2015 Sarasota One Design Regatta - Report

Bill Nolden Dominates Sarasota Mid-Winters

Racing in Sarasota and at Barnegat Bay in the summer, Bill Nolden took seven out of seven bullets to totally dominate the Sarasota One Design Mid-Winters on March 21-22, 2015.  He also did it with two different crews on Saturday and Sunday.

The next top finishers were Jim Barr in E-Ticket, for second; and Bill Kimbel in Infinity and john jennings, third.   Bill Misenheimer was a close fourth.  There was a total of nine E’s.   The conditions could not have been better with a sea breeze each afternoon out of the west at about 14 knots with some major chop from powerboats. It generally paid off to go left and get lifts to the weather mark.  There were five races on Saturday, and two on Sunday.

For the first time, there were two classes of Es – unmodified and modified asymmetrical.  All the E-Scowers were impressed by the dramatic downwind speeds of Ted Weihe’s new boat that was skippered by Mark Grinder and crewed by Eric Hall and Jeremy Strothers.  Eric and Jeremy towed CH 19 down from Chautauqua Lake, New York; where temperatures went from 30 degrees with snow on the ground to the mid-80s in Sarasota. 

In addition to E’s, there are over 20 MCs at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron so we race E’s on Wednesday afternoons and MCs on Friday afternoons with regattas about every other weekend. There is probably no better place to sail scows in the snowbird season than Sarasota Bay.