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Letter to the editor

Local sailors win at disabled championship

By DAVE ELLIS, Times Correspondent
Published September 19, 2007

J. P. Creignou of St. Petersburg, crewing for Karen Mitchell of Deerfield Beach, won a gold medal at the International Federation of Disabled Sailors World Championship.

The three classes of sailboats used for the Paralympic Games staged their main event at Rochester Yacht Club in New York last week.

Mitchell and Creignou sailed on the newest type of Paralympic boat, the 19-foot speedster called Skiff Universal Design, or SKUD. This craft has one man and one woman sailor aboard, both of whom must be disabled. With plenty of sail area, including a large asymmetrical spinnaker, the boats are a handful to sail well.

"We trained as a group and held several training camps," said Betsy Alison, the U.S. Disabled Sailing Team coach. "As one boat made a new step up in performance, we all learned. We discussed rig tension and jibing angles, and the sailors learned from each others' successes."

Wind conditions ranged from light air to gusting into the 20s. The winning duo never finished out of the top 10 despite the varied conditions. Second place was Nick Scandone of California, sailing with Maureen McKinnon-Tucker.

The sonar three-person Paralympic class was won by frequent Tampa Bay area visitor Rick Doer, with Tom Angle and Bill Donahue. Second by just two points was Paul Callahan of Port Charlotte, sailing with Roger Cleworth of Brandon and Tom Brown from Maine.

St. Petersburg sailors Jennifer French with crew Brad Kendall and Mike Hersey finished 12th in the 28-boat international fleet.

The diminutive 2.4 meters had no local competitors. The U.S. sailors who participated were well down in the standings.

Longtime disabled sailing supporter Gene Hinkel served as the IFDS technical adviser for the SKUD and Sonar classes, while Sarasota's Serge Jorgensen was there as the president of IFDS.

The U.S. trials to determine who will be the representatives for the 2008 Paralympic Games will be held in October.

HIGH SCHOOL SAILING: David Billing's Clearwater Yacht Club race committee team staged the Cressy qualifying regatta in the gulf.

There were 37 high schools represented from the South Atlantic region, with 11 full-rig lasers and 64 laser radials competing.

One sailor just returned from the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, two had just competed in the Radial Worlds in Europe, and seven qualified to race in the USA Olympic Trials in October. The top three sailors in each class qualify to sail in the Cressy High School Nationals in Seattle.

Among local high schools, Zeke Horowitz of Pine View in Osprey won the laser full rig. Ian Heausler of Plant in Tampa topped the radial class, and Mateo Vargas of St. Petersburg's Lakewood was second.

LAST CHANCE REGATTA: Qualification to race in the USA Olympic Trials is a goal difficult to attain. Several regattas are sailed around the country to glean the top few sailors in each, who go onto the trials. One last qualifying regatta was held at Cedar Point Yacht Club on Long Island Sound in Connecticut.

Reguli Granger (16) of St. Petersburg, sailing out of Davis Island Yacht Club, won the event, qualifying her for the big show in October.

FINN TRIALS: Clearwater's Zach Railey has won the last event before the Olympic Trials in the finn class in California.

BENEFIT REGATTA: The Dunedin Cup Regatta on Sept.29 is sponsored by the Dunedin Boat Club and the Kiwanis Club of Dunedin. Proceeds benefit Dunedin's Boundless Playground. There will be one long race for PHRF keel boats in the gulf between Hurricane and Clearwater Pass using set marks. An experienced race committee has been assembled.

For information go online to http://dunedincup.org.

[Last modified September 18, 2007, 23:04:52]