The Villages 2018 Gator Regatta Report
Reichard Kahle won the Gator Regatta
by Alan Perkins

Friday evening annual Gator Regatta get together at the Perkins house was well attended with over 50 guests. Liz Perkins and her team of lady helpers put together a great spread which included Liz's famous Cottage Pie.

Saturday dawned and the weather gods were on the side of RD Alan Perkins, this continued for the whole weekend apart from a short shower over lunchtime Saturday, so even that was well timed. We also had two Gators prowling the lake supporting the regatta. North Easterly winds on Saturday greeted the 26 strong boat fleet and racing got underway on time starting with the first heat based on the National Seeding List thereby saving time not having seeding races.

Jack Ward came out of the blocks with the first bullet of the day followed closely by Jon Luscomb who as the day progressed looked like he was going to run away with the regatta scoring 3 1st, 2 2nds, a 3rd and a 7th and 8th to finish the day 6 points ahead of Reichard Kahle who could only manage one bullet all day, and Don Hain 19 points further back and Joe Walter following closely. Saturday dinner was again held in the Arnold Palmer Country Club where Dan and Linda Pearce put together a free raffle to all skippers of fantastic prizes generously given by Dave Linville – Hull, Lead, Rudder and a launcher, Tom Germer one of his nice wooden decks, JohnB Sails an EC12 A Rig, Jim Rutherford a large bottle of Whiskey and Dan Pearce an expensive bottle of Red Wine. Thank you guys.

Sunday morning and again the wind gods were favoring the fleet with ENE 11 to 13 straight down the lake. Jon started out with his Saturday form winning the first race followed by Ricky Gerry who after over a years absence was looking back in his old form with Gerhard Kelter Jr another absentee this time of two years in 3rd place. Jon had a mishap at the start of the second race of the day and dropped himself into the B fleet and stayed there for the next race spoiling his great performance on Saturday. Ricky Gerry and Reichard Kahle both came into form winning two more races each. All this time our Class Secretary Joe Walter was putting together a regular series of races keeping in the top five in most of the Sunday races.

Reichard Kahle with his two winning races nudged himself ahead of Jon Luscomb to follow up his victory of three weeks prior in the Soling 1M National Championships again held in The Villages. Well done Reichard.

Jon Luscomb once falling back into the B fleet and with only one discard in the 14 races had to count a 14th place and dropped back to second but only 2 points ahead of Joe Walter followed closely by Ricky Gerry and Gerhard Kelter Jr in 5th place.

Alan Perkins congratulates Reichard Kahle on his win, with Jon Luscomb 2nd, Joe Walter 3rd, Ricky Gerry 4th, and the wholesome Miss Madison lending her support.