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Wind is biggest challenge in Clearwater regatta

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 29, 2001

With winds gusting more than 30 knots Saturday and breeze approaching 20 Sunday, the 51 skippers who signed up for the Clearwater Challenge Cup in the Gulf of Mexico had their hands full keeping the boats upright and the sails intact. There were battered crews, blown out sails and broken gear. "The high point of the regatta was the downwind run from John's Pass to Pass-a-Grille on Saturday," said Oldsmar dentist Steve Grote, who finished second overall aboard his Melges 24 Warp Speed in the Spinnaker A division. "We were doing in excess of 20 knots. But coming home was a very slow 'tooth shattering' experience."

Wind-driven breaking waves made for a treacherous start Saturday as 15 out of the 51 boats completed the distance race that took the spinnaker boats downwind to Pass-a-Grille and the non-spinnaker boats to John's Pass before both fleets headed north into the wind back to Clearwater Pass.

"Saturday's race was key," Spinnaker B winner Harvey Ford said. "We were able to get to Pass-a-Grille safely and we knew the race would be won upwind."

Ford's victory aboard his J/29 Wild Kat for the three-race series came down to a three-second margin over Ken Friedman's Instant Karma in the closing race Sunday as the boats battled the conditions and the clock for top honors in the division after handicap rating adjustments were applied to their elapsed finish times.

Conditions in the gulf moderated Sunday as the wind lightened and shifted slightly to the northeast. Twenty-eight boats competed, with the remaining entries disabled by torn sails and gear failures, including one dismasting, or waiting for a more moderate weekend to race.

Taking top honors in Spinnaker A was the Mumm 36 The Wall, skippered by Gordon Schiff. Despite taking a knockdown shortly after the start Saturday and destroying several sails, the team won the distance race and one of two races Sunday.

Other division winners: Frank Hanna's Prime Plus in Non-spinnaker C, Blaise Pierson's Midnight Sun in Non-spinnaker D, Steve Honour's Shady Lady in True Cruising and Ted Myers' Wind Splitter in the multihull division.

WORLD DISABLED CHAMPIONSHIPS: With six races completed on Tampa Bay, the leaders in the Sonar and 2.4 mR classes moved further ahead of their competitors with three races remaining.

Germany's Heiko Kroeger added two more first-place finishes to his perfect record. With five total points, he led American Thomas Brown, the U.S. representative at the Sydney Paralympics in 2000, by 10 points, with Jostein Stordahl of Norway in third with 19 points.

Canadian Brian Mackie's team was disqualified in Sunday's opening race for crossing the starting line early but held on to the overall lead in the Sonar class with a 11-point margin over John Robertson of England. The top American skipper, Paul Callahan, dropped to eighth place with another American team, skippered by John Ross-Duggan, in ninth place.

After a day off today, the regatta resumes Tuesday with the final races VOLVO OCEAN RACE: ASSA ABLOY reached Cape Town, South Africa, the fifth boat to finish the first leg of the round-the-world event. The boat arrived 31/2 days behind illbruck, the first-leg winner. Sixteen miles back in second was Amer Sports One. News Corp. arrived Friday for third place, followed by Tyco on Saturday. The nine-month race began Sept. 23 in Southampton, England.

-- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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