The Villages 2014 Gator Regatta - Region 7 Championship Report
David Linville wins the first Region 7 CR

by Alan Perkins
The first Region 7 Regatta is now history. A fantastic Trophy for the Region 7 Champion given to the Florida EC12 Association by Baron Bremer and Family has been presented to David Linville. Well done Dave this being his first of probably many Regatta victories.

Saturday morning dawned following yet another great party at the Perkins house with little to no wind. Not something an RD wants to experience at 8:30 the morning of a major Regatta with 30 skippers sitting watching and waiting to see what was in store. With his local knowledge the RD, Alan Perkins, set a course whilst the fog was still rising off the lake. What luck, it turned out to be the best available with that direction wind.

9:30 on the dot the 17 boats in the B fleet got underway and the Peachtree boys started to show the fleet that they meant business with Chuck Ellis taking honors followed by Marty Scheuer both being promoted to the A fleet with Frankie Novak and Tim Crowley. Baron Bremer did not hold back in the first A race either showing the fleet a clean pair of heals being followed by Garhard Kelter and Dr Bob Greer in his new yellowish new boat on it's trial run to see if she could join him in the Nationals in November, finishing 6th overall maybe she will be there with him. Let's wait and see.

Racing in the light NE breeze continued with John Stacy getting himself out the B fleet and Jon Luscomb showing the A Fleet that he meant business he being followed by Gerhard getting another 2nd place. All this time David Linville was holding back finishing 9th in the first race and 8th in the second race.

Similar condition prevailed all day and David Linville started to like the conditions getting a 1st and a 2nd before lunch was served by Liz Perkins and the Villages ladies and a long awaited break was taken. Dave continued after lunch with two more bullets then tripped up with a 13th giving him a reasonable race to drop. At the end of the first day with 8 races under his belt Dave had 36 point but Baron was leading by a handsome margin with only 22 points. Garhard also with 36 points and followed by Marty Scheuer.

Saturday evening dinner was held at the Palmer Legions Country Club with about 50 skippers and guest enjoying a menu which is one of the best in The Villages. After dinner we were all off to Judy and Gary Clarke's house for Ice Cream and garden golf with lit holes and glowball golfballs.

Not many hangovers the next morning apart from the weather hangover for the RD. Wind again was forecast to be NE and with fingers crossed the RD got racing underway on time just as the breeze started filling in. By this time Jon Luscomb had sorted out his rudder servo issues and raced out of the B fleet in style. Dave Linville was determined to make up for a few bad races the previous day and with Baron getting some unusually bad races the scores got very close.

With Dave getting bullets in the 10th and 11th races it became a two horse race between Dave and Baron followed by Garhard Kelter, Ricky Gerry and Jack Ward.

Final total scores show how close the final result was with Dave Linville and Baron Bremer both on 59 points followed by Gerhard Kelter on 71, Ricky Gerry on 87 and Jack Ward on 94.

The throw outs settled the final score.

Click here to see photos taken by Karen Luscomb and Bob Greer.