2003 Florida State Sunfish Championship
October 18-19
And Let There Be Light
By Mindy Strauley
The 2003 Sunfish State Championship was held inconjunction with the Junior Olympic Festival (River Romp) in Ft. Myers Florida.  I was very much looking forward to this event since I have never been to Ft. Myers.  I tagged on a couple of days off from work since a vacation was much needed and what better place to take it---Ft. Myers, home to Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb.  I assumed there would be enough light if not enough sunshine.
Off Paul and I headed Friday morning for a 3 hour trip to the Southwest.  With nothing much to do in the passenger seat I decided to take out the NOR to see what the regatta entailed.  A few minutes later I yelped really loud, scarring the %$#! out of Paul as he kept from swerving into an 18 wheeler.  After things settled down....Paul wondered, what's the matter?  All I could manage to mumble over and over was pre-dawn starts, pre-dawn starts!
The first day of sailing, we arrived to register for the regatta at sunrise.  Twenty-three Sunfish sailors registered to compete in the State Championship, 22 sailed.  Once the sun rose, we enjoyed 80 degree weather, sunshine, and winds ranging between 8 and 12mph.  After about a 30 minute sail to the start line, the races began.  I was able to squeeze in for the bullet the first race and then it was downhill from there. With 4 races completed on Saturday, Paul Strauley led the regatta with Conner Blouin and Peter Merrifield tied for second (2pts behind Paul).  The next group of sailors (myself, Charlotte Sims, and Charlie Rahn) in 4-6th place were within a couple of points of each other.
Once we hit shore Saturday afternoon the competition did not end.  Strategically, we needed to position our boats, among 200 other boats, in the optimal spot in order to launch off the small beach in the morning and reach the startline on time.   We were all warned that the race committee would start on time no matter what.
On Saturday night the Sunfish group planned to meet at the Holiday Inn Tiki Bar.  Several showed up and many, exhausted from the day of sailing, chose to get to bed early as to be able to rise pre-dawn and make the start on time.
On Sunday morning several arrived at the sailing site at 6:30am.  As we scurried for flashlights and talked about rigging a mast light on the Sunfish, I had to wonder how could the hometown of Thomas Edison be without light.  Well in the dark, we pushed our boats to the first spot on the beach, raised our sails and rigged our lines.  Ready to go at first sight of light.  With a little less wind, 7-10mph on Sunday, for all 200 boats to get off the beach on time---the first one in line needed to leave no later than 7:30am.  That was me, in the water holding my boat on the dolly, waiting for some light.  Single-file to launch, Paul behind me, followed by Conner Blouin, with eyes to the sky I kept thinking----Let there be light!  Those arriving not as early as us, now in the back of the pack of 200 boats-----my guess with blood pressure rising-----hoping to reach the beach to launch in time.
At 7:20am off we went to sail to the startline.  What a beautiful sunrise!!!!  We sailed 4 more races on Sunday.  Paul maintained his lead throughout the day, winning the regatta.  The last race decided 2nd place, with Conner taking the bullet and locking in a 2nd place spot.  Peter Merrifield followed in 3rd.  Rounding out the top five, myself and Charlotte Sims, 4th and 5th, respectively.
Many thanks to Rick Pantall who created our replacement perpetual trophy with the former one retired 2 year ago.  The first name on the trophy is Chris Alexander, previous champion (2002) and then presented this year to Paul Strauley. Many thanks to the Edison Sailing Center for doing a great job in hosting the Sunfish State Championship. Thankfully no one was left in the dark and a lot of fun was had by all.
Full Results are as follows:
Place	Sailor	Total Points w/ 1 drop	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8
1	Paul Strauley	17	2	3	1	4	6	3	2	2
2	Conner Blouin	18	4	1	5	2	5	2	3	1
3	Peter Merrifield	22	7	2	2	1	3	10	1	6
4	Mindy Strauley	27	1	5	6	8	2	5	4	4
5	Charlotte Sims	36	10	4	4	5	4	6	10	3
6	Rick Pantall	38	6	10	8	3	1	7	5	8
7	Charlie Rahn	40	3	6	3	9	8	9	6	5
8	John Meyer	44	5	11	7	6	7	1	8	10
9	Rebecca Rom	64	15	7	13	11	11	8	7	7
10	John Fletcher	67	11	12	9	7	10	14	9	9
11	Danny Escobar	69	12	8	10	14	12	4	12	11
12	John Kremski	73	8	9	11	10	13	11	11	15
13	Chris Gates	82	9	13	15	12	9	12	13	14
14	Juan Sebastian Baron	96	13	15	12	15	14	15	16	12
15	Aline Hyatt	107	16	ocs	17	18	15	13	15	13
16	Brian Wolfsohn	107	17	17	14	13	17	16	14	16
17	John Hyatt	116	19	16	16	17	16	17	17	17
18	Ryan Ravelo	134	14	14	18	16	dns	dns	dns	dns
19	Sharon DelBianco	134	18	18	19	19	dns	dns	18	18
20	Tommy Timberlake	135	20	20	21	21	18	18	19	19
21	Barbara Satiullin	155	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns	19	20	20
22	Elizabeth Pollock	155	dns	19	20	20	dns	dns	dns	dns
23	Carol McDowell	168	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns