February 3, 2003

VIEW RESULTS

Snipe Fleet 495 sailed their Las Vegas regatta and the star of the weekend was.......the Race Comittee! In very shifty winds the comittee ran 10 flawless races. On the starting boat Stan Betts and Sean Biehl kept the local Snipers racing with windward-leeward (some twice around) courses with the start/finish line in the middle. The I flag was quick to appear and the starting line was aggresively called to keep the general recalls to a minimum.

Bob Bowden and Earl Elms were very busy shifting the windward mark and leeward gate to keep the courses true. The only complaint anyone had about the comittee's work was Jim Elms who thought Earl was a bit too happy to be calling his son over early.

The Mission Bay Snipe Fleet has been trying to recruit new sailors and many did their part to attract fresh talent to this regatta. Don Bedford offered his boat to Adam and Melanie Roberts who are training for the Junior Worlds. Bob Bowden offered his to Steve Davis from the Denver, Colorado fleet. Brian Janney crewed for a recently returned from Hawaii Mark Barra. For those of you not from San Diego, Brian can attest that the water temperature is not that cold here, even in February. Rob Hallawell brought out 2 crews who are interested in skippering Snipes. Keith Davids, a two time college all-American from the Naval Academy co skippered on Day 1 and rattled off 3 bullets! Rob's scores looked great as he led after Day 1, but in reality he had only steered to a 9th and a 2nd. Keith had done most of the real sailing! Megan Magill, a local High School hot shot crewed for Rob on Day 2.

Working the system the best, however, was Doug Hart who sailed with his 80 pound son, Scott, on the light air Day 1 and 150 pound Zach Brown on the medium to heavy wind Day 2. Zach is one of San Diego's best young sailors and he and Doug were almost unbeatable on Day 2. With scores of 2,1,1,1,3 Doug erased Rob's lead by race 2 and won the regatta easily. The battle for 3rd showed how tight of a regatta this was. The difference from Tyler Pruett and Cameron Biehl in 3rd place and Chuck and Aine Sinks in 7th was 4 points! In between was Adam and Melanie Roberts, Dave and Barb Tillson and Mark Barra and Brian Janney.

The O'Hares, Redlers and Steve Stewart with Jon Fretwell rounded out the top ten. Throw in Carolyn Krebs and Chris Snow who both only sailed 4 races but were in the top ten in each race they sailed, and you have a tough front of the fleet. The racing and mark roundings were intense, and no one finished top ten in every race. For a twist, the fleet sailed race 3 as a crew race. The scores counted for the regatta and again the star was Doug Hart. Scottie seemed a bit overwhelmed but Doug expertly guided his son to a surprising 7th. No one seemed to mind that Doug's hand may have occasionally touched the tiller!

Congratulations Doug on an amazing performance and once again, thank you to Sean, Stan, Bob, Earl and to the many other volunteers who ran this regatta. For results please see www.obyc.com