Ravi Parent dominates the Open and Woody Cope fights to victory in the Classics at the St. Petersburg NOODs Regatta
First of all, a huge thank you to all who participated, making the ACAT Class the biggest of the St Pete NOODs. Emmanuel Cerf reports.
We had perfect sailing conditions, starting with heavy winds on the first day, medium on the second and medium-light on the third. Allowing sailors to shine in their favorite conditions, and shine they did!
The Foiling class was dominated by Ravi Parent who managed to get all bullets and Bob Hodges who is proving that youth is not everything, finishing a close second. Third was Mr. consistent, Richard Stevens, always sailling with the leaders. Also, a big congratulations to the kids in our Class Cam Farrah (The A-Class Lady) and Mathew Smyth, that 18 year old who was flying all over the race course! Both did great, finishing in the middle of the fleet but on top of their divisions, and our positioning themselves to do the same at the 2022 Worlds. The last day also showed some “Yellow Love”, yes, the two yellow eXploders did not feel that they were close enough throughput the competition that they decided to kiss on the race course! Both sailors, even though, upset and frustrated at first made up while packing their boats, which reemphasize how great our class is, even though both boats had substantial damage, they were no protest and the skipper at fault just said “No worries I’ll take care of it!
The Classics had an epic competition with any of the top 6 boats capable of winning! The first day saw OH Rodgers get three bullets, OH was Mr. unstoppable and wanted the winds to increase and not decrease for the rest of the competition! On the second day, the Admiral, recuperating from his second COVID shot, was on top of the leader board and the first boat out on the water on the third day, to warm up! Ben also recommends having a couple Dark and Stormies two days after the second vaccine “It just takes the drowsiness out” He says!!! Not to be out done on the race course, Woody Cope end it up passing the Admiral by a very very small margin to take home the trophy. In third, came in Randy Smyth on his very special ACAT “Tainted Love”, Yes, that’s right, Randy is Mathew’s father with that amazing sailing resume. Let’s not forget Bob Webbon who was a contender on the last two days, but missed out on a podium position, because he bought some of us lunch on Friday. Thank you Bob, it was warm and very good!!!
Overall, an amazing three days of sailing and camaraderie, really had been too long seeing everyone! Next up is “Admiral Cup” on Davis Island at the end of the month, please do not miss it, Davis Island is a great place to sail, and convenient in many ways.
Emmanuel Cerf
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Photo - Paul Todd/OUTSIDEIMAGES.COM
