Just this past weekend, the Gulf Yachting Association opened its racing season at Mobile Yacht Club with all the fan fair, blue blazers, fancy hats and great hospitality one could expect. Over 46 sailboats showed up to race in six one-design classes. Saturday’s conditions allowed those who ventured out to plane around in twenty knot plus before the storms hit. After the storms came through, the races were cancelled for the day due to lack of wind. Sunday’s racing conditions were perfect. The breeze filled in and blew from the south at 12 to 16 knots all day.
On the Capedevielle course, 21 Yacht Clubs from four different states participated in some very close racing. Pass Christians John F Dane and Kevin Northrop had top finishes to win the opening regatta for their club. Bay Waveland’s Jackson Benvenutti and Andrew Eagan sailing their highly refined and tweaked tight rig configuration took second place overall. Winning the three-way tie for third was Billy Ross and Greg Reardon for Pontchartrain Yacht Club with their new tricked out carbon spinnaker pole (word is that they are only $20. more than the aluminum version but very disposable.)  The only disappointment in this class was that they only sailed two races. Go figure? Why is it that every other class managed to get off between three and five races except the Capdeville class? The SI’s clearly stated that no races would be started after 2:00 pm on Sunday and the Capdeville classes had finished their second race shortly before 1:00 pm. They had plenty of breeze but for some unknown reason the RC called the day for the biggest class of competition one race short.
In the Fish Class, Buccaneer’s Donnie Brennan and his all girl crew hiked the hardest and looked the prettiest on his new boat to win with finishes of 2-1-1. Hunter Riddle from Pensacola was fast out the gate but couldn’t catch the new blue boat in the second and third races. His finishes were 1-2-2. Hank Schwarz of Mobile had finishes of 3-3-3 to finish third overall. Those Fish Boats with their classic lines sure did look pretty when the breeze came in for Sundays racing. The mains on these boats are huge and these full keel beauties rocked down wind ever so gracefully.
In Open Scots, New Orleans Brandon Dumontier with super crew swept open class with three bullets. We checked in with Brandon to see how things went, “ Great weekend, we set up with Fisher’s Tight Rig Config and were very pleased…boat handled great and their was no stopping us once my crew agreed to hike the first half of every beatâ€. Their boat was leading most of the days racing; it was all-forward for those guys and their new tight rig set up.   Buccaneer’s Mark Caraher had finishes of 2-2-3 to finish second overall. Tom Davis and Jim Foster sailed two up on Lethal Weapon to finish third. The whisper in this class was that Dumontier and crew Steinkamp were definitely Capdevielle or Lipton material and were being scouted the entire weekend.
On the Masters Course, the over fifty crowd duked it out in the stiff breeze to show that they all still had the touch. Pensacola’s Neil McMillan, Carlos Melville and Bob Fleege won this class. Lady sailor Judy Reeves took second with Open Scot stall worth Bernie Wolf and Trophy Man Harry Chapman crewing for her all weekend. Placing third overall sailing for Fairhope was Erik Schmitz, Carolyn Davis Earnheart and Michael Metzger.
In the Board Boats, Paul Kleinschrodt and Ashley Hall swept the Juniors 420 division with finishes of 1-1-1. In Second from Pensacola was Nicole Beakler and Lauren Lambuth. Finishing third also from Pensacola was Jeannine Mitchell and Madeline Rees. On the Sunfish course another Pensacola sailor, Adam Brewer, took five firsts to dominate his class. Finishing second was John Deputy and in third was Lauren Whitehurst.
Sunday’s windy conditions made for a wonderful GYA Opening Regatta. The atmosphere and camaraderie were spectacular. They had plenty of Blue Blazers and enough meetings to make everyone happy. Mobile Yacht Club was an excellent host and provided wonderful southern hospitality the entire weekend. It looks like next years GYA Commodore will be from from Fort Walton and I can’t think of a better place to open the season in 2004 than FWYC. See you there.
-Steinkamp
