Twenty-six-year-old skipper Ed Lebens and his teammates on the J/70 Reggae Shark arrived at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club marina on Sunday morning with a clear plan for the final day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series: to cover their rivals while carefully defending their lead in the ultra-competitive and pro-laden class.

The team’s primary focus was keeping tabs on Bruce Golison’s Midlife Crisis, 14 points in arrears. “We had a pretty healthy gap so we really just going to try not have a shocker and sail our own race,” says the young professional sailor from Oyster Bay, New York.

When the wind failed to materialize across Tampa Bay, however, race committees across all four of the race circles pulled the plug and sent competitors to shore. “We were OK with it,” Lebens said a grin as he and teammates packed the boat at the St. Petersburg YC Sailing Center.

Onboard with Lebens for the regatta were teammates Malcolm Lamphere, Scott Ewing and US Sailing Team 49er skipper Ian Barrows. Sailing together for the first time in their positions on the boat, they had a good start to the series with a ninth in the first race, but then logged top-five finishes over the next seven races, a streak that was highlighted by a surprise win in the last, and fourth, race of the day on Friday.

“We got a third in that race, but the two boats that finished in front of us were both UFD [disqualified for starting early], so out of a 50-boat fleet…the odds of that happening is pretty amazing. We were fired up about that and it was good way to end the first day.”

Lebens’ summary of his team’s success was straightforward: “Clean starts, being conservative and not committing to a side until the top of the beat, and just having fun with my friends.”

The same was true for Tom and Mary Bryant on their S2 7.9 Matros. The team from Holland, Michigan, was only beat in one of eight races in the 13-boat fleet, and as the winner of their class they earned the S2 7.9 Midwinter Championship title and were later selected as the regatta’s overall winner, earning them a berth at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship in the British Virgin Islands.

With Tom on the helm and Mary managing the middle of the boat, this close-knit crew was clearly the fastest S2 7.9 on the course all weekend. “Good sails, good crew work and knowing how to tune the boat and sails for the conditions,” was Tom Bryant’s assessment of his team’s win. “I’m not very good in the lighter winds, so the 8 to 15 knots of breeze we had this weekend was fantastic for me and the boat. When we can get out front and get clear air we’re faster.”

With the low-wind cancellation of races across all 14 classes, Saturday’s overall results stood firm, with skippers Michael Norris and Pete Merrifield winning the L30 and Weta North American championship titles, respectively and Steve Boho’s The 300 winning the Melges 24 Midwinter Championship title.

The St. Petersburg Regatta also featured an eclectic mix of one-design dinghy classes that included the classic doublehanded Flying Dutchman and Contender classes, both won by veteran sailmakers that have long been champions of these and other legacy classes. Lin Robson, with crew James Nunn, won five of seven races in the five-boat FD fleet, and after racing confirmed that St. Petersburg YC would be hosting the 2024 FD World Championships next March, the fourth time since 1962.

While Robson was happy to walk away with the win, he’s a perfectionist, and the first of two second-place finishes over the weekend was still nagging at him as he derigged his FD on Sunday afternoon. “We were an inch off in our timing in releasing the pole,” he recounted, “When you’re pulling on the retriever, you want to wait until the head is in a certain proximity to the horizontal to keep the clews spread, but you have to have the [spinnaker] pole out of there at that time because another inch down, the tension locks it in the launcher. So, as the seconds were ticking by and the end of the runway was coming…we took that gate a little too wide.”

Ethan Bixby had no such misfortunes in his Contender singlehander and was one of only two entries to post a perfect scoreline over the weekend. The other was Michael and Christina Norris’ Morning Breeze in the L30 One Design fleet, which hosted its first-ever North American Championship. Most of the L30s were raced by teams chartering as a turnkey way to race in St. Petersburg, but the Norris family has owned theirs for a year and their team’s experience in the boat was notable, particularly in boathandling around the course.

“We had the advantage of knowing the boat and that paid off,” Michael Norris says. “We were able to do things in a manner we’d experienced before, unlike some of the other teams.”

The Norris’ also had professional sail designer and J/24 World Champion Mike Marshall onboard to in a coaching role to help refine the program. The Norris’ have sailed together for 43 years, says Christina, starting from Lightnings, and they’re continually learning with the new boat.

“Mike gave us crew discipline and showed us how to anticipate what we were going to do and making sure we were ready, to change sails, tack or whatever,” Michale says, “and it was a great opportunity for him to design some sails for us.”

A new feature for the Regatta Series in St. Petersburg was addition of two days of weekend distance racing for the Tampa Bay’s strong and diverse PHRF fleet, and L30s participated in the distance race on Saturday, the windiest of day of the regatta, which provided the Norris’ with a memorable and long day of fast sailing. “That was really fun,” says Christina Norris. “And it was a good learning experience for the team, working together to bringing the spinnaker and main. We tried to focus on the boat and keeping the speed up for the duration and that was important.”

The other North American champion crowned over the weekend was Peter Merrifield in the 19-boat Weta Trimaran fleet. Merrifield, of St. Petersburg, won five of seven races, and with runner-up and rival Keith Rice winning the other two races, resulting in a 4-point delta.

On the same circle, the two divisions of A Class Catamarans—Classic and Foiling—sailed together but scored separately. In the Classics, Woody Cope led after the first day’s moderate-wind races, but in the small-craft-warning conditions on Saturday, it was all OH Rodgers who posted three race wins to take the series by a single point over Chris Brown who had strong first day (with two race wins). Of the Foilers, Larry Woods, of Ontario, Canada, was the top gun, edging out young Cam Farrah, the top female of the fleet.

In the 21-boat Lightning fleet, which featured a number all-stars and luminaries of sailing, as well as several youth teams, it was professional sailor and multiple class champion Jay Lutz with Jody Lutz and Christine Moloney, edging out world champion skipper David Starck (with crew Tom Starck and Jenna Probst) by slim 2 points. Third was Hall of Famer Augie Diaz.  

Lorie Stout and Sunrae Sturmer topped the 18-boat Melges 15 fleet by a single point over Fred Schroth and crew Abby Brown, and in the J/24s, Mike Quad’s Ice Cube won all but one race to close series with only 12 points after 8 races. In the two-boat Sonar fleet, Kevin Holmberg’s Fawkes went undefeated, and in the three-boat Waszp fleet, Izaak Beekman finished the series one point ahead of Maya Kwasniewski, of Sarasota, who won all three races on the windier of the two days.

The Melges 24s hosted their Midwinter Championships with Steve Boho’s “The 300” running away with the title with a 12-point delta, and in the Hobie 33s, Craig and Deborah Wilusz’s Hoof Hearted, from Fort Walton Beach, Florida, dominated the races by winning all but one of their eight races. After racing, Craig Wilusz shared that the class would use the 2024 Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series St. Petersburg for its Midwinter Championship, which will draw more of these cult classics from across the country.

The ORC circle had featured two divisions and it was a battle between to well-practiced J/111 programs in ORC A that went the way of Bill and Jackie Baxter’s team on Fireball, from Stamford, Connecticut. After finishing second to Seth and Kevin Young’s J/111 Black Seal in the regatta’s opening race, the Baxter’s laid down a perfect scoreline that remain untouched when the wind didn’t show on the final day. In ORC B, one point was the difference between Jeff Sampson’s Nelson/Marek 29 Peacemaker and William Purdy’s J/88 Whir­lwind.

The intent was to provide two days of action for the distance racing teams, and while the race committee attempted to get a race off in the remnants of an early morning breeze on Sunday morning, they abandoned it shortly thereafter, leaving the results from Saturday’s long courses as final: Michael Siedlecki’s winged Martin 243 revelled in the windy conditions to win the PHRF Spinnaker division while Charles Mixon’s Nightwind 35 Red Sky claimed PHRF Cruising A. Dave Roberts’ Catalina 310 Legacy won PHRF Cruising B and Gail Hausler’s Beneteau 40 Liquid Time was the top PHRF Cruiser/Racer.

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Fifty J/70s will go for glory. That’s right: 50 teams, and most of them are laden with day-rate talent as the professional programs dial-in their St. Pete local knowledge for the J/70 World Championship in October. Yes, the Worlds are a long way off, but that’s the commitment these teams have to win what is arguably the most difficult one-design keelboat title of modern times.

How tough will it be? We put the question to Quantum Sails’ Scott Nixon, who tells us there’s always been two distinct camps in the J/70 class, especially in Florida during the winter. Nowadays you’ll find highly skilled amateurs racing the Davis Island YC Winter Series while down south in Miami the top-shelf pro teams put their elbows out. What will make this particular St. Pete regatta “interesting,” Nixon says, is the merging of the two worlds.

Sure, it’ll be tough for everyone with a J/70 insignia on their sail, especially given the Tampa Bay racecourse is relatively compact, and plenty busy with other classes.

Of course, “clear air is the priority,” Nixon says. A good start gets you to the first shift. Simple as that.

Another winning tip, he shares, is the 2.0 move with the wing-on-wing technique: The good guys, he says, will immediately and temporarily go to wing after rounding the offset in order to set up in a more open lane and separate from the reach parade (if they’re buried). It’s very effective in the right conditions, especially on a busy course.

Speaking of action-packed racecourses, let’s next move our attention to the multihulls—more specifically the A Cats and Weta Trimarans. The As have two divisions—classic and foiling—and will share the same waters with the Wetas. These colorful and nimble trimarans swarmed to the regatta last year for the first time and have returned to contest their 2023 North American Championship. There are 23 of them registered at the time of this writing. There was no 2022 championship because Hurricane Ian destroyed their planned venue in Port Charlotte, so the last time these three-hull fanatics gathered was in 2021 on Michigan’s Muskegon Lake. Keith Rice, of Ithaca, New York, was third, and with the national champion absent from this year’s championship regatta, he’s got a good shot at laying claim to the throne.

The Wetas and A Cats will be staging from the grassy knoll of North Beach Park, which is like a streetcar meetup before and after racing. Anyone looking to check out the latest foiling hardware and talk shop with the tweakers of solo-cat sailing, this is the place to go. Ben Hall, our 2022 regatta’s overall winner and silver fox of the class is MIA in the scratch sheet, but there are plenty of others willing to take his place at the front of the classic fleet, including the legendary Woody Cope, who won a handful of races last year, but had to eat too much alphabet soup.

Who will be the hottest foiler among the lot of them? Impossible to say. Rolex Yachtsman of the Year and A Cat world champ Ravi Parent will be making a brief appearance in the park ahead of the action on Thursday, but he has commitments elsewhere, so all is for the taking for Mike Christensen on the Ronstan yacht. Or perhaps young Cam Farrah, who’s been foiling all winter long on her A Cat and the 69Fs in Miami.

Leaving our multihulls, we continue the fleet tour with the dinghies: namely the Melges 15s, Lightnings, Waszps, Flying Dutchman and Contenders. How’s that for a slice of the small-boat sailing scene? The Dutchman and Contender harken from yesteryear, classic plastics that continue to attract the diehards of old-school one-designs. These boats were once super cool and remain so today, as do the Lightnings from all over the continent and ever present in Florida as they transverse the state for their midwinter series. The Melges 15s, sailing’s latest doublehanded phenom, have been enjoying massive gatherings in Jensen Beach, and as a boat perfectly built for fun coed and family racing, in St. Pete may well win the award for the best Mixed-Plus turnout.

The rebirth of the Melges 24 class to its Corinthian happy place continues, and for St. Pete, 10 teams will line up for the Midwinter Championship. It’s a smaller gathering than years past, but like many other classes, the Melges 24s, have been active in Miami so many boats are staying put for their next regatta in March. Plus, the pros only have so many days available. Nonetheless, past St. Pete overall winner and local favorite, Gary Schwarting’s Obsession, is ready to welcome his friends from the crucible of Miami for a few laps around the buoys that should be just a touch more tranquilo.

The Helly Hansen Sailing World St. Petersburg Regatta would not be the same without the hard-charging S2 7.9 entourage, which continues their tradition of an annual midwinter pilgrimage from parts north and west. Fifteen of these classic one-designs are on the scratch sheet, including Tom Bryant’s Matros, which practically ran away with the regatta last year (winning five of 8 races).

While we’re on the topic of classics—we celebrate the slick Hobie 33s, back again with their long, slender lines and overlapping genoas, managed by teams keeping this class alive and active well past its sell-by date. Same for the J/24 teams that migrate from points north, including past regatta winner Michael Quaid’s Ice Cube from Williston, Vermont. Quaid’s no fool: the weather is always better in St. Pete in February. Even if you do like skiing, the sailing will be better in T-Shirts and jammers.

To reinforce the point that the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series is no longer one-design exclusive, take note that we once again have a gangbuster ORC contingent that is an eclectic mix of designs from 25 to 36 feet, with both ORC A and B champions on deck to defend their 2022 titles.

Did we forget anyone? Not at all. Your attention is drawn here to the L30 One-Design’s road warriors that have been moving these innovative raceboats around the country on trailers to share the stoke of L30 racing while championing the heroics of boat builders in Ukraine that continue to produce under historical duress. Three teams from Chicago’s Corinthian YC have taken to L30 charters for easy plug-and-play racing that will include buoy races and a distance race on Saturday.

Speaking of which, the goal of updating the one-day Rally race concept has resonated with the Tampa Bay PHRF rank and file, and we have a record turnout of 40 cruisers and racers that will enjoy long-course bay races on Saturday and Sunday, racking up the miles and returning to marina just in time for the parties, which will no doubt be rowdy as the last.

There will be drinks and fun and games, and music and awards, and one special conversation with Terry Hutchinson, skipper of the New York YC’s American Magic. As our guest in the hot seat on Friday night, we’ll get to hear firsthand what’s happening behind the curtain in Pensacola. We’re liking the wind forecast at the moment. We know for sure the air and sea will be warm, and the rest, we guarantee, will be sizzling.

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If anyone is looking for Antonio Sanpere on the third weekend of February, scan the horizon from the St. Petersburg shoreline and look for his diminutive blue C&C 24. The 82-year-old Sanpere will be on the helm of Cayennitta III, chasing down his competition like a hound on a hare in the new Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Distance Race. And chances are he’ll be cruising toward another trophy to add to his collection.

Sanpere has been a perennial jib-and-main racer in the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta’s informal one-day “Rally” race and it was he who last year pleaded with regatta organizers to offer not one, but two days of long-course racing for Tampa Bay’s more serious cruisers. Organizers listened and Sanpere now has his wish with back-to-back days of around-the-bay racing now on the docket for this February’s regatta.

Sanpere was, of course, first to sign up and has some major news to share with the fleet: He’s finally replaced his 30-year-old sails with a fresh inventory, so good luck. “The only boats that can beat me are boats that fly spinnakers,” he says of his 24-footer. “Nobody else can beat me without a spinnaker. No one.”

For anyone in the southeast looking for some long-course racing this winter, consider that a challenge laid.

• Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta St. Petersburg Distance Race Dates: February 18-19
• Location and Host: St. Petersburg Yacht Club, St. Petersburg, Fla.
• Regatta Information Center for Race and Entry Details
• Current Scratch Sheet

Sanpere, however confident he is today, will have his work cut out for him as the growing entry list has a handful of serious contenders on the scratch sheet. The races will use PHRF as the handicap system of choice, so as a bonus for Distance Race competitors, the weekend’s final results will count toward the region’s Boat of the Year scoring. There will be both spinnaker and non-spinnaker divisions, as well as a cruising division.

Regatta organizers expect the new two-day offering to be a strong draw for the sailors of nearby Davis Island and other points around the bay because the long-course format is appealing to new and seasoned sailors seeking an alternative to traditional windward/leeward courses.

“As a matter of fact, this type of racing is a real and growing thing here on the bay,” says North Sails’ Brian Malone, who is also the Davis Island YC Fleet Captain. “In the racer/cruiser fleet, the boats are being sailed by younger people and they’re going for minor sail upgrades and they do use a spinnaker while racing 100 percent of the time—that’s the largest and fastest growing fleet in the area. We’re not talking about the salty liveaboard cruisers with davits and dinghies…these teams want to race and have better sails.”

One notable and early entry in the Distance Race’s PHRF Spinnaker division is Harvey Ford and Tom Mistele’s J112e Silver Surfer. Ford says he will sail both race days doublehanded, with Chris Bergstrom as his teammate. The two of them know the lay of Tampa Bay well, especially Ford, who’s spent more days sailing on the 400-square mile estuary than he could possibly remember. His advice for those keen to take on the daily Distance Race experience is to heed the tidal flow. “Read the tide charts closely,” he says. “If it [the tide] is going against you, you don’t want to get into it, especially if winds are light.”

For visiting teams, Tampa Bay’s primary shipping channel, which runs north-south, should definitely be a major tactical consideration, he adds, and there are noteworthy shallows along the eastern shore that reach quite far into the bay: “With the water color change you’ll see it before you know it.”

As for local knowledge on the wind direction and habits, Ford offers that in early winter, the westerly sea breeze tends not to be strong until late in the day, and if it’s a true thermal sea breeze, it typically starts rumbling on the east side of the bay first before working its way west, which may seem counterintuitive for anyone unfamiliar with the bay.

Personally, Ford has fingers crossed for the timely passage of a cold front and the swift winds that traditionally follow because longer legs suit his style and his boat. It’s good to have a lot of runway to enjoy the ride and set up for the next maneuver, especially when sailing doublehanded.

The random legs of the new Distance Race long courses also appealed to Scott MacGregor, a professional boat captain from St. Petersburg who has finally pulled his Melges 32 Trash Panda out of long-term storage for the occasion. He’s looking forward to knocking off a pair of fast 15- to 20-mile races with a crew of seven of his friends.

“The two-day PHRF distance-race format is what enticed me,” says MacGregor, who was instrumental in developing nearby Davis Island YC’s Melges 32 fleet a few years ago. “It’s a nice change of pace from doing the typical windward-leeward. I really enjoy sailing out of St. Pete because you’re into deep water pretty quickly, it’s typically flat and the sun is usually shining, which is a good combination for stretching our legs a bit.”

St. Petersburg YC’s experienced race committee will manage the Distance Race starts and finishes, which will be staged off St. Petersburg’s New Pier. Early starts are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday (at 1000, if the wind cooperates, of course) and the goal, says Jody Abrams, SPYC’s Regatta General, is to provide a full day’s race and get competitors back to the dock for the nightly regatta parties. There are a variety of course types available to the race committee using navigational marks, Abrams says, and they’re really only restricted by the regatta’s other four courses.

“Tampa Bay really is ideal for this sort of thing because we have the ability to go out from downtown St. Pete and sail out under the amazing Skyway Bridge. We can adjust the courses anywhere from a 10- to a 20-plus mile course and have long legs that offer different challenges. It’s open water, but it’s not open-ocean water, so we can take less experienced people out there and do these types of races.”

Abrams is enthusiastic about the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta’s two-day format and considers it a better opportunity to engage a wider variety of teams. “With this format, you have a better chance of having the right conditions for your boat on the day,” he says. “Plus, a lot of people work Fridays and can’t always do the full regatta. We are getting more and more people requesting the random-leg distance type races because they don’t have to worry about every little windshift [like you would on windward/leeward] and instead can focus on the sail trimming and getting the most out of their boat.”

Regatta registration is now open, and with nearly 150 entries to date, Abrams says the club is still able to allocate member slips for visiting teams. There’s only so much room in the basin, however, so if Sanpere’s challenge is appealing, don’t delay in accepting it.

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Final Results

Singlehanded A-Class Catamaran sailor Ben Hall will have his hands full in the British Virgin Islands this fall once he recruits fellow A-cat skippers to help him compete in the Helly Hansen <i>Sailing World</i> Regatta Series Championship. Hall won the A-Class Catamaran Classics division in St. Petersburg, and in doing so earned the regatta’s Caribbean Challenger berth.

The A-catters as they are called, race the highly technical and physical 18-foot multihulls. It’s a feat even impressive given many of the fleet are card-carrying members of AARP. Hall, at 76 years old, demonstrates age is but a number. 

Perhaps Hall could invite young Olympic hopeful, Ravi Parent, who won the A-Class Catamaran Foiling Division. At times, Parent nearly lapped the entire A-cat fleet he was so far ahead. Parent says he’s been working on his upwind foiling technique, which when successful provides an unmatchable advantage on the fleet. 

“Yesterday’s 10- to 12-knot breeze and flat water was perfect for me to work on upwind,” Parent says. “I could just put the bow down and let the boat go, hitting 18-19 knots of boatspeed upwind.”

A former A-catter, St. Petersburg-local Pete Merrifield transferred over to the Weta trimaran about four months ago, in part for the 14-foot boat’s ability to be easily rigged. Merrifield won the class by a commanding 15 points.

The Hobie 33 and S2 7.9 classes also contested their respective Midwinter championships. Steven Attard’s Rhumbline captured the Hobie 33 crown, and Tom Bryant’s Matros won the S2 7.9 title. 

It’s Bryant and his crew’s 11th time racing at the St. Pete event and each year they welcome the chance to escape winter’s chill in Holland, Mich. Bryant races with his wife, Mary, son Tanner, sailmaker Perry Lewis and their friend Tracy Brand. 

“This has been one of the best years yet,” Bryant says. “We had wonderful breeze all three days; pretty much always full on and hiking, and we didn’t have to do any light-air work. Over the series we managed to recover from two over-early starts where we finished fifth in each, so the first-place finishes saved our you- know-whats.”

Class winners who cemented victories today were the J/24 Bogus, owned by George Braddon; the J/88 Team Exile, skippered by Andy Graff; the Lightning Class’s David Starck; Melges 15’s Mike Schroff on Electric Pickle; and Chuck Ullman in the L30 class. Kevin Holmberg repeated as winner in the Level class, which combined Sonars and J/22s.

The J/70 and the Lightning fleets also featured the Mixed-Plus trophy divisions that requires teams to be at least 50-percent female. The Lightning class had three of 17 teams qualify, with Debbie Probst’s Infinity winning the new trophy.

Seventeen of 31 J/70 entries qualified, and the Power Play team skippered by Beccy Anderson, of San Diego, not only won the Mixed-plus division, but the class overall. J/70 owner Peter Cunningham generously provided his boat for Anderson, Stephanie Roble, Hannah Lee Noll, Beth Whitener and Willem van Waay to race.

“Our team came together from all different sailing backgrounds so we initially focused on communication and making sure everyone knew their job on the boat,” Roble says. “We improved with every race, and had a great time in the process.”

Racing in the J/70 fleet this weekend was a fun change of pace for Roble and her Tokyo Olympics 49er FX teammate Maggie Shea. Shea raced on board another J/70 in the Mixed-Plus division.

“Maggie and I started as pro sailors and came together with the Olympics,” says Roble. “It’s a goal for us to help promote and encourage women sailors, whether professional or the weekend racer. It’s an important mission that we are passionate to help champion.” 

The Helly Hansen Junior J/70 team, skippered by Ethan Danielson, won the all-amateur Corinthian division, and finished seventh overall in the competitive fleet. 

Steven Boho and his Midwest-based Melges 24 team handily won the seven-boat Melges 24 division. “We came two days early and did a lot of practice. This weekend we had some real opportunities to put into racing all that we’ve been practicing with transitions.” 

Two ORC fleets encompassed 21 larger keelboats spread across two divisions, and the use of the handicap rule produced close racing in both ORC A and ORC B. The J/111 Fireball, campaigned by Bill and Jackie Baxter won six of seven races, however, the moderate winds suited their well-sailed boat. Peacemaker, a Nelson Marek 30 owned by Jeff Sampson, won four races to top the Express 27, Eagle One, sailed by Timothy LaRiviere and his crew. 

The next stop on the national regatta series is in San Diego, March 25 to 27. 

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With their upward-angled akas, their narrow wave-piercing amas and their high-performance flat top main mainsail, Weta trimarans seen sailing from afar have the appearance of water spiders skittering across wave tops. This unique and relatively unknown creature of the dinghy sailing world can be found on waterways across the country, and there’s said to be as many as 1,500 of them worldwide. While often seen in solitary, wherever the weather is warm and breeze is up, they’re known to swarm in lively and colorful displays, emitting sounds oddly similar to the gleeful hoots and hollers of sailors at play. The most recent sighting: Tampa Bay.

Oh, wait. They’re not water bugs. These are sailors. And they are hooting on their 14-foot trimarans as they plane down bay under their bright and colorful spinnakers. These are the sailors of Weta class, new this year to the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series St. Petersburg.   

Among the 21 sailors is Floridian transplant Peter Merrifield, once an ace college sailor and world championship-caliber keelboat skipper in the J/22 class who now finds himself among the ranks of Weta fanatics. He’s one of the late adopters of the one-design first introduced in New Zealand back in 2006. He’s only owned his Weta since mid-2021, and while his glory days are long past, he says, his recent successes in local Weta racing is the best he’s done in sailing since the arrival of the new millennium.

Merrifield, whose previous one-design of choice was the A Class Catamaran, came to possessing his Weta like most other owners: a friend told him to take it for a spin. “There’s seven or eight of them at Gulfport [YC]. And to be honest, I always thought it was a rotomolded boat, so I never gave it much of a thought.”

Lo and behold—on his first outing, he enjoyed the experience immensely. It was definitely easier to sail than his A Class Cat. And…what the heck. He soon purchased a used Weta from a guy who lived in Michigan but who kept it in Nebraska. For the past few months he’s been getting up to speed on nuances of the nimble little craft.

“The benefit I see in this boat over the catamarans is that it’s only the center hull that’s in the water during the tacks,” he says, “so you can play the windshifts more frequently than you can with a catamaran.”

While he fondly describes it as, “a Laser with training wheels,” what he likes most is its simplicity. “There’s not a lot to it,” says Merrifield. “There’s no diamonds (stays) to screw with, no spreaders to adjust or anything like that. But, still, being singlehanded and playing with three sails, especially getting around the marks, keeps it challenging. “I haven’t figured that part out yet,” he says. “But I’m working on it.”

The Gulfport’s Weta sailors race Portsmouth locally against the likes of Hobies and other beach cats, but there’s plenty of Weta action across the Florida peninsula and up the mid-Atlantic coast. The two regions enjoy each other’s company and travel to each other’s events, says Cliff Peshek, who is the energy behind the Florida fleet and responsible for securing a class start at the St. Petersburg regatta.

“We’ve been active here for a while, says Peshek, from Apollo Beach, across bay from St. Petersburg. “The dealer down here, a guy named Dick Hitchcock, passed away (in 2021) and he was kind of the sparkplug, responsible for getting boats into the southeast. So, without him it got a bit quiet, but now we have Starboard Tack Boats, owned by Richard Kiczek, up in Fort Walton Beach as our dealer in Florida and they’re getting things going again with the help of U.S. distributor Hardy Peters from East Coast Sailboats up in Duck, North Carolina. Both strive to ensure that they have a full stock of parts and inventory at all times so in essence they are a one-stop shop.”

While a large number of Weta owners are purely recreational, most, says Peshek, are keen racers like himself, and the boat’s portability contributes to the seasonal north-south flow and RV and camper regatta lifestyle common to Weta sailors. They’re constantly on the move, with as many as seven Florida regattas, including the big WetaFest April 29 – May 1 in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, before the calendar shifts to mid-Atlantic events.

The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series is a new event for the class, says Peshek, and it’s a big deal. “The regattas (nee-NOODs) go way back and everyone knows it’s the real deal of big regattas—it’s a whole different level of event.”

Peshek, who now races Hull No. 1193, came to Weta sailing not long after it was selected as the Best Dinghy in Sailing World’s Boat of the Year Awards in 2009. “It was cool looking, and I was coming out of bigger keelboats—I sailed on a Tartan 10, Express 27 and a Viper 830. We were always looking for crew, and I just thought I’d simplify my life. The boat is not wicked, A Cat fast, but if you’re coming off a monohull like me, you’ll get the same feeling—it’s super cool. The thing is a riot. It instantly planes when you roll out the gennaker. When I got a taste of that downwind mode, I got hooked right away.”

Hitchock, he says, always told him that the Weta sells itself, and indeed Peshek is proof. “I got in it with him, and gosh darn it, he was right. I’m a big guy—and he was a big guy—and we were still going well.”

For the duration of the St. Petersburg regatta, the Weta class will launch off North Point Beach alongside the A Class catamarans where Peshek hopes to do some informal recruiting. The intent is not to poach from any class, but he knows visibility is important to continue to grow the class. He has a lot of old friends in the A class, he says, and a lot of them are looking for the next boat. The Weta might just be the next right thing. All he has to do is get any one of them to give it spin. It worked for Merrifield.

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Preliminary Results

The Melges 15 fleet of two-person dinghies has more than doubled in size since its 2021 debut in the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series. Chicago’s Mike Schroff and crew Emily Shanley-Roberts won the last race of the day to establish a 1-point lead over Tampa local Rob Britts and his crew Meredith McIntosh.

“It’s definitely a tough fleet,” says crew Shanley-Roberts. “This is our third event together, and I feel like we’re working well. Today’s key was really to stay in phase. However, when the fleet behind you splits, it’s always hard to decide which way to cover. It felt like the left side of the course was working out really well, so we really tried to capitalize on those, especially on the first beat.

For tomorrow, we’re just going to focus on getting good starts and then sail our own race. It never seems to work out if you focus too much on one person. If you cover one, you lose the fleet.” 

Also competing on the busy Course A are the Lightnings. Past overall regatta winner David Starck moved up in the fleet today to first place, something he attributes to dusting the cobwebs off. “My family and I actually haven’t sailed since last fall,” he says. “We’ve been focused on other sports – skiing, hockey and such.”

By family, he refers to his brother Tom (crew on Starck’s Team PatStrong); wife Jody Starck, who drives her own Lightning and is just 2 points behind David; and his daughter Sabrina, racing with skipper Tanner Probst. 

“With the other fleets racing on our course, we spent a lot of time looking at the boats ahead of us upwind and watching the favored gates, deciding how best to manage the chaos,” Starck says. ”But this is really good preparation as we look toward the Lightning World Championship in May, and then the Pan American Games after that.” 

The North Sails Rally Race started just off the eastern end of St. Petersburg’s New Pier, much to the delight of curious onlookers out for morning walks and coffee. More than 25 boats across three divisions including racers, racer-cruiser, cruising boats, and the L30 one-design keelboats sailed a 15- to 20-mile navigational course around Tampa Bay. 

Winning the Spinnaker division was Richard Svedsen’s Honey Pie with his new Caruluna 245. “We are still learning how to sail it, and what a way to begin with this result,” he says. “It’s also our first time participating in the Sailing World regatta. For a February day in Florida, who could ask for more? The course took us to different marks around Tampa Bay, and factoring in the wind and current challenged us all, but what a great way to spend the day.”

Gail Haueser’s Liquid Time, a Beneteau 40 claimed the Racer-Cruiser win, and Dave Roberts’ Legacy, a Catalina 310, earned the Cruiser division title. 

Alongside the North Sails Rally Race was the new L30 fleet, tagged as a speedy sportboat with cruising comforts. Six L30s are taking part in this weekend’s regatta, doing a mix of fleet racing on Friday and Sunday, and today’s distance race. 

Dave Ullman and son Charlie are racing one of the new L30s, designed by Olympic medalist and Volvo Ocean Race veteran Rodion Luka. In Ullman’s second day on board, which they won today’s distance race, he’s sold. “It’s going to be a good one-design boat,” the multi-world champion and Sailing Hall of Famer says. “It hits the right balance between being fun to sail, yet there is a lot to tweak and adjust to make it a challenge.”

Over seven races, George Braddon and his Bogus team out of Victor, NY, lead the J/24 fleet. In his fourth season with the boat, Braddon is benefitting from J/24 and North Sails guru Mike Ingham on board to help provide some sail tuning and coaching for the team as they look ahead to next weekend’s J/24 Midwinter Championship across the bay.

“We’ve learned a ton sailing with Mike,” Braddon says. “He’s really helped us to optimize how we are tuning the sails. The boat felt fast today; we’re in a good gear to get up and down the course.” 

Sunday is the final day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in St. Petersburg, when an overall winner from the 214 boats competing will earn a place at the Regatta Series Championship in the British Virgin Islands in October. 

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