Around the Fleet
J
uly was a busy month for small boat racing! Our club hosted the Meigs Regatta (8-9 July) which is part of
the Gulf Yachting Association inter-club championship series competed in the Flying Scot. The Meigs was
initiated back in the ‘50s after a team from FWYC came home victorious from the Candler regatta (part of the
Capdeveille Series begun in 1941 in the GYA). After some brainstorming around the campfire, with Clifford
Meigs and Marshall Brown involvement, the decision was made to get FWYC on the Capdeveille circuit, at that
time contested in the Fish Class boat. http://www.fishclass.org/history/history.html. This was no small undertak-
ing as the Fish boat was not trailerable and the host club had to provide all the boats for the regatta. Typically, a
host club would have seven boats and then round out the fleet with additional boats being towed by water from
neighboring yacht clubs …in our case, St. Andrews Bay and Pensacola. The Fish class boat was replaced by the
Flying Scot in 1969.
Currently, GYA clubs must compete in eight regattas on the circuit to be counted for the Capdevielle Cham-
pionship. This year, thirteen clubs attended our regatta to race the Flying Scot. Next year, the Viper 640 will
take over as the inter-club boat to be used for future Capdeveille competition. As part of the transition from the
Flying Scot to Viper 640, there has been a concurrent GYA Sportboat and Interclub Championship Series held in
the Viper. We had nine clubs represented. There were also eight Vipers racing in an open class with six of those
competing from our own club!
In addition to the Capdeveille portion of the regatta, our club has traditionally hosted the Thistles and various
other one-design, small boats. Our own George Hambleton came in fourth place in the hotly-contested Thistle
fleet. We also had A-Class catamarans and hosted the GYA Finn Interclub series.
In total, the Meigs Regatta saw 49 boats competing on two racing circles! Thanks to fantastic Race Committee and
shore support, we pulled it off! Thanks to Jerry and Faye Black and Jim and Carolyn Williford for provided the sig-
nal boats. Additional RC and safety boats were provided by Ray Dewrell, Mark Balent, David Sly, Gwen Jennings
and Carson Smith.
Additional volunteers
were Lou Richard,
Bobby Dewrell, John
Farris, Jerry Vaughan,
Phil Pritchett, Jenny
and Scot Bailey, Cindy
Barber, Gerry Harvey,
Pam Guthrie, Leslie
Hanley, Phyllis Sea-
ton, Sam Grant, Kerrie
and Jim Serpa, Lynn
Wooten, Craig Stoldt,
Valerie Custer, Anne
Cooke, Katelyn Yanez,
Colleen Parsons and
Houston Locht. Many
volunteers filled mul-
tiple roles. Thanks!!
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