Winning the "most miles traveled" award was the F-31 Wahoo, owned by Tim Cahill-O'Brien and Norma Cill of Novato, CA. Along with their two girls--Livia, 11, and Sydney, 13--the family trailered the boat 3,200 miles from California to Florida for the Gulf Stream crossing and a vacation in the Bahamas.
     "It's great to race the other boats," Cahill-O'Brien said, "but for the kids the real highlight has been meeting the cruising kids."
     Taking a golf handicap approach to rating the Mother Tub divisions--the ratings could be changed after each race depending on the previous results--the regatta format encouraged the true cruising boats to join the more traditional racers on the race courses, but the cruisers sailed shorter distances.
     More than half of the 52 boats entered in Regatta Time in Abaco 2000 were from the Mother Tub divisions, and the broad mix of boats ranged from a small Cape Dory singlehander and a pair of cat-rigged Nonesuch 30s to the larger 40-plus Hunters and Morgans. The rating band started at PHRF 105 and ranged upwards to the Cape Dory's PHRF 267. No one was seen racing while trailing their dinghy, but full biminis, shorthanded crews, and a ton of ground tackle were commonplace on the Mother Tubbers.
     John Lowe of Miami has family roots in the Abacos and brought his stateside friends from Florida and Colorado to race Regatta Time in Abaco for the tenth time.
     "We have four regular crew, and four were just for their looks," Lowe boasted of his co-ed team. His Santana 35 Xtreme finished second in Spinnaker B.
     Reflecting on the appeal of this event, Lowe said, "The attraction of this regatta is all the new people each year, and every night you're in a new place with new friends."
     Nassau resident Oliver Liddell, who skippered his Beneteau 42 Further Folly to fourth overall in Spinnaker A, described the venue as "a little competition...a little fun. It's a particularly good venue for south Florida boats in the summer."