2019 Palm Beach Gardens Valentine's Regatta Report
Alan Perkins simply unstoppable
By R.C. "Doc" Greer

Palm Beach Gardens was pleased to host the Valentines Regatta 9 & 10 February. The pre-regatta party at Chet & Libby's place Friday was AWESOME! The food was never ending with a whole ham, whole turkey, pulled pork, and salads of every sort. Deserts: well hell yes! A crowd favorite was Joanies whiskey cake (VO I think she said). Then was the live entertainment by Rich Mojka, a professional local who persuaded many in the crowd to come to the mike and show their talent.

Saturday dawned partly cloudy and a "frigid" 69 degrees with 6-8 knot NNE breeze. A good direction for our lake. The ladies set up a healthy fruit and unhealthy sweet buffet (that was very popular) to accompany our coffee. We started sailing as one fleet at 0930 with long windward/leeward races lasting about 15-20 minutes each; 3 races, then a 10-15 minute break. The wind, now 8-10 NNE was often favorable, but shifts occur and only Alan Perkins had it always dialed in with 9 aces, Jon Luscomb with 2 ,and Joe Walter with 1.

We secured sailing at 1530 after 12 races, feeling pretty worn-out and ready for a different venue: Duffys upstairs; our private room. A request from the Florida EC12 Association Chairman, George Balachak, to Alan Perkins on how he explained his remarkable success was answered succinctly: "Never quit". That was borne out on day 2 when Alan was dealt some bad hands but managed to get top 3 finishes with back of fleet starts.

Sunday, Anemoi (Greek wind gods. I knew you wouldn't look it up), were not so kind. We got pure East at much less than the predicted 15-18 knts. The lake felt like 6-10. We set courses like Americas Cup: reach and run then beat. We set "W" courses (unpopular with many) and tried whatever we could do to put enough windward work in to permit passing by strategy in play. Cream rises.

I want to thank all the helpers, especially John Biles as scorekeeper, Carl Ring on rescue & Ann/Ed & Kelli for food. Was a great regatta and hope to see you'll at our next regatta.

R-L: Alan Perkins 1st, Jon Luscomb 2nd, Calvin "Santa Claus" Obara, Earnan Scavella 3rd,
Chuck Millican 4th, Bill Newman 5th.

Final Results

   
1 Alan Perkins 14 20  
2 Jon Luscomb 45 30  
3 Earnan Scavella 147 57  
4 Chuck Millican 31 72  
5 Bill Newman 2100

95

 
6 George Balaschak 2200 100  
7 Joe Walter 24

101

 
8 Calvin Obara 94 131  
9 Dick Reinke 36 138  
10 Terry McMullen 40 139  
11 Frank Ligon 97 151  
12 Chester Brewer 68 160  
13 Rich Mojka 152 177  
14 Frank Vella 36 187  
15 Liz Perkins 217 228 Radio board failure

 

 

 

Click here for great photos by Brent Headberg.