18th Neils Leikvang/?????? 7151 DNC 15 DNF 18 19 DNF 16 19th Pat Downey/Mitchell Rogers 7569 DNF DNC DNF 19 DNF DNC DNC 20th
Skipper Sail R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Mats Elf SWE 9 3 3 6 11 2 2 Magnus Gauare SWE 8 11 1 5 3 1 1 Fredrik Astrand SWE 4 2 5 7 2 13 8 Mark Mendelblatt USA 137 4 8 DNF 7 7 1 Patrick Mark SWE 5 1 4 3 5 5 16 Peder Arvefors SWE 5 10 6 4 1 8 12 Christer Bath SWE 3 5 9 2 9 10 6 Stu Thompson USA 235 6 12 11 4 9 4 Marshall Saffer USA 264 9 10 9 3 14 3 Stuart Saffer USA 266 13 2 1 6 18 17 Anniua Carlsson SWE 7X PMS 7 12 15 4 5 Michael Marzynski USA 7 7 11 8 14 DNC 9 David R. Wilson USA 230 8 15 13 12 3 14 Hugh Morin CAN 75 17 14 15 13 11 10 Alexander Helm SWE 10 PMS 19 10 10 5 DNF Bruce Kohut USA 262 14 17 16 16 17 11 Jens Weiberg SWE 7 12 13 17 17 15 DNF John F. Macielag USA 246 13 20 DNF 20 12 15 John Ward USA 110 PMS 18 14 18 19 18 Ola Oskarsson SWE 16 DNC DNC DNS 19 16 13 John Killeen USA 257 16 16 DNF DNC DNC DNC Troy Treacar USA 170 DNC DNF DNF DNC DNC DNC Peter Feroe USA 285 DNC DNF DNF DNC DNC DNC
Skipper sail R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 Lin Robson 185 1 1 7 1 3 4 1 Dennis Anderson 188 3 2 3 4 1 1 3 Michael Braun 85 6 3 6 2 4 2 4 Stan Hyatt 219 2 5 2 6 2 6 5 Jeff Wrenn 301 4 4 1 3 5 7 7 Dave Ellis 83 5 7 4 5 6 3 2 Dave Fagen 181 7 6 5 DNC DNC 5 6 Will Cook 121 DNF 8 DNF DNC DNC DNF DNC