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Women Show Sailing Skills In Tampa Regatta

Tribune photo by ROBERT BURKE

Sailors prepare for the Dore Drake Regatta Sailboat races.

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Published: October 20, 2008

Updated: 10/20/2008 12:59 am

TAMPA - Twenty-knot winds whipped 1- to 2-foot waves on Hillsborough Bay, and temperatures hovered around the mid-60s for the annual Dore Drake Regatta on Sunday - conditions close to ideal for sailing after months of afternoons in the 80s and 90s.

"I'm excited, and I want to win," said Davis Islands Yacht Club Fleet Captain Kat Robinson-Malone, who was aboard the 24-foot sloop, the Ho So Slapper.

Sunday's four-hour event was the 30th annual regatta, named for Dore Drake, an avid sailor, instructor and yacht club member.

Drake and her late husband, John Condrick, used to invite women aboard to teach them sailing. The regatta, held each October, grew from there. Drake still attends the event to present the sailing trophy, a glass sailboat sculpture.

Robinson-Malone, who teaches rhetoric at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, won the regatta a couple of years ago.

The race gives the club's female members a chance to demonstrate their sailing proficiency. Only a generation ago, few women helmed racing sloops. Sailboat racing is one of the few sports where novices and seasoned professionals rub elbows, Robinson-Malone said.

For the Dore Drake Regatta, three three-mile races are held between buoys in Hillsborough Bay. Eleven sloops, or single-mast sailboats, participated in this year's race.

After leaving the marina on southern tip of Davis Islands, the boats circled until lining up for the start at 10:30 a.m. When it was over, the crew of Preparation J claimed the top prize. Sandy Scheda-Klaus was skipper.

Ho So Slapper ended up sixth.

"Not great, but not bad," Robinson-Malone said. "We did all right."

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633.

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