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By DORAN CUSHING
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 9, 2001
Competitors from Lakewood High School and St. Petersburg High qualified for the double-handed national championship with their performances in the regional qualifier in South Carolina in late April.
It is the second national berth earned by the two teams.
Lakewood, led by skippers Ryan Druyor and Kevin Reali and crew members Mike Slater and Everett Jones, topped the 16-school field of southern squads.
St. Petersburg skippers Stephen Cox and Frank Ball -- with crew Ryan Rey, Stacey Goff, and Chelsea Silverstein -- finished third. Community School of Naples placed second. These three teams move on to the national championships for prep sailors. The event is scheduled for Friday through Sunday at the College of Charleston Sailing Center in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
Both local squads previously had qualified for another national championship, the Toby Baker Trophy, and will be competing May 25-27 for the title in Massachusetts. ROUGH START: Twenty-one national and international teams competing in the Worrell 1000 endurance catamaran race from Florida to Virginia have left south Florida for a planned 13-leg event north in the Atlantic Ocean.
The open water route along five coastal states will take the racers to a finish line at Virginia Beach on May 19.
The fleet, including two-person squads from the U.S., Canada, England, Australia and South Africa, will have one all-woman team for the first time in the history of the race. Former America's Cup sailor Katie Pettibone of Port Huron, Mich., is teamed up with English sailor Eleanor Hay.
The 42 competitors are made up of a mix of professional and amateur sailors ranging from 25-54 years of age.
Defending champion Randy Smyth of Fort Walton Beach withdrew from the event several weeks ago due to family and business commitments. He recently completed the round the world Race of the Millenium on the maxi catamaran Team Adventure.
The two-week Worrell 1000, with daily stops along the coast, started May 6 at Miami's fashionable South Beach. Northeast winds at 20 knots provided a fast day of racing aboard the 20-foot Inter 20 high performance beach catamarans.
Crossing the finish line on the beach at Ft. Lauderdall proved to be more hazardous than the wind-blown waters. Two racers were sent to the hospital on the first day after sustaining injuries -- a broken leg and broken ankle -- during the landings in the rough surf.
Following a stop Monday in Jensen Beach and Tuesday in Cocoa Beach, the racers leave this moring from Cocoa bound for Daytona Beach. They're expected to cover the 70 miles in 5-7 hours.
Additional scheduled stops along the Atlantic include Jacksonville Beach, Tybee Island, Ga., Isle of Palms, S.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C., Wrightsville Beach, N.C., Cape Hatteras, N.C., Kill Devil Hills, N.C., and the finish at Virginia Beach.
MAKING WAVES: The St. Petersburg-based New Wave, owned by Michael Carroll of Clearwater, finished second in the nine-boat Henderson 30 one-design fleet in the Sailing World National Offshore One-design Regatta in Annapolis, Md.
With crew members Kuli Kulinichenko of Tampa and St. Petersburg's Jim Masson, the tri Southwinds team won the F/27 class in the Corsair Nationals, April 19-21.
The team also won its division in the Dauphin Island race on Mobile Bay, April 28, and finished third in the seven-boat cruising multihull division of the Mug Race, May 5 on the St. Johns River near Jacksonville.
Tri Southwinds is preparing for the Clearwater to Key West event on May 17.
REGATTA REMINDERS: The Windjammers of Clearwater Bikini Cup sails Saturday in the Gulf of Mexico. About 40 boats are expected to compete.
St. Petersburg Yacht Club will play host to the annual Royal Gaboon fun race for "anything that sails" Saturday. For entry information, call (727) 822-3873.
Tuesday is the deadline for the Clearwater Yacht Club's 220-mile race from Clearwater to Key West, which sails south May 17. The Epilepsy Transbay Cup races from St. Petersburg to Apollo Beach are scheduled for June 9.
For information on the Key West regatta, call (727) 447-6000. Contact Richard Neal, (727) 381-6363, for registration information for the Transbay Cup.