The 2003 MOBJACK NATIONAL CHAMPION IS TREY SMITH. In three days this past weekend, the class was able to get in the required number of races (3 of a minimum of 6 miles each) in topsy turvy weather that went from drifty to honking thunder storm precursors.  Yesterday, going into the third and final day of the regatta, held off the mouth of the Warwick River in the James River, Trey Smith and Mark Arnold were tied.  They decided the championship with a 1-2 (Smith-Arnold) finish. Bob Beach from Winchester, Virginia, sailing out of the Potomac River Sailing Association finished 3rd.  Crew for the top three finishers, Smith, Arnold and Beach, were Jordan Wintringham,  Matt Frank, and Alan Potts respectively.   International Mobjack Association President, Tom Roberts was on hand and crewed for his daughter, Meg.  Event Chairman: Mark Arnold; PRO: John McCarthy.

2003 Tom Brady Master's Race:  This coming Saturday, August 23rd.  Get those young whippersnappers off the boat!  This is the race where the odds are weighted in favor of experience! Everyone on the boat MUST be 55 or older and the boat herself must be at least 10 years old.  There's a social (with senior citizen discount), and the music at the post race affair is 1960's or earlier.  Jack Pope promises to be out on the course with BEE CEE  and the EMTs  (sounds like a new rock group).  For info contact Kathy Brady at (757) 723-3244.

Kathy Brady, wife and soul mate to Malcolm Brady, is race chairman of the Master's Race (see above).  Have no fear that she may be "inadvertantly intimidated" by this particular gang of racers.  Earlier this summer, while driving on a lonesome road in Maine, Kathy came head to head with a very large moose (probably at least 55 in moose years) and Kathy won!

PLANTATION LIGHT RACE:  Mom Nature was kind to the sailors in one of the few remaining night races on the southern Bay.  Once things got REALLY started (some participants took as long as 3 hours to leave Hampton Roads Harbor because of strong current and a dearth of wind), gentle breezes were the order of the evening.  The first boat to finish took about 10 hours to sail the short course (the northern most mark was York Spit Light, not Wolf Trap). RESULTS:  PHRF A (4 boats): 1. Battlewagon, John Hanna; 2. Woof, Skip Amory.  PHRF B (6 boats): 1. Smoke, Dan Smoker; 2. Ganar, Dave Bouchard; 3. Rhumb Line, Bill Chandler.PHRF C (6 boats): 1. Amarylyn, Dana Dillon; 2. Callinectes, Ben Cuker; 3. Nuance, Jim Bordeaux.  PHRF NS (7): 1. Solas, Bobby Burnell; 2. Aeolia, Mark Madeyski; 3. Seadated, Claud Nik.  PRO: Bob Thomas

Belated CONGRATS!  to Laser-man, George Panayides, who won the Wrightsville Beach Ocean Laser Regatta.  Picture Lasers racing in 4-5 foot ocean swells.  Now, that's a video moment!

CCV Officials will offer a special race for the Founders Race trophies.  (The race committee  officially abandoned the racing,  when a violent, unexpected squall hit during the actual Founders Race on August 3rd.)   The "trophy" race will not count toward the CCV High Point Championship points totals.  For the convenience of racers, this race will be an add-on scheduled to follow immediately CCV Fall Series Race #1 on Sunday, September 28th.  Because of the additional "trophy race", the warning  for CCV Fall Series Race #1 is changed from 1100 to 1000.  (This change applies only to CCV Fall Series Race #1.)  If you paid an entry fee and submitted an entry form for the August 3rd Founders' Race, or if you have a CCV Racing Membership, you do not have to submit another entry.  Otherwise you must enter and pay the entry fee of $22 ($20 for USSA members).  For info contact:  John McCarthy at (757) 850-4225.

Guardians of the Groin:  A new order among members of the sailboat racing fraternity has been chartered.  The Guardians of the Groin are those who have served time on the Fort Monroe rock groin to record finishers from southern Bay distance races, like the Cape Henry Cup and Plantation Light Race.  To qualify you must have see at least one rock rat, survived one lightning storm, and been bitten by a minimum of 700 'skeeters.  Completing qualifications this past weekend (Plantation Light race finish recorders) were Bob Thomas, Kathleen Clancy Cooper, Buk Lawrence, and Clark Mabrey and friend.

MURPHY'S LAW:   Next time your neighbor poo-poos your chosen sport as boring or too predictable, tell him it's an X-Sport now.  Our racing meets Extreme Sport criteria because the key ingredient (wind),  has been swinging wildly between Zero and Too Much an extreme precentage of the time. 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