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Perfect outing clinches Cup

By DAVE ELLIS
Published November 1, 2006

Some of the world's most accomplished female sailors met at St. Petersburg Yacht Club on Oct. 18-22 for match racing in the club's evenly matched Sonar sloops. The 10th annual Rolex Osprey Cup has been elevated to Grade 1, a status enjoyed by only one other women's sailing event in the country.

Betsy Alison, a frequent visitor to the area, won with a perfect record. After defeating each of the nine other crews, she beat Liz Baylis of California in the semis and world No. 1 Laser Radial sailor Anna Tunnicliffe of Fort Lauderdale in the finals.

Alison's usually serious expression was all smiles after defeating the likes of Claire Leroy of France, the top-ranked female match racer. As the USA's Disabled Sailing coach, it was important to Alison to do well.

"It shows the Paralympic Team that I can sail," she said.

At the first Rolex Match racing event, Alison gave a presentation to competitors in the then-new style of racing for women. It was her goal to raise the level of competition. Ten years later the competition is first-rate and she is still near the top of the game.

St. Petersburg's Rachael Silverstein was invited to compete, along with crew Jee Lee, Kristin Herman and Becca Thomas.

"The competition has gotten better over the years," Silverstein said. "We feel we sailed well and had some really close finishes with the top teams."

Other locals serving as crew included Amy Linton and Genoa Griffin.

Patricia Siedenspinner and Tom Farquhar organized the event. Siedenspinner served as the principal race officer while Farquhar was one of 12 judges.

CLEARWATER YACHT CLUB CHALLENGE: On Saturday, 42 keelboats along with race official's power vessels found themselves staring at impressive surf at the entrance of Clearwater Pass. The commercial tour boats were smart enough to stay in the bay or at the dock, as were several of the sailboats and two race committee boats.

Once past the mountainous waves at the entrance, the Gulf was merely gnarly. "It was much like the Irish Sea," stated winning crew Phil Smithers.

George Cussins' J/105 Fire & Ice lost a new mast with new rigging in the first race. He surmised that the cotter pin at a lower shroud had come out or was missing, letting the clevis pin drop out. The rig was salvaged and they proceeded to port under their own power, no small fete in the conditions.

Sunday was a pleasure with 10-knot breezes and a light chop.

The J/105 Pippin of David Owen won the Spinnaker A class with all first places. Owen is from San Francisco and keeps this boat here. His crew was the core group from the highly successful Henderson 30 New Wave, including John Jennings steering and Martin Kullman calling tactics.

Semper Fi, the J/29 of Ray Mannix of Dunedin, bested the Spinnaker B class while the Morgan 27 Mystic sailed by Clearwater's Jay Myers took the Non-Spinnaker class.

The Racer Cruiser and True Cruiser classes sailed one race each day. Frank Hanna of Crawfordville sailed his Beneteau 44 Prime Plus to victory in Racer Cruiser. Clearwater Yacht Club's Tim Roberts' Chances "R', an Endeavour 35, was first in True Cruiser.

The two courses were run by Clearwater YC past commodores David Billing and Dick Boblenz. They reported that Saturday, even with heavy ground tackle and plenty of anchor rode, they had problems with drifting marks. A boat with an "M" flag was used in its place, a provision in the rules not familiar to a few of the racers.

COLLEGE SAILING: USF qualified for the Sloop National Championship in November. Eckerd won the final South Atlantic region South Points event at Georgia Tech on Lake Lanier. USF was third.

Three USF sailors were named to the inaugural ICSA all-academic sailing team. Kevin Reali is one of nine academic All-Americans. A senior, he attained a 3.87 grade point average in mechanical engineering. USF seniors Andrew Blom, with a 3.58 GPA in international studies, and Ashley Reynolds, with a 3.58 GPA in elementary education, were honorable mentions.

[Last modified November 1, 2006, 07:06:56]