Blue Moon, a C&C 40, skippered by Nancy Baird, took third in the All-Female Crew division. Photo by Dan Chesnut.
Galadriel, skippered by Ruthanne Mitchell, took second in the Manon-Board division. Photo by Dan Chesnut.
1987, there would be an “All-Female” division in addition to the traditional Man-On-Board Spinnaker and NonSpinnaker fleets. This vote took place after the commodore showed a large blown-up poster of a dismasted boat, and he warned the male boat owners that this would be the outcome if they voted to turn their boats over to their wives/girlfriends. (NOTE: no boat has ever been dismasted during a Bikini Cup Regatta.) The Windjammers Education Program was born in the fall of 1986 and served to prepare many boatloads of women for future Bikini Cup Races. Carol Brown donated the Gulf and Bay winner perpetual trophy, named after her. The newly introduced Coached-Training Division for both Spin and Non-Spin fleets attracted many new firsttime female racers in the competition, increasing the need for more boats to accommodate them. Hence, the onslaught of “Yenta-the-Matchmaker”— who procured boats and assembled crews with a skipper and crew coordinator, who managed the practice schedule with the owner and provided a separate onboard coach for boats on which the male owner had little or no racing experience. Female racers were taking the Bikini Cup by storm. WYRA (The Women’s Yacht Racing Assoc.), founded locally by Sherry Welch, joined forces with Windjammers, Davis Island Yacht Club’s Dore Drake Regatta, and SPYC. They formed the Suncoast Women’s Sailing Championship Circuit (SWSC). Other clubs that participated were the Treasure Island Tennis and Yacht Club and the Sarasota Sailing Squadron. Female competitors either sailed or trailered the same boats to compete at the six-club women’s racing circuit, or they borrowed a different boat at each club. Back in Clearwater, “Yenta” invited FOMA (Florida Offshore Multihull Assoc.) to enter their boats. When True Cruising became a local viable racing fleet, they, too, entered the Bikini Cup Regatta. Some boats even raced with dinghies hoisted on davits off their sterns. Windjammers Bikini Cup peaked at 44 boats. The various crews took their competition quite seriously, and many boats practiced each weekend for over two months prior to the regatta. Most women became better sailors, and several husbands have given thanks to “Yenta” for getting their wives committed to sailing and racing via the Bikini Cup.
Sadly, the last Windjammers Bikini Cup (its 35th annual event) was held in 2002. The club disbanded in 2004. The Bikini Cup was on life support until 2009, when the idea was introduced to the Safety Harbor Boat Club (SHBC), which races four times each month on upper Tampa Bay, north of the Courtney Campbell Causeway. New life was breathed into the Bikini Cup with two divisions: Coached and Non-Coached. Both divisions were Man-onBoard. Michelle Williams on Incommunicado won first place in the Coached Division. Since she and her crew were young racers in their 20s and 30s, bikinis were back in style. In the second year of the new regatta, SHBC opened it up to non-member boats, which increased the fleet. Racers from Windlasses, Bay Sailors and the St. Petersburg Sailing Association entered the competition and Sazerac from SPSA easily won first place, skippered by Susan Davidson from the Bradenton/Sarasota racing area. The decorating committee collected the old on-sabbatical bikini tops and decorated the party pavilion with the hanging tops. Two years later—after skipping a year—in 2012, the Bikini Cup moved to the Boca Ciega Yacht Club on Boca Ciega Bay in Gulfport, again with Coached and NonCoached divisions. Mixer O’Keefe of Mixer’s Mistress served his female crew sandwiches and kept them hydrated while wearing a grass skirt and a coconut shell bra. A “thong” Tshirt was sported by BCYC Commodore Don Rogers. This year—at the 2nd Annual Bikini Cup—that “theme” was subsequently emulated on Dorothy’s Toy by owner Ed Talbot and Coach Dick Blannin. “Yenta” was again busy recruiting boats and female crew from—in addition to BCYC—Safety Harbor Boat Club, SPSA, Bay Sailors, Dunedin Boat Club, Adventurous Women, the DIYC’s Morgan Invasion and the Windlasses. That effort helped produce 18 competing boats—a 50 percent increase over 2012’s participation. Since the regatta was again held over Mother’s Day weekend, there were several boats with two, and in some cases three, generations racing on the same boat.
News & Views for Southern Sailors
2013 BCYC Bikini Cup Results: All Female: (6 boats): (1) Bounder II/Chris Kelly; (2) Miandros/Corinne O’Donnell; (3) Blue Moon/Nancy Baird: Man-On-Board (3 boats): (1) Seahorse/Celeste Dorage; (2) Galadriel/Ruthanne Mitchell; (3) Mixer’s Mistress/Cindi Anderson: Man-On-Board - Coached (9 boats): (1) Nikki/Barbara Meyer; (2) Calypso/Evelyn Hayes; (3) Fanta-Sea/Lynda Calvillo; (4) Amelia/Christy Edwards. SOUTHWINDS July 2013
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