2004 Columbia EC12 Regatta
Region 2 Championship
By Jarl Wathne, MD
The 5th Annual Columbia EC12 Regatta dawned cool and
windy for 2004. The wind was out of the south all day Saturday, making for
long windward legs on the 2nd lap. The fourteen skippers sailed
twelve races on Saturday and eight more on Sunday, and were granted two
throwouts. All the sailing was done from the belltower dock.
H. S-Whalen went wire-to-wire for the first win, with D Thomas and M
Rinehart following. But the next twelve races were won by either Thomas or
Rinehart. Thomas had a bad 2nd race, while Rinehart won to take
the overall lead. He held that lead until the last race on Saturday, when
Thomas won to go ahead by two pts. Meanwhile, R West was sailing fairly
consistently in the front of the pack to end the day in 3rd, five
pts. Ahead of A Sellers. S-Whalen finished in 5th Saturday, one
pt. ahead of J Cole.
Sunday started with the same southerly cool wind, but later it became a
westerly. Rinehart tied it up again with a win in the 1st race.
In the 2nd race, Sellers got one of his two wins that day to
close within one pt. of West, but Thomas got a redress average of two pts.
to jump back in the lead. Rinehart tied him yet again in the 5th
race with his eighth bullet of the regatta. But Thomas closed strong,
beating him by one position in each of the last three races, including wins
in the final two races, to win the regatta by three pts.. West held on to
take 3rd place by one pt. over Sellers, while S-Whalen was
comfortably in 5th. Cole ended in 6th with M Houghton
showing glimpses of future speed, including a win on Sunday. Congratulations
to the 2004 Region 2 Champion, Danny Thomas.
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