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Steve Levine has been organizing and running the Tampa Bay area's premier windsurfing regatta for half of his life. After 25 years, he says it is time for somebody else to do it.
For the final edition of the Suncoast Classic, 66 boards and their stand-up skippers came from as far away as California to the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort at the north end of the Skyway Bridge in St. Petersburg last weekend. Since this was the end of an era, some originators of the sport were invited to recount the beginnings of the windsurfing discipline.
Allen Parducci was in his 40s in 1967 when he, James Drake, Fred Payne and Hoyle Sweitzer sailed their innovative home-made surfboards with universal jointed sails on the California coast. The boards often were surfboards from the shop of Hobie Alter. Parducci built his of plywood, varying in length up to 16 feet.
Sweitzer set up a company to produce the boats, and he insisted on a strict one-design board and sails. While there was some interest, the idea stagnated in this country. But in Europe, not bound by restrictive rules, boards - along with rigs and sails - developed seemingly every month, and the sport exploded. Perhaps because of rapid technical development and obsolescence of equipment, the growth then slowed.
Today, boards have become shorter and much wider, giving them more stability and good planning ability. Rigs and sails are significantly lighter and faster than the old teak wishbone booms, ladder-stock dowel masts and Dacron sails. So there is a resurging interest in windsurfing.
Several types of craft and sail configurations were evident at the regatta, including the new Olympic board for the China Games.
Kids as young as 4 sailed along the beach with tiny sails on their fathers' boards. And Olympic contenders carved the water with big, transparent sails on the bay. Pat Nugent, 74, was the oldest competitor. Classes are divided into many divisions, such as the Prodigy board, the higher-tech craft and the classic oldsters. There is even a Clydesdale class for competitors more than 190 pounds.
Women, seniors, masters, grand masters and juniors each had trophies, as did the new Olympic RX-S.
CLEARWATER EVENTS: The Olympic Finn North American Championship was hosted by Clearwater Yacht Club the first weekend in November. There were 33 competitors hailing from USA, Canada, Ireland, Hungary, Barbados and Sweden. North America's top Finn sailor, Chris Cook of Canada, won the event. Clearwater's Zach Railey was close behind. The Laser Radial Invitational was held concurrently, with Anna Tunnicliffe winning. Canada's Lisa Ross was second and Clearwater's Emily Billing third.
The previous weekend, 31 keel boats attended the Clearwater Challenge. Conditions were ideal for the spinnaker race course run by David Billing and the Non-spinnaker and Cruising classes run by Dick Boblenz. This was a Suncoast Boat of the Year event. Results are at clwyc.org.
Last weekend, the annual Carlisle Classic small boat regatta was sailed on Clearwater bay for dinghies and in the Gulf for multihulls.
A special highlight was the integration among the 28 boats of a class of Access Dinghies sailed by Special Needs sailors. Sandra Holden of St. Petersburg was the fastest in Access 303, and Clearwater's Jim Fizgibbons led the Access 203 class.
New young sailors in the Optimist Green division were led by Hayden Grant. Following were Ryzee Gardner and Tony Mastroth.
The Daysailor class victor was Dunedin's Chris Kelly, with her husband, Dave, crewing. The Sunfish winner was Joe Blouin of Davis Island, and the Open division leader was the Yngling keelboat of David Morrow.
Rich Carlson set up the racing for multihulls, including the NACRA 20 class that is having its national championship at the venue. The winner of the NACRA tune-up was Alex Safer and crew Nigel Pitt. They plan to switch roles for the nationals competition.
The Hobie 16 winner was Brad Stephens and crew Jamie Lindsey. Greg Valentine was the victor in the Open-B class in his Hobie Getaway, Woody Cope's A-cat led the fastest class and Bob and Cheryl Johnson's Hobie 18 swept the Portsmouth High division.