Blouin fourth in midwinters Sunfish race

Joe Blouin of Tampa finished fourth last weekend among the 86 Sunfish racing for their midwinters title on Hillsborough Bay.

Skippers from Bermuda, the Bahamas and Venezuela, as well as throughout the eastern United States, sailed in mostly light wind conditions.

Former University of South Florida coach Nancy Haberland, now of Annapolis, Md., was second.

WINDY REGATTA: The Midget Ocean Racing midwinters March 2-4 at Davis Island Yacht Club featured gear-busting winds.

The 28 boats completed seven races in challenging conditions. If something was weak on a boat, it broke.

At least 12 spinnakers, 2 booms, 1 spinnaker pole, several halyards and 2 rudders failed during the series.

Michael Carroll of Clearwater, sailing the Henderson 30 New Wave, won the first and last races of his class, but a broken boom in the second race put him out of the other competition.

Richard Karran's Wavelength 24, Mal de Mer, from Davis Island won the regatta.

Go online to www.diyc.org for results.

ON ANOTHER TACK: U.S. Sailing trains and certifies instructors. However, they may lack powerboat skills.

The Power Squadron and Coast Guard Auxiliary teach seamanship and powerboat skills in the classroom. But there is no substitute for hands-on experience.

With that in mind, U.S. Sailing has instituted a powerboat skills teaching certification to fill this need.

Sharlet Fillingham of St. Petersburg is one of the first U.S. Sailing certified powerboat instructors and has a U.S. Coast Guard masters license.

She and her husband, Robert, a St. Petersburg yacht broker and Power Squadron instructor, have considerable experience cruising around Florida, the Bahamas, inland U.S., the Great Lakes and Canada.

They are opening Powerboat Safety and Operation School, based at the St. Petersburg Sailing Center at the downtown marina, to fill the local need for hands-on powerboat instruction. The first class will be April 26-28.

"The goal is to maintain a very low student-to-instructor ratio so we can focus on the skill level of each student," Sharlet Fillingham said.

While beginning courses are on outboard runabouts, a dual engine inboard and a 47-foot trawler are used for more advanced classes.

For information, go online to www.powerboatsos.com.

BIG BOATS: You may have noticed two impressive sailing craft in downtown St. Petersburg marinas.

Fazisi is an 82-foot racing sloop with its mast towering 100 feet over the St. Petersburg Central Marina.

This was the Russian Whitbread around-the-world racer before the breakup of the Soviet Union. Several Tampa Bay area sailors and businessmen helped the crew with work on the boat, housing and supplies before its successful circumnavigation in 1989.

Marek Witkowski of Chicago and Sarasota found the boat neglected in a boatyard. He and other investors have brought it back to near-original condition.

They found themselves en route to St. Petersburg from the Great Lakes on Sept. 11 and had a difficult time with restrictions on bridges and waterways.

Ironically, while eating at a waterfront restaurant in New York City, their waiter turned out to be one of original designers of the boat, having come to the U.S. from Georgia. Plans are for Fazisi to be fully competitive for the 2002-03 racing season.

Paragon is the 60-foot trimaran with the long, slender amas well out on curved struts.

This boat looks like it is going 15 knots while anchored.

It was one of the boats used by a French sailor in the Reau de Rum race across the Atlantic to Barbados. The tri has crossed the Atlantic five times.

Owner Jurgen Epple of Clearwater recently won the large multihull class at the Heineken Regatta in St. Maarten.

"We only met the five-man crew, a group of international sailors, a few days before the race," Epple said. "We didn't have much time to prepare."

Plans are to race in the Caribbean circuit before sailing back to Clearwater.

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