Once again we had a small turnout of San Juan 21s for the annual Clark Cup regatta. The weekend promised wind and rain, and came through with both. The San Juan fleet was split up into two classes; "Standard" working sails, and "Performance" working sails. There were not enough boats to have a spinnaker class, so Bobby Brinson and Doug Longhini agreed to switch to "Performance" working sails. With those two boats we had five in "Performance" and three in "Standard", for a total of eight San Juan 21s.

The race committee set the course in Upper Broad Creek and started the regatta with good old "number 2", the modified Gold cup course. There were three starts, with "Performance" going first, then "Standard", then the Sunfish class, with 4 boats. Doug Longhini decided to use the regatta as a practice for the Eastern Nationals (coming up in two weeks) and set his spinnaker, thereby disqualifying himself from the regatta. This also proved to be very entertaining for the rest of the fleet. Doug and John have sailed together for years, but it's been awhile since they sailed spinnaker with just the two of them. They had about every problem known to man - and then some. By the end of the day,after "parasailing" with the kite twenty feet above and in front of them, they decided that perhaps this wasn't such a good idea after all.

The first race was hotly contested between Doug and Hans Lassen, on "Roadrunner". I believe that Doug finished just in front of Hans. but Hans got the gun. Jeff Thomas scored second and Margaret Alexander third, with Bobby Brinson a close fourth.
The second race was "number 2" again, and the order of finish was the same. The breeze was building, however, and the waves were getting big for the creek. By the third race Bobby's heavy air skill came into play, and he got ahead of Margaret. Margaret tucked a reef in her main to help keep the boat on it's feet for the fourth race. This didn't seem to hurt her much, but Bobby sailed away from both her and Jeff. Margaret and Jeff finished bow to bow, a perfect tie for third, according to the race committee.

By the end of the first day, after four races, Hans Lassen looked unbeatable with 4 points, Jeff Thomas was in second with 8, and Margaret and Bobby were tied for third with 12 points each.
In the "Standard" working sails class Chuck Thompson dominated the action, with 3 firsts, for 3 points, Pete Koonce was in second after two races, but retired in the third race, so had 8 points at the end of the day. Vince "Doc" Palancia managed something that the race committee had never witnessed before. His rudder came out of the gudgeons on the transom and, with all sails up and spinning in circles, Doc managed to reship the rudder and finish the race. Don't arm wrestle this guy! Doc finished the day tied with Pete, with 8 points.

On Sunday morning the breeze was lighter. Once again, we had the modified Gold Cup course for our first race. Doug Longhini had other commitments, so he didn't entertain the fleet on Sunday. The finish in "Performance" was the same as the first race on Saturday ; Hans, then Jeff, then Margaret, then Bobby. In Standard" Chuck again took first, then Doc, then Pete. For the second race the breeze was beginning to build. The course was a double windward/leeward (Number 4), and by the last beat it was getting pretty frisky. Hans was confused about the course and sailed through the line on the last beat, thinking it was the finish. By the time he "unwound the string" he had slid to fourth place. In a downwind finish it was Jeff, then Margaret, then Bobby, then Hans in "Performance". It was mentioned to Hans later that one usually sandbags early in the regatta.... In the "Standard" class Pete Koonce took a first, with Chuck second and Doc third.

"Performance" working sails :
Hans Lassen	9 points
Jeff Thomas	14 points
Margaret Alexander	17 points
Bobby Brinson	19 points
"Standard" working sails :
Chuck Thompson	6 points
Pete Koonce	12 points
"Doc" Palancia	13 points

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