Sarasota Bay Cup: The Mote Marine Laboratory Regatta a success!
On Saturday, April 22, 74 boats sailed across Sarasota Bay as part of the Sarasota Bay Cup: The Mote Marine Laboratory Regatta, a competitive sailing race.
Winners listed below.
This year, Mote Marine Laboratory and the Bird Key Yacht Club joined forces to present the regatta, which dates back to the 1920's. The regatta was discontinued during WWII and resurrected in 2008 by the Bird Key Yacht Club. Then, in 2015 while the club’s marina base was being renovated, the regatta was held at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron. This year, the club returned as the regatta host.
While funds are still being tallied, the regatta generated funds for Mote, a nonprofit that leads marine research vital to unlocking potential solutions to some of today’s most daunting global challenges.
“This year, we were excited to celebrate the return of the Cup to the club,” said Bill Jacobs, Chairman of the event. “And we didn’t see a better way to celebrate its return than bringing Mote on board as the charitable partner, the first-ever charitable partner of the cup.”
This year’s race classes included a Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF), which is a handicapping system used for racing. It allows dissimilar classes of sailboats race against each other with the goal of canceling out the inherent advantages and disadvantages of each class of boats so that results reflect crew skill rather than equipment superiority.
Other classes were one-design races (a form of racing where all boats are virtually identical or similar in design) for Flying Scots and E-Scows (two types of sail boats), youth sailing and model sailboat races. For the youth sailing, children were completely responsible for sailing their boat.
"Mote is honored to be named the first-ever charitable partner of this classic event," said Dr. Michael P. Crosby, Mote President & CEO. "Today was such an incredible day watching our community take advantage of our beautiful Bay, where Mote scientists conduct world-class marine research every day. Mote is thankful to Bird Key Yacht Club for their partnership and philanthropic investment in support of our mission through the historical Sarasota Bay Cup.”
Race spectators were able see some of the action from Ken Thompson Park and Bird Key Park located west of the Ringling Bridge.
“Today was a beautiful day for the regatta,” Jacobs said. “The goal today was for everyone to have a fun day on the water racing or watching these incredibly skilled crew members sail across the Bay. That is what matters the most.”
Mote entered a boat in the race, which was sailed by crewmembers Mike Collins (Mote staff), Sue Forrest (Mote volunteer), Rob Roche and Kenny McKinney.
Award presentations following the races were held at two locations: The adult competitors were awarded trophies at the Bird Key Yacht Club and the junior sailors were given special awards at Mote.
Prizes were awarded to the top boats in each class.
One Design Course
E Scow
- First place: John Gallick
- Second place: Mark Grinder
- Third place: Ted Weihe
Flying Scott
- First place: John Pether
- Second place: Bob Twinem
- Third place: Dave Thinel
PHRF Course
Cruiser
- First place: Dave Ettinger
- Second place: Lew Lawrence
- Third place: Mike Collins (Mote staff)
MultiHull
- First place: Tung Nguyen
- Second place: Bill Johnson
- Third place: Jon Dowd
Non-Spinnaker
- First place: Doug Dearden
- Second place: Rudolf Reinecke
- Third place: David Wilson
Pocket Cruiser
- First place: Bob Miller
- Second place: John Huber
- Third place: Stephen Neumer
Spinnaker
- First place: Paul Eckel
- Second place: Richard Gress
- Third place: Chas Weiss
Youth Sailing
420
- First place: Terra Ehrhart
- Second place: Bryce Tone
Laser Radius
- First place: Ciara Dorsay
- Second place: Matthew King
Open BIC
- First place: James Freund
- Second place: Lily Herndon
Opti-green
- First place: Brodie Hausman
- Second place: Jacob Mattson
- Third place: Adrian Spinelli-Sax
Opti-rwb
- First place: Sebastian Spinelli-Sax
- Second place: Nicholas DeWitt
- Third place: Connor Snead
Overall awards
- Sarasota Bay Cup – PHRF: Paul Echel
- Sarasota Bay Cup - One Design: John Gallick
- Ed Price Trophy: Paul Echel
The Bird Key Yacht Club and Mote Marine Laboratory would like to thank the presenting sponsor, Wilde Jaguar-Land Rover of Sarasota made the Regatta possible with additional support from Duncan Seawall, Dock & Boat Lift, Morgan Stanley/Susan Wilson, Suntrust, Lynne Koy, Bud Light, Visit Sarasota, Freedom Boat Club, Always Home Property Management, Executive Search Partners and HullSpeed Productions.