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Nature Coast

Leukemia Cup sends $23K to cancer society

By DAVE ELLIS, Sailing
Published October 17, 2007

It was a perfect sailing weekend for the 55 boats competing in the combined Leukemia Cup and Fall Bay Race sponsored by St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

Leukemia Cup scoring was based on Saturday's finishes and included points for fundraising. Proceeds of $23,000 went to the Suncoast Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Spinnaker-1 saw the J/109 of Jose Suares-Hojos leading, while spinnaker-2 was headed by George Cussins' J/105 and spinnaker-3 by Tug Graves on his Ericson-29. The non-spinnaker winner was Tim Roberts and Ron Augustine on their Endeavor-35. Racer-cruiser was led by Allen Saunders on a Jeanneau-11.2, while the true cruising class and overall winner was Susan Davidson on her Tartan-37.2.

Smaller boats were included in Leukemia Cup racing Saturday, including the laser radial won by Georgia Hardage, followed by Caroline Wallace. The sonars sailed to a tie between Tom Monk and Carol Johnson. The optimist dinghy top three were Liam McCarthy, Rachel Hardage and Sofia Cruz.

Racing continued Sunday with both days' scores included for the Fall Bay Race honors.

Suarez-Hojos kept his winning ways in the spinnaker-1 class, as did Roberts and Augustine in non-spinnaker, Saunders in racer cruiser and Davidson in true cruising.

Spinnaker-2 was won by the Carrera-290 of James Myers,while spinnaker-3 was led by the Ranger-33 of Grant Dumas.

OLYMPIC SAILING TRIALS: Tampa Bay area sailors competed in nine of the 14 sailing classes of the USA Olympic trials that concluded this weekend in Newport, R.I., and California.

Zach Railey of Clearwater was victorious in the finn class by a wide margin and will be bound for China for the 2008 Games.

"It was a true test," he said. "I'm glad I did all the work beforehand. The first goal was to win the trials, but the ultimate goal is to be on the podium in China."

Tampa's Ben Barger dethroned perennial windsurfing champ Mike Gebhardt of Fort Pierce, acing the last races to pull ahead.

"It's awesome," he said. "For 10 years I've been working toward this. I feel like I've grown a few gray hairs."

Brad Funk of Clearwater came close. The final score in the laser class was a tie with Andrew Campbell of San Diego. Campbell had one more first place to break the tie. SPYC sailors Zach Marks and Fred Strammer placed 10th and 11th. Strammer won two heats during the series.

Close, too, was Clearwater's Paige Railey in the laser radial. She was second to Plantation sailor Anna Tunnacliffe by a very few points, well clear of the third-place boat.

Young sailors Emily Billing of Clearwater, Genoa Griffin and Reguli Granger of Tampa placed well in this invitation-only event.

Mark Mendelblatt, sailing with crew Magnus Liljedahl,led the star racing for most of the series, but faded to third by the end. John Dane III (57) of Gulfport, Miss., sailing with son-in-law Austin Perry, won the star trials in the last race. Rick Merriman, originally from St. Petersburg, placed fifth with crew Phil Trinter.

The tornado catamaran racing saw a battle between the perennial Olympic representatives John Lovell with crew Charlie Ogletree of Texas and Clearwater's Robbie Daniel with crew Hunter Stunzi. They traded wins in the fleet until the last races, when Lovell pulled ahead by one point.

The Paralympic trials in the sonar saw close racing between frequent bay area visitor Rick Doer with crew Tim Angle and Bill Donohue narrowly defeating Cape Coral resident Paul Callahan with crew Tom Brown and Roger Cleworth of Lithia. SPYC sailors Jennifer French with crew Brad Kendall and Michael Hersey placed fourth.

The SKUD-18 racing saw Gulfport's J.P. Creignou crewing for Karen Mitchell place third, as did Mark Bryant of Fort Myers in the 2.4-meter class.

FLYING DUTCHMAN NATIONALS: Lin Robson of St. Petersburg won the FD title on windy San Diego Bay.

WORLD MATCH RACING: Ed Baird placed third in the Gold Cup in Bermuda. He won the Wedgewood Heritage Trophy, awarded to the sailor who embodies the spirit of the sport.

[Last modified October 16, 2007, 21:21:42]