Linton's squad takes Lightning championships

By DORAN CUSHING

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 1, 2001

With Mount Etna blowing its volcanic top on the east end of the island, the team of Jeff Linton, Amy Smith Linton and Mark Taylor sailed to the Lightning Class world championships off the western shores of Marsala, Sicily, in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Linton team, based at Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa, won three of the six races to capture the title despite a potentially costly error. In the closing event, the squad crossed the starting line early -- "OCS" in racing terminology -- and was disqualified.

As it turned out, that error only closed the gap. The second-place team, skippered by Matt Fisher of Ohio, finished the regatta one point behind the Lintons and Taylor.

A third American team, with William Gaude of Milwaukee at the helm, took third. Sailing with skipper Bill Mauk and Stuart DeLisser of Miami, Jamey Rabbitt of Tampa finished 11th overall in the 44-boat competition.

Jeff Linton, a sailmaker who is a partner in Masthead Enterprises in downtown St. Petersburg, has been a dominant force in the Sunfish Class for the past decade.

A relative newcomer to the Lightning class, this is his first major win at the international level in the 19-foot Lightning dinghy.

WINDMILL NORTH AMERICANS: Trudy and Ethan Bixby of St. Petersburg defended their Windmill Class honors with a third consecutive North American championship July 24-26.

Sailing near Edenton on the inland Albemarle Sound, about 50 miles west of the North Carolina barrier islands and Atlantic Ocean, the Bixby team posted four victories in six races to outpace the runner-up team from New Hampshire.

"We actually had wind for three days," Ethan Bixby said. "We sailed all of the races in 15 to 20 knots. I haven't done that in ages."

The 27-boat field included teams from across the U.S. competing in identical 16-foot Windmill class dinghies. The two-person daggerboard boats are similar to Snipes "but they surf a lot easier," Bixby said.

NORTH AMERICAN LASER: Sailing the single-handed class of boat he had hoped to take to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Mark Mendelblatt of St. Petersburg handily won the Laser Class North American Championships, July 12-15 on San Francisco Bay. The regatta confirmed Mendelblatt's top position in the American Laser fleet despite his shift in emphasis to larger boats.

Mendelblatt finished off the 10-race series with a 2-2-1-3 record, pulling away from the U.S. and Canadian competitors for a 12-point margin. His training partner, Brett Davis of Largo, took fifth overall, five points out of third place.

"The conditions were mostly breezy, in the 15 to 20-knot range, typical San Francisco Bay conditions," Mendelblatt said. "I like that stuff."

Mendelblatt returned to the Tampa Bay area from the West Coast for less than a day before heading to Europe for a match racing series on keel boats. That will be followed by the Laser World Championships in Ireland in early August.

"I'm just doing these regattas for fun -- not a major push," Mendelblatt said. "There's no pressure."

Clearwater teen sailor Zach Railey, who has trained with Mendelblatt and Davis locally, is expected to compete in the world championships.

Mendelblatt narrowly missed qualifying for the American Olympic sailing team in 2000. He has been signed on as crew for a Seattle-based America's Cup campaign and will be returning to New Zealand for the big-boat training in October.

Asked how the America's Cup program affected his Laser racing, Mendelblatt said, "Working with a group of professionals can't hurt. You learn little things, like how to prepare for a regatta."

HALL COMPETES IN CHINA: Not resting on his recent accomplishments in the Canadian Olympic Regatta at Kingston (CORK), 13-year-old Mitch Hall flew to China for the Optimist World Championships, July 15-22 at Qingdao on the Yellow Sea.

The event was plagued by too much or too little wind, with only seven races completed over eight days. Hall finished 91st overall in the 208-boat fleet.

The top American sailor was New Jersey's Leigh Kempton, who finished 38th and was the fourth-best girl. Lucas Calabrese of Argentina won the world championship.

With China recently selected as the host for the Olympic Games, the same Yellow Sea location and conditions are anticipated for the Olympic sailors in 2008.

WOMEN SNIPERS TAKE HONORS: Sherry Welch and Cindy Weatherby of St. Petersburg finished third overall in the U.S Snipe Women's Championship, July 8-9 at Cascade Locks, Ore.

Welch and Weatherby are members of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club and active in the local Snipe class.

MELGES 24 MEETING: An organizational meeting of the newly formed Melges 24 Tampa Bay Fleet 31 is scheduled for 6:30 tonight at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

For information, call Frank McCarthy, (727) 895-1336, or e-mail

frank@wavecommtech.com.

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