Davis Island races prove very popular

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 5, 2000

It's tradition as much as competition.

The Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa traditionally hosts a series of weekday daylight saving time evening races beginning in mid-April and continuing weekly until the change back to standard time. That tradition, along with a logistical advantage of having a large number of boats in close proximity to the racing venue, provides what might be the largest fleet of informal summer races in the country.

According to Davis Island Yacht Club fleet captain Jay Tyson, the recently completed spring series of Thursday night races averaged 62 starters with almost 100 boats competing in the "quick and dirty" triangle races just south of Davis Islands. The races draw boats from the nearby Tampa Yacht and Country Club in south Tampa and Tampa Sailing Squadron in Apollo Beach along with a hefty contingent from the members of Davis Island Yacht Club.

The summer-long series is open to nonmembers, charges no entry fees and novice sailors are encouraged to show up ready to race.

Neither experience nor a boat is required as many of the local boats will accept newcomers.

The spring series saw boats ranging in length from 12 to 51 feet with handicap fleets for Portsmouth, PHRF, MORC, plus J/24 one-designs.

A.J. Mathews' Pearson 29 Ay Mon topped the newly created True Cruising division in the spring series with Richard Picchi's Some Fun Now finishing second and Earl Layton's Last Dollar third after eight races.

Jeff Linton led the Portsmouth fleet with his Lightning Class dinghy, trailed by Bill Meyer's Lighting Fired Up in second. Among the larger keelboats, the spinnaker division averaged 16 boats each week with Richard Karran's Wavelength 24 Mal DeMer edging Bob Bilthouse's Ultimate 20 Bobsled with Robin Clement's Melges 24 Whiplash third.

The non-spinnaker division had an even better showing with an average of 19 starters, led by series winner Jim Moore's 51-foot Sirena. Julian Rice's Pearson Flyer Midnight Apple finished second followed by Tom Allen's S2 6.9 Copesetic.

The J/24 fleet, arguably the largest and most active one-design fleet in the bay area, continued to grow with 14 boats racing in the spring series. Bill Icely in Preparation J won the series. The next two positions came down to the last race, with Tom Turton's Ragged Edge taking second followed by Dean Bell's Sight Unseen.

If Tampa Bay workplaces begin to look a bit empty late on Thursday afternoons during the summer, one bet would be that the staff, and maybe the bosses, too, have headed home early to catch some racing and post-race partying at the Davis Island Yacht Club's weekday evening races.

For information, call Scott Echols at (813) 789-3514 or Tyson at (813) 251-1158.

AUTHOR SPEECH: Local resident Tom Lenfestey, author of The Gunkholer's Cruising Guide to Florida's West Coast, will discuss his favorite sailing and anchoring spots at the Florida Offshore Multihull Association's monthly meeting July 18.

The presentation will be at 7:30 p.m. at the Rio Bravo restaurant. A business meeting follows. For information, call Ron Butler at (727) 581-9169.

Rio Bravo is located on the west side of U.S. 19 at Enterprise Blvd.

NAPLES BOAT WINS After days of mixed weather ranging from light and shifty breeze to 20 knots of wind and dense fog, Boatscape.com Block Island Race Week 2000 came to a close on a perfect sailing day last month with a Naples-based team taking Boat of the Week honors.

Skipper Jim Doane, who crews with local Tampa Bay sailors and races his own boat in regional events, won the top honors in the J/105 Wonder Wagon. Doane was competing in a 30-boat one-design class of J/105s, the largest class at the race week. More than 135 boats competed in 12 divisions.

George Wolf's Tampa-based J/27 team aboard Pocket Rocket finished fifth in their 12-boat PHRF fleet.

SCHEDULE PROPOSED: The annual summer planning meeting of yacht club and sailing club representatives was held June 20 at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club with delegates from each club reserving the dates for their upcoming 2000/2001 events.

While the final schedule will not be finalized until August, most of the major events will maintain their traditional dates. The opening races in September will be the Davis Island Labor Day night race Sept. 1 along with the two-day Labor Day regatta at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron Sept. 2-3.

Youth sailors will open their fall schedule Sept. 17 at the Treasure Island Tennis & Yacht Club while the opening boat of the year event, the Bradenton Millennium Regatta, will be hosted by the Bradenton Yacht Club Sept. 23-24.

Representatives of local clubs who have not submitted their schedule should contact Phyllis Eades at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club before July 14 at (727) 822-3873 or by fax at (727) 895-4779. The final version should be available by late August or early September.

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