Melbourne Yacht Club Fall Regatta: Oct 16-17, 2004

Psyching Yourself Out

By Mindy Strauley

After 3 hurricanes criss-crossing the state, many of us were aching to get from behind wooded windows and enjoy weekend warmth, sunshine, and no rain.   Melbourne Yacht Club Fall Regatta provided this opportunity.  Sixteen sailors eagerly escaped from clean-up chores to embark on some fun.

Many of us have not been in a boat since May.  There were several grunts of ‘how do I do this’, ‘where does this go,’ and ‘which foot first.’  But once the bewilderment wore off we were ready to go, klutzy or not.

Light to moderate (5-9mph) winds prevailed throughout the weekend.  On Saturday we sailed 4 races.  Danny Escobar, just returning from his stint at the World’s, emerged with astounding sailing ability, triumphing on Saturday with no worse than a 2nd place in any race.  Paul Strauley, hurt by a 7th in race 2 (ouch), trailed Danny by 4 points. 

Day 2 arrived, and what a way to psych yourself out----there is Danny, with all eyes to see, cleaning his boat bottom and applying some sort of go-fast (the bottle was not labeled).  For a while, we all watched day one’s champion show us how champions become champions.  Perhaps he learned something sailing with all those World Class sailors the previous month.  We all looked on, a little bit baffled----should we follow his lead or should we play him?

I don’t know but we couldn’t resist what happened next. 

“You know Danny, the slimy oil from the harbor is probably slicker than what you are using,”  “Danny, why fix it if it isn’t broken,” “You sure Danny that removing the stains will make the boat quicker,” “How much faster do you think the boat can go,”  “Are you sure that isn’t Elmer’s Glue in that bottle,” “I dunno Danny but my bottom feels smoother than yours.”

Okay, after an hour of amusement, it was time to test the waters (and Danny’s bottom). Another nice sunny day, offering a fluky light breeze ----let the games begin!

Sunday’s first race went to Chris Lowrie, sailing his hurricane-survived Sunfish (he left it chained to a fence on a beach during hurricane Jeanne---go figure), followed by Paul in 2nd and John Meyer (traveling all the way from Virginia for this Southern excitement) in 3rd.  Race 2 elicited a new set of top 3 finishers; Mindy Strauley, John Fletcher, and Chris Gates.  One more race will give us a dropout. 

The race for 1st overall was tight going into the last race, Paul leading with 17 points and Danny with 18, 3rd place--- at a distance was Mindy with 24 points.

Off we were, last race of the day.  I think the top 3 finishers must have really had to go to the bathroom or had an urgent date with a barstool.  I could hardly see them, maybe the sun was in my eyes, but way out in front was Chris Gates in the lead, followed by Paul, and then Jim Edwards.  WOW what a distance they had. 

Staying ahead of Danny for the last race, gave Paul the regatta win.

At the end of the day, after we were all packed up and ready to leave, I asked Danny for some final thoughts on the advantages of cleaning your boat bottom at the start of a race day.  He grunted something but I couldn’t quite understand what it was.

Full Results Below:

Sail #

Skipper

R 1

R 2

R 3

R 4

R 5

R 6

R 7

Total Points

Place

76685

Strauley, Paul

1

( 7 )

1

2

2

4

2

12

1

78453

Escobar, Danny

2

2

2

1

( 6 )

5

5

17

2

84800

Strauley, Mindy

4

3

3

6

( 7 )

1

4

21

3

37417

Lowrie, Chris

9

1

( 10 )

3

1

10

6

30

4

79073

Edwards, Jim

3

5

6

( 11 )

8

8

3

33

5

59935

Haberland, Bill

5

4

( 13 )

4

4

6

10

33

6

49333

Gates, Chris

6

6

( 12 )

7

12

3

1

35

7

78163

Fletcher, John

7

( 14 )

5

9

5

2

8

36

8

76380

Silverman, David

8

8

7

8

( 11 )

9

9

49

9

117

Meyer, John

11

10

9

5

3

( 12 )

12

50

10

78847

Denvir, Arabella

( 14 )

13

8

10

9

7

7

54

11

59962

Bibb, Jack

12

9

4

( 14 )

14

11

11

61

12

79069

Baker, Bill

( 15 )

15

14

15

10

13

13

80

13

76188

Wotherspoon, Scott

13

12

11

12

( 17 )

17

17

82

14

3306

Clendenin, Steve

10

11

( 17 )

13

17

17

17

85

15

79074

West, Lynde

16

16

15

16

13

14

( 17 )

90

16