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Letter to the editor

St. Petersburg's Linton named U.S. sailor of year

By DAVE ELLIS, Sailing
Published January 23, 2008

St. Petersburg sailor Jeff Linton has been named the 2007 Rolex U.S. yachtsman of the year.

A list of 10 sailors determined by nominations from the nationwide membership of the U.S. Sailing Association was evaluated by a panel of sailing journalists.

Linton's victories in 2007 included the Lightning Worlds in Europe, the Flying Scott North Americans and Classic Moth Nationals and Midwinters.

One of the founders of Masthead Enterprises, a chandlery and Catalina sailboat dealership, Linton recently sold his share in the business.

This appointment makes Tampa Bay home for the world sailor of the year, Ed Baird, the national sailor of the year, Linton, and multiple champion and masters winner John Jennings.

SPYC MULTICLASS REGATTA: Last year, this regatta was canceled for lack of interest. This year saw a highly successful event with 59 boats registered in seven classes.

The high-performance boats sailed on one race course, the J/24 and Snipe on another course close to the Pier. This is the first year for the contender class to gather for a Florida Midwinters.

These performance boats are handled by a lone sailor using a trapeze wire to hang far over the windward side with a long extension for the tiller. The boom is low enough to cause more than a few of the boats to capsize temporally on a mistimed tack.

There was an 11-boat fleet from as far away as Canada, Texas and California. St. Petersburg's Ethan Bixby, sailing his first regatta in the class, raised the bar by winning five of eight races and never finishing below third. Roger Martin of Toronto was second.

The Flying Dutchman's hull was the model for the smaller contender. The eight-boat FD fleet was led by St. Petersburg sailor Lin Robson with crew Ken Gorbold. They won seven of eight races with Gorbold's parents of upstate New York winning the remaining race.

Paul Scoffin of Orange Park with crew Paul Ruzicka placed second in the fleet.

The 505 class drew six boats, all from afar. Doug McKeige of Rye, N.Y., recruited Tampa Fireball sailor Patrick Crump to skipper. They won all four races.

The A-class catamaran blazed around the race course with Ben Moon of Australia, by way of St. Petersburg, winning over Woody Cope of Tampa.

The ultimate-20 class drew seven boats. Jim Pearson and crew from Ontario won all their races, with Lorne Becker of Dade City placing second.

The largest group was the snipes. Former world champ Augie Diaz and crew Ken Tocke won, with Gonzalo Crivello and Tim King of St. Petersburg placing second

Warren Sweet and crew won the small J/24 fleet with Dale Evans placing second.

OPTIMIST DINGHY SOUTHEAST TEAM RACING: St. Petersburg Sailing Center was the venue for team racing over the weekend.

Eric Bardes of Clearwater has been coaching this type of racing successfully for many years. His Team FOR sailors took the top two places in the regional team event.

Team 1 included Alec Ruiz Ramon, Cam Purton, Samantha Purton, Susanah Spotto and Graham Landy, defeating 13 other teams.

CATAMARAN RACING: The annual Hangover Regatta, held Jan. 13, had just about every weather condition possible. Fog greeted the 14-boat fleet at Dunedin Causeway. Later, there was lightning, rain, no wind and then a nice breeze.

Dave Parker of Palm Harbor won the High Portsmouth class in his Dart-18 in 4 hours 45 minutes. A longer course was sailed by the faster low portsmouth fleet and was won in six hours by Tyler Burd and Morgan Kellogg on their Formula 18.

[Last modified January 22, 2008, 22:49:40]