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It was a fun week in New Orleans, LA, hosted by Southern Yacht Club with chairperson Larry Taggart and his very hospitible regatta crew. We were able to do quite a bit of siteseeing thanks to Mother Nature. On Sunday 3/18, the warm-up regatta had 9 boats and was won by Jay Lott and Ryan Malmgren. Monday's welcome party was great with lots of raffle prizes donated by our generous sponsors, without whom these events would not be possible. We found out that there were 6 new skippers who traveled to the event, and several who drive over 1200 miles to get here, with Greg Kampf driving the furthest - 1525 miles.

Then came Tuesday 3/20, and our PRO Wallace Paletou tried hard to figure out a way to get us on the water, but with winds blowing 24+ gusting to over 30, it was just not possible to do that safely. Our top sailors still held the Top Gun session - Paul Abdullah, Ryan Malmgren, Dave Bolyard, Kelly Gough and Al Terhune gave us all some great tips to try to make us better sailors. Then we all went off to various areas of the city - French Quarter, walking along the Missippi River, the malls, the casinos, the garden district, the WWII museum and other venues and enjoyed a little New Orleans hospitality.

Try, try, try again on Wednesday - well, that was not much better, with winds at 22+ gusting to over 30 again. So we called it a day, went off shopping and other places and came back at night for the seafood boil with a boatload (in a real boat) of all the shrimp, crawfish and oysters, boiled potatoes and corn on the cob that anyone could eat.

Thursday morning was a breakfast surprise, coffee and beignets courtesy of Cafe du Monde, the premier coffee in New Orleans. Can you believe it? Thursday the storm front continued with thunderstorms that we hoped would subside. They actually did, and we decided to get out on the water. But along with the storm went the wind, and we all agreed there was nothing we could do, so we went back in and hoped for the best on friday.

Finally on Friday, there was a chance to get out on the water. And Wallace and his crew used every ounce of wind they could to get off 4 good races in lots of sunshine, something we had not seen for several days!

There was a raffle with a prize including several hundred dollars in goodies, benefitting the Leukemia Foundation. Flying Scot sailors were very generous and donated over $1000 to the Leukemia Cup with a raffle. Melanie Dunham won and carried away a bag of goodies almost as big as she is!

The Allan M Douglas award for good sportsmanship was awarded to Mark Benner. This award is given by the participating skippers to the skipper that t
hey thought exhibited the true meaning of sportsmanship. Mark and his wife were traveling to the regatta when they were involved in an accident where another car hit their boat, knocking it off the trailer and totaling the trailer and badly damaging the boat. Despite all that, they continued on to the regatta and raced on Friday in a borrowed boat!

The Championship division was won by Zak Fanberg, who was also the winner of the Mary Meno perpetual trophy. The Challenger Division was won by Frank Edwards, also the winner of the Brenda Pollack perpetual trophy. See below for the rest of the results.

A special shout out to our Sponsors: API, Aunt Sally's Praline Shops, Cafe du Monde, Capital One Bank, Coral Reef Sailing Apparel, Flying Scot, Inc., Harrah's New Orleans, Intermarine, Leukemia Foundation, Mad Sails, Margaritaville, McIlhenny Company, New Orleans Tourist and Convention bureau, North Sails, Russell's Marina Grill, Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, Ullman Sails, West Marine and of course Southern Yacht Club, who all donated goods and raffle prizes to the regatta. And thanks as well to our FSSA Past Presidents Charles Buffington, Dan Goldberg, Barbara Griffin, Jim Harris, Don Hott, Dave Jacobson, Bill Ross, Buddy Pollack, Glenn Shaffer, Jack Stewart, Larry Taggart, and local contributors Larry Taggart, Dan Baird and Nancy Claypool, who donated towards the kegs provided each day.