TELL TALES (Oct. 21, 2009)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Courtney Purcell, a Green Fleet skipper, will turn 12 tomorrow, and Shaun Gallagher, a RWB sailor, will be 15 next Sunday. There are no more birthdays until December.

SCHEDULE:

Oct. 24 – Fall Series race 8 and high school regatta (SP 2) at Lake Eustis

Oct. 30 – Optional sailing (1000 to 1500)

Oct. 31 – Fall Series race 9 (Halloween race) or Florida Inland Lake Regatta, Lake Eustis

Nov. 7 – Fall Series race 10 (last series race for the autumn)

Nov. 14 – Winter Series race 1

Nov. 21 – Winter Series race 2, boat load and high school regatta (SP 3) at Hollywood

Nov. 28-29 – Thanksgiving Regatta, Davis Island Yacht Club, Tampa

RIVER ROMP REGATTA RESULTS (Last week’s results were for the Crow’s nest Regatta)

1. Carla Johnson won the fifth race and took third out of nine boats in the Laser 4.7 class, thus earning a medal. Tyler Thorpe came in 14^th and Evan Langer was 24^th out of 25 Laser Radials.

2. Stephan VerHulst finished 19^th out of 42 Blue Fleet skippers. Others were Garrett Lawlor, 25^th, Lucas Galarza, 27^th, Scott Trecartin, 37^th and Stefan Johnson, 38^th. Zack Jordan, a former VYBA skipper who sails for Sarasota’s YSP now, took 20^th. Samantha Wood came in 25^th out of 28 Red Fleet sailors. Alicia Muscato, a former member who now sails for the Manatee River Pram Fleet, was 20^th. Out of 89 sailors overall, it was Stephan, 46^th, Zack, 47^th, Alicia, 50^th, Garrett, 57^th, Lucas, 59^th, Samantha, 73^rd, Stefan, 80^th and Scott, 81^st.

3. Once again, our Green Fleet did very well. Bogan Whitehead finished fourth in eight races. Louisa Nordstrom overcame equipment failure and a swamped boat to take 11^th. Truett Whitehead was 13^th and Justin Frow placed 17^th, giving VYBA four medallion awardees – more than any other organizations – out of the 25 places so honored. Alexis Jenkins, suffered a couple of capsizes and barely missed an award by coming in 26^th. Others were Courtney Purcell, 35^th, Nick Hernandez, 38^th, Garver Whitehead, 47^th, Brianna Trecartin, 56^th and Sara Frajerman, who was sailing in her first big regatta, 64^th. That was out of 93 entries.

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Red, White and Blue skippers are STRONGLY urged to plan on sailing all day Saturday. Capt. John Thomas saw several situations at Fort Myers and will hold a clinic in the afternoon.

2. We still have the Parent of the Day program during our year-round program, which means parents (or whatever) are welcome to ride with Jabbo during Saturday morning practices. This is done on a first come, first serve basis because he can take only three people.

3. We need new Emergency Medical Forms for RWB sailors as well as Portsmouth skippers to make sure they are current. Green Fleet sailors use their forms from this past summer.

4. Portsmouth sailors should be rigged and ready to go by 1300 hours. That is not the time to order lunch and/or to conduct a search for various missing parts or spars.

5. Sailors who do not put their boats or blades away properly may have some extra chores.

6. Contents form our Lost and Found box went to live at the Goodwill Stores on Oct. 1

7. Parents should pick up their sailors on time. We cannot leave sailors at the Pram Shed by themselves. You would be the first to sue us if they were left alone and became injured.