Turkey Regatta,
Mission Bay Yacht Club
November 18-19, 2006
A couple of years ago, Scott Finkboner was
driving down a street in Ocean Beach and saw an old lightning
parked on the street, dirty and uncovered. A few days later,
we went back and the boat was gone. A few weeks
later, he saw the boat again on another street. He got out and
checked the number, it was the last boat Carl Eichenlaub had
built for himself in 1991. He left a note on the boat for the
owners. They contacted him and told him they had just been
moving the boat around public streets every two weeks for the
past few years just to avoid parking tickets. Scott bought the
boat for nominal fee and over the past year has totally
refurbished the boat. This weekend, he raced it for the first
time winning the Turkey regatta. Scott's comment, "I was afraid
the boat couldn't bear rig tension, so I just sailed it with
loose shrouds." On Saturday, Scott scored a 3rd and two bullets
in winds ranging from 8knots-15knots and building to 20 for one
race. Mike Poltorak scored 2nd in both races he sailed. Boats
that couldn't find three crew suffered and the standings were
close. On Sunday, Jeff Coppens and Scott battled closely at the
front of the fleet. Both ended with three bullets, but Scott's
consistent results giving him the victory. With 4 new
lightnings in the fleet due to the NAs, we had our biggest fleet
turnout in 6 years!!!!
