“A Swim A Day Keeps The Amateurs At Bay” - Jon Pomerleau (2367)

Local rock star Dave Moring (MC 2188) put on a true performance to finish as the top amateur in the hotly contested 43-boat MC Scow Southeastern Regional Championship, hosted by Lake Eustis Sailing Club in Eustis, FL.  Perennial favorites Zack Clayton of Quantum Sails and reigning National Champ Jamie Kimball of Melges Performance Sailboats put on a heavyweight battle to take the top two spots.

The five races conducted saw shifty breezes from 12 mph to 2 mph, with huge swings in velocity within almost every race.  The guys that could shift gears for these changes and keep the boat moving toward the next solid breeze went home with hardware.  When it got really ugly, nobody was better than Moring.

After a couple of solid races Saturday morning, including one where he lee-bowed Kimball three times (now that’s a dangerous game), he must have felt he could walk on water.  In fact, undeterred by the laws of physics, he attempted just that as he walked off his transom while trying to get rigged for the afternoon race.  With the cobwebs cleared from his refreshing plunge, Moring put on a junk wind clinic in the third and final race of the day, putting him in contention over night.

Moring clearly felt he was on to something special.   On a chilly Sunday morning, his pre-race routine consisted of setting himself adrift for “gator corner”, then disassembling his rig and taking down his mast, alone at sea.  You guessed it, why not jump into the lake and swim out to the end of your mast to fix that annoying halyard problem?  With a support crew along shortly and some borrowed parts, Aqua-Man emerged unscathed and headed (shivering) out to the course.

The fourth race offered the most solid breeze of the weekend, with sailors hiking hard and pulling on controls, but things got crazy in the fifth and final.  After a stiff breeze brought a light chill and snapping sails to the starting area, the final leg brought drifting conditions down the course.  Once again, Moring was on the move to the new breeze and the front of the fleet, as he locked up a great Regatta with another clutch performance.