The Villages 2010 Gator Regatta Report
Hedderick wins

by Alan Perkins
With the largest fleet of the season due to arrive in The Villages all we wanted was some wind. A High pressure centered over SC created a Northerly breeze down the coast but light and flucky NE's inland. Saturday got underway with the seeding races the four bullets being shared out to Dick Hedderick, Tony Reick, Baron Bremer and Tom Germer. Heat 1 started to show who was in charge in these light conditions with a lot of place changes Tony outsmarted Dick followed very closely by Jack Wubbe and Baron back in an unusual position of 6th place. Al Dion in the second heat played his ace card and got the bullet to start off his steady series being one of only two skippers who stayed in the A fleet all series Tony Reick being the other. A total of 8 heats where completed before it was time for happy hour leaving Dick Henderick with a 9 point lead over Tony. Dick had nothing lower than a 4th place but did include a 13th and brief visit to the B fleet.

Sunday dawned and the lake was a mirror. An RD's nightmare. A small zepher started to indicate which direction the wind might fill in from and racing started promptly at 9:30. Bud Elder must have had a good Saturday night as he mastered the very light breeze leaving Tony in 5th, Baron in 7th and Dick in 8th. Tony seemed to like these conditions well and took the next race from Baron and Dick. Jack Wubbe was also coming into his own and had bullets in the next two races bringing him to equal points with Tony and just one behind Dick. Tony seeing his chance to win the regatta managed to win the next heat with Dick close behind in 2nd. Bob Greer decided to get into the fray and took the 14th heat in front of Dick and Tony. Then to the last race, Tony knowing that with one more bullet and Dick being in a position 6th or lower he could go home victorious. Tony got his bullet but Dick managed a 5th place to take the regatta by 1 point.

With all these testing conditions a total of 4 seeding races and 30 P/R races were achieved thanks to all the skippers and helpers from the Villages EC12 fleet.

Result