CLUB SAILOR WINS FLORIDA MASTERS

Bill Meyer

Davis Island Yacht Club, Tampa, FL, May 3rd

What do club sailors dream about? Club sailors dream about that magical ingredient that will elevate him or her to a new higher level of competitive sailing. Like most club sailors, I eventually acquired a Lightning with all the essential go fasts. I also broke down and bought a new set of sails for the Districts, although I still use seven-year-old sails in club racing. After a disappointing finish in the Lightning MidWinters with all the new equipment, something was still missing, but I couldn't put my finger on the problem. It took a former Lightning North American champion to show me the way. About two weeks before the Districts, Mark Bryant called with an offer I could not refuse. He would crew with me in the Masters, and I would lease me boat to him and crew for him in the District Championship. Since I weigh about 230 lbs., I somehow felt this invitation to crew on a Lightning in the Florida Districts was special.

What does a club racer notice when a champion is on board? Confidence - and it's contagious. Mark's advice was "don't worry about the tuning, it seems close enough, we can shape the sails to make the boat do what it needs to do." A club sailor has an idea, but does not necessarily know exactly how to shape the sails for every weather condition. To my surprise, we could, we did and we led at every mark. The wind was light, so the Masters would be decided by one race that day. On the last leg, 1988 NAs Master Champions Fisk Hayden, sailing with son Steve and daughter-in-law Angie, were in the middle of the course and lifting. We stuck to the far right which was good on the first leg. The race could be watched from the Davis Island Yacht Club pool and the spectators thought that we were taking ourselves out of the race. Only Bill Mauk was on the right. On the left was 1983-84 NAs Master Champion Stu Anderson and 1994 NAs Master Champion Don Sherburne. As luck would have it, the wind slowly filled in from the right and we won the race followed by Fisk Hayden, Bill Mauk, Don Sherburne and Stu Anderson.

Mark and Carol Bryant were ecstatic. Mark went to the club house, bought 4 little bottles of champagne, poured one over my head and we drank the other three. It was certainly a moment this club racer will never forget.

That evening we all decided to go out to a local Italian restaurant, while a summer storm was raging in Tampa. The rain was so intense, it flooded all the streets to the restaurant, over a foot deep in many places. Somehow, every Lightning sailor that set out in the weather to eat there made it to the restaurant. The spaghetti that day never tasted better.