Friday, June 23rd 2000
Caymanian Compass
'Skinny Lee Lee'
wins Catboat
On a weekend full of every type
of noise from droning air shows, spurning jet skies and booming salutes
to the Queen's birthday, there was a silent confrontation of Cayman Catboats.
The wind shifted between hard and weak and reeked havoc on the fleet of
five vessels. Fiddlesticks, sponsored by Texaco, the boat to beat in the
last Butterfield Regatta continued a bad luck run with a broken mast at
the start of the first race. The fault, upon inspection lay with the glues
used, not in Captain Ashley Ebanks knowledgeable handling.
The first race was won by Skinny
Lee Lee, the Tropicana/Cable & Wireless sponsored Catboat. She was first
across the starting line and maintained her lead over a complicated course
to claw her way to be first over the finish line. Jay Aiken's crew of
Paul Lawrence and Tim Austin showed good tactics leaving everybody to
try for second place. Second Place went to Brac Cat, sponsored by British
American Bank and captained by Crosby Ebanks with his crew of Kem Jackson
and Mary Beth Scher.
The races were to be the best time
out of two starts. The winner receiving $1000.ÊThe Tropicana/Cable & Wireless,
Skinny Lee Lee, had a finishing time for the first race of 47 minutes,
23 seconds.
Said Carson Ebanks before the first
race, "If they beat us we will charge ourselves up and come back out to
win." That was the type of energy in competition that became prevalent
at the close of the first race and beginning of the second. Mark Clark
skippered Tradition I, in the first race, with
fellow Olympian Carson and J-22 racer, Jerris Miller. Tradition
I was sponsored by Red Sail Sports took a fourth a little
under four minutes after Skinny Lee Lee.
Elford Dilbert decided not to
sail his Third Place, Tradition I, in the second
race after his boom broke in the gusting winds and mixed seas. His crew
of brother, Wendell and Edward "Dampy" Whittaker were a bit disappointed.
Carson, Mark and Jerris capitalized on the move by changing from Elford's
Tradition I, re-rigging Tradition II
and competing in her. Tradition II was sponsored
by the Cayman Islands Hotel and Condominium Association.
The second race saw Carson, Jerris
and Mark hit the line at the whistle and put a good hundred yards on the
nearest boat, Skinny Lee Lee. British America's Brac Cat kept up with
Skinny Lee Lee and Captain Ashley, with Dwayne and Dwight Ebanks crewing
gamely tried to keep in the race with a jury-rigged mast and sail. The
Texaco star on Fiddlesticks could reach but could not point, so they retired
after rounding the third mark.
The CIHCA, Tradition
II, kept her position, with Skinny Lee Lee and Brac Cat keeping
the pressure on. One mistake or misjudgement and one or both of the other
boats were ready to take advantage. The race ended with Tradition
II only two minutes in front of the last boat.ÊTradition
II made it around the four-mile course in 45 minutes, thirty-five
seconds to beat the Skinny Lee Lee first race time by a little under two
minutes. Skinny Lee Lee bettered her own time by 30 seconds to get the
Second Place. The David Foster owned Brac Cat with Captain Crosby took
Third Place less than 40 seconds behind Phil Bush's Skinny Lee Lee.
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