PGSC at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron's
Labor Day Weekend 2000 Regatta

Sarasota's fifty fourth Labor Day Regatta was well attended by area sailors. Five racing yachts from the Punta Gorda Sailing Club traveled up to Sarasota to race. Three additional "spectator" boats from the Club were in attendance enjoying the weekend in support of their bretheren. Literally hundreds of children from up and down the coast attended and raced their Optimist Prams, Sunfish, Lazers, Bites, and other less well known small boats. The weather was the best in memory with southwest breezes of 10 to 15 knots and no thunderstorms.

Our local barber, Captain Bill Rogner, aboard "Hurricane", with crew of Gary Trimmer, Scott Endicott, and Tom Bracy took top honors in the spinnaker division. Four straight bullets and huge winning time margins showed why Captain Bill is considered one of the best. This victory was in spite of the large quantities of ice cream consumed by Captain and crew each evening at St Armands Circle. The pristine condition of his high tech. sails made by Ethan Bixby of North sails might have been a factor in this sweep. The fact that this crew has raced together at Key West, Suncoast, NOOD, and many other regattas over the years and done very well is a big complement to the ability of the skipper to maintain a quality racing team. He's just an nice guy and always the gentleman.

Garnering a third place finish in the cruising class was "Journey On", a Pearson 31 skippered by Bob and Mary Anderson and crewed by Matt and Sue Alaimo. At their first big regatta, the Anderson's, never quit working their boat and made it to the awards platform.

"RubaDub", a San Juan 21, finished third in the spinnaker division. Earning their trophy the hard way, the team of Bill Curtis, Skip Vielhauer, and Susan Vielhauer, used the boats high handicap rating to correct out ahead of many faster boats.

Also present racing at the regatta was Jerry Marchetti on "Infamous ll" who would have placed in the crusing fleet had he not been disqualified on a technical protest. Bill Switzer had his boat "Slapshot" racing at the regatta as well. Spectator boats were Jay Stuart's "Nelson's Blood", Walt Glasspool on his new Tartan 27, and Mike Savino aboard "Quo Vadis".

This report by Bill Curtis