Bennett, Collins & Scott; first, second & third.
Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:31 pm
So there is another way to flip a c22. At this past weekends Region 3 Championship Regatta Dennis Slaton turned his c22 #27 over while leading the fleet around the leeward mark. With a commanding lead -you would expect less from Dennis- he was knocked down as he drove off from the mark. The rest of us got the puff - which came from a new direction - before him and there was breakage aboard the boats heading down wind. We, along with a couple of other boats, had our whisker poles bent. One boat broke their pole, and one lost theirs over the side. The shift was big enough that it backwinded Dennis and knocked him flat. More than flat actually. Mast head was under water. Dennis' black boat with white VC Performance bottom looked like Shamu laying on her side in the middle of Lake Martin. Stayed down at least 30 seconds until the wind shifted and they were able to get the sails eased. Winn Story, Dennis' crew, ended up in the water but was able to re-board as the boat righted. Talking with Dennis and Winn afterwards Dennis kept saying "I almost died". And Winn kept repeating "I was in the water and my feet were over my head". LOL, funny as sh@$ once it was certain everybody and the boat were okay. They said they ended up with about 20 gallons of water in the cabin. Cockpit hatches were bungied shut otherwise they certainly would have lost the boat. the really sad part is once righted they went on to win that race. Then retired, to clean their shorts and dry off I suppose. Others on this list were there and may add to the story. There was a photo boat at the regatta and it rushed over to where they were and snapped a bunch of pics. I am sure they will make it to the clubs website at Dixie Sailing Club when they get around to updating. Great time at the regatta BTW.
Thanks to National Commodore Ted Magee for acting as PRO and to all the volunteers who made it happen. Congrats to Former National Commodore Keith Bennett for winning Gold fleet honors and to Bobby McCullough for winning the Silver Fleet.
Results are posted. If the sail # of the third place boat in the gold fleet looks familier, it may be because Bob Scott used my new main and his brand new Justin Chambers cut Waters genoa on his boat #45 to bring home the third place silver.
Glenn Warner
Goblin #10369
#1222. #979
Link to results
Link to TarBaby photo