St. Petersburg Regatta Report
Hedderick stops the Perkins streak

by Steve Pfeil
Saturday was not looking pretty at all. A huge front was over the course and the rest of western and northern Florida. The winds were over 15 knots (23 kts in gusts) and the best course that could be made was to sail away from shore The skippers did their best to deal with it, but only after two dismastings in the first heat. After a long lunch break to see if we could avoid the storm, the staff put us in for one more race before calling off racing for the day as the storm moved in. We completed 5 races, and everyone agreed to come back and start a little earlier and race longer on Sunday.

The Acropolis (our Greek restaurant) has moved to downtown St Pete. With the Gran Prix in town we decided that the trip downtown was not worth the venture. We choose the Twisted Martini, just up the road from the motel and pond. It had a nice outside patio for unwinding. We had a section to ourselves, with 2 great servers. The menu had a nice variety and service was good. Everyone agreed to return next year.

Sunday was a much nicer day with plenty of clear blue sky and strong winds. We set up on the opposite shore and had a wonderful windward-leeward course, straight down the shore, making it much easier to see and execute tactics. The B-rigs were all out and the racing was a blast. Lots of little shifts to challenge us and enough breeze to get in a lot of races. Brenda Pardee had struggled with radio issues the day before, but overnight made the necessary adjustments and managed to stay in the top ten, finishing 7th! Liz Perkins was really impressive, and finished in the top ten (9th), as well. John Steacy earned the Bubble Rider trophy for sailing the most heats.

The Pfeil clan was happy to bring St. Pete back into the circuit. I would like to thank the Dudinsky's for their help, the crew from Sun City Center: Will and Carl for the great job scoring, Ron and Russ for all the unseen things done that make a regatta run smoothly, Ken Morrison for judging and guidance. Lastly, a special thanks to my brothers Fred Jr. and Mike for flying in to help Dad and me.

Results

  Skipper Sail # Points  
1 Dick Hedderick 38 28  
2 Alan Perkins 14 32.4  
3 Joe Walter 24 48  
4 Jon Luscomb 45 58  
5 Bob Greer 2100 92  
6 Jim Pardee 72 103  
7 Brenda Pardee 12 113  
8 Frank Vella 82 113.6  
9 Liz Perkins 40 117  
10 Dick Reinke 36 120  
11 Bud Elder 12 123  
12 John Steacy 57 127 Bubble Rider
13 Tom Phillips 65 131  
14 John Santoro 66 133  
15 John Goldsworthy 150 167  
16 Dan Pearce 56 175.6  
17 Herb Mitton 50 184  
18 Gerhard Kelter 18 204 Did not sail Sunday
19 Jeff Wetzler 83 211  
20 Jack Wubbe 123 249 Did not sail Sunday

 

Click here for photos by Karen Luscomb