Everyone talked about the weather. It was only natural considering the Marco Island Yacht Club’s 2009 Spring Regatta was a test of skippers against the elements.

Organizer and Past Commodore Dean Heard gave the weather “two thumbs up” for the March 21 and 22 racing weekend that marked the first day of spring.

“Racing conditions were near perfect. There was a lot of wind coming from the northeast. It was good wind for the big cruisers. There were some lifts and knocks that caused boaters to have to make a few course corrections, but the 6- to 7-knot winds all the way up to 30-knots made it very interesting racing,” Heard said.

Weekend events consisted of five races and three parties. On Saturday, a pursuit race was followed by two buoy races. On Sunday, two buoy races completed the schedule.

Mark boats set up the course and anchored off markers during the two days of racing. Roy and Kathy Hershberger and Rudi and Dorothy Landwaard crewed the vessel called Mark Boat 1.

“We were at the windward end of the course,” said Roy Hershberger. “Because our position was only about a mile offshore, we were in fairly smooth waters.”

Captain Jim Marr and his grandson Aidan Kurrus, 7, from St. Louis and visiting his grandparents, were responsible for Mark Boat 2 plus monitoring the starts and finishes at marker 4.

“Conditions were fine,” said Marr. “Sunday the seas were a little rougher at about 2 feet with 20 knot winds. On Saturday, we had 1-foot seas and 15 knots.”

“The race starts were exciting,” said Aidan. “The boats were so bunched up, I was glad to see there were no collisions.”

Over the two-day Regatta, vessels got the chance to participate in all five races. The first, called a pursuit race, scheduled boats across the starting line at different times based on calculated handicaps.

Handicaps enable boats of different designs to race against each other. In a Pursuit race the slowest boats start first and then the faster boats set off in pursuit with the time delay between classes of boats being determined from their handicaps.

During Saturday’s Pursuit race, the first or slowest boat left the mark at 10:30 and the fastest left at 11 a.m. The excitement in a pursuit race comes at the finish line. If boats of different classes are sailed by crews of equal ability; then theoretically, they should all cross the finish line together.

In Saturday’s pursuit race, the 47-foot Benateau Brigadoon, captained by Doug Cohn of Naples, left the starting line as the second to last boat just before 11 a.m. and crossed the finishing line in first place by a wide margin.

“Once the boats are handicapped, it’s man and machine versus the elements,” said Jerry Watkins as part of Brigadoon’s crew. “That’s when whoever does a better job of balancing wind to sail, boat to water and handling the course takes the race.”

The remaining four races followed a circular route starting roughly halfway between the Marco River and Naples’ Gordon Pass off Keewaydin Island. Vessels headed north toward the pass, and then around four buoys finishing toward the south.

Boats were classed by size and sails: Class A and B, spinnakers; Class C, sport boats; Class D, multi-hulls; Class F, true cruising boats.

Ned Christensen skippered Passion III, one of two entries in the multi-hull class.

“The sailing was excellent,” Christensen said. “In 15- to 20-knot winds we’re almost untouchable. On a buoyed course tacking is not the forte of this boat, but we still did well.”

Overall, Passion III came in second with the 24-foot Corsair Tri-power, skippered and owned by Ed Dixon, coming in first.

Captain John Harkless, newly named Marco Island City Kids Youth Sailing director, skippered the 37-foot Islander Saboutime.

“This was the first time the crew sailed together but we gelled,” Harkless said. His crew confirmed that everyone was in good company and had a nice time. Saboutime took third in Class F.

Ed Brandt of the Marco Island Yacht Club was the race director. His wife, Yvonne, managed the signals.

“The winds were good but a little shifting,” he said. “Competition was good and we had fair races throughout the weekend. My wife managed the signals and pulled it off without a flaw.”

Awards were given during a party on Sunday evening that included a lavish buffet, live music and a 50/50 drawing to support the MICKYS program. Other events included a Friday night skippers’ meeting and social and a Saturday night deck party at the Dockmaster’s Pool.

Final results were announced by overall rank for the 2009 Spring Regatta and by sailing class.

Class A: First place, Flame, skippered by James Doane; second place, Maria, skippered by Joe Bonness; and third place, Tippecanoe skippered by Dan Kendrick.

Class B: First place, Vee Jay, skippered by Vic Farmer; second place, T-Bone, skippered by Jason Richards; third place, Foreign Exchange, skippered by Gunar Rogat; and fourth place, Shock, skippered by David Huntington.

Class C: First place, Obsession, skippered by Gary Schwarting; second place, Big Sky, skippered by Jim Gunderson; and third place, Eager Beaver, skippered by Rob Butler.

Class D: First place, Tri-power, skippered by Dixon, and second place, Passion III, skippered by Christensen.

Class F: First place, Jabu, skippered by Rex Good; second place, Brigadoon, skippered by Cohn; third place, Saboutime, skippered by Harkless; fourth place, Barefoot Contessa, skippered by Frank Rinker; fifth place, EVE, skippered by John Hughes; and sixth place, New Venture, skippered by Ken Cort.

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