Headed for SCREWPILE!  There are 15 boats from the southern Bay [and further south] already registered for the 2003 Screwpile Lighthouse Challenge.  They are:  Battlewagon (HYC), Kahuna (HYC), Scherherazade (HYC), Corryreckan (FBYC), Outrageous (Corolla, NC), Wavelength (FBYC), Radio Flyer (DYC), PF Flyer (HYC), Beowulf (PBC), Chilcoot (FBYC), Feather (HYC), Defiant (BBSA), Voodoo Chile (UCYC), Cyrano (HYC) and Cash Flow (Outer Banks SA). For additional info, check the web at  www.screwpile.net or call Screwpile honcho LG Raley at (301) 862-3100.  Better get your SCREWPILE stuff together - To avoid the $50 late entry fee, ya gotta enter no later than Wednesday, July 9th.   The $50 late entry fee applies after July 9th and before July 16th.  Remember, a cap of entries at 170 boats could leave you out of the fun!HOD sailors contribute to Marion-Bermuda Win:  Pete Savage's Oyster 62, Venture, won her class (A2) in the Marion (Massachusetts) to Bermuda Race this past week.  On board were 4 Hampton One Design sailors from the southern Chesapeake Bay - Mark Wheeler (Virginia Beach), navigator, Latane Montegue (Alexandria), watch captain/crew coordinator, Tom Ballantine (Alexandria), and Robert Montague (Gloucester, VA) served on the 8 man team.

A lesson in current affairs:  HYC Annual "Big Boat" Regatta - A wildly ebbing current and a late sea breeze were in  the mix yesterday as 32 boats turned out for the HYC annual event.  Currents were difficult to deal with, but the late  easterly sea breeze is what turned things topsy-turvy and shrunk what looked like insurmountable leads into middle of the pack finishes.  RESULTS:  PHRF A - 1. Kahuna, Farr 395, Sanford Richardson; 2. Scherherazade, Taylor 40, Sledd Shelhorse; 3. Cyrano, Frers 36, Bob Mosby. PHRF B - 1. Cool Change, J/30, Rusty Burshell;  2. Strega, S2 9.1, Neal Garrett;  3. PF Flyer, Pearson Flyer, Larry Preddy.  PHRF C - 1. Elusive, San Juan 27, Randy Pugh;  2. Crescendo, Ranger 28, Larry Bryant; 3. About Time, Capri 25, Bob Archer.  PHRF NS-2 (double headsail) - 1. Checks in the Mail, Catalina 38, Jim Williams;  2. Impulse, Catalina 34, Tom Peddy;  3.  The Hunter, Hunter 26.5, Justin Morris.  PHRF Non-Spin 1 (single headsail) - 1. Faith, Seahorse 34, Rudy and Jerry Lotz.  PRO:  Dick Boykin

HOD JULY 4th PORT-to-PORT CANCELED:  Event organizer Leigh Morgan says the most important reason for the cancellation involves security concerns over the 4th of July holiday.  The US Coast Guard, responsible for port security, wanted the racers to stay out of the shipping channel on the southwest side.  Those restrictions made a "trailer race" through the HRBT seem more prudent.

HYC is hosting the 75th ANNUAL ONE DESIGN REGATTA (dinghy classes) this coming Saturday and Sunday, July 5th and 6th.  All sorts of special trophies are up for winning at this event this year:  The Mariners' Cup (from the Mariners Museum), the Blackbeard Trophy, and the E. Ralph James Trophy will be awarded.  For info contact:  Leigh Morgan at (757) 726-9640

It's a Conspiracy!  Brian McCauley, former owner of southern Bay PHRF A boat Conspiracy, got a sighting report from Dan Winters, who was in Detroit recently.  The beautiful Farr 37 is in MoTown and looking good.  Dan Winters was in Detroit to be recognized as a new inductee into the Collegiate Sailing Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile, another blue beauty, Pat Patterson's Taylor 41, Orion, may be looking at returning to racing action next year. Pat and his son Donald were performing some hull and bottom TLC this past weekend and were all smiles.

 US Youth Sailing Championships:  Chris Behm and crew Cara Magoon finished 15th among the top 54 teams in the country.  The two young sailors raced 420s for the national double handed championship.  Good job!

On and/or Returned to the Racing Scene:  Greg and Lynda Cutter (Gremellyn, C&C XL30), are back from an extended work assignment on the Far Side (California).  Greg did some Not So Easy Rider stuff out there, when his bike tossed him and he broke some important bones, which are now healing.  Holly Graf, CO of the USS Winston Churchill, recently returned from her Iraqi Freedom mission, crewed on Ganar this weekend.  Chuck Monsees was up from E. City, North Carolina, to race with friends Sunday.  Chuck's J/29, Rockette, recently took 2nd in the Albemarle 100 Overnight Race.

Food for Thought: "Best Boat" Awards.  At Screwpile last year Kahuna, Sanford Richardson's Farr 395, from Hampton was "Overall Winner" - no small accomplishment since  the coveted award is determined thus:  The award goes to the boat that "...wins the closest, most competitive racing of the event."  So, they add the corrected time differential between first and fifth place and divide that total by the total miles raced for the class.  They use elapsed time for one design classes.  The class winner competing in the class with the lowest average time differential between first and fifth (sec/mile) is the "Overall Winner".   They do NOT give the award to the boat that creams her nearest competitor by the most time.

MURPHY'S LAW: This Friday is Independence Day.  The signature southern Bay race boat for the weekend has to be Graham Field's Islander 36, Independence, with her Stars and Stripes chute up and pullin'.  Let freedom ring!   Living to race, racing to live. /s/ Murphy the Racing Beagle

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               SOUTHERN BAY RACING NEWS YOU CAN USE, Lin McCarthy, Editor