Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 2816 West Palm Beach Fishing Club it did,” said Stewart. A total of 59 sails were released on the Derby’s first day. Sea conditions subsided a little on the Derby’s second day, but by all accounts it was still rough. The word was out that the best sailfish bite was occurring in the waters off Stuart near the tour- nament boundary line. Team ‘Doing It All’ was among the boats who traveled north. The West Palm Beach based team lead by WPBFC member Mark Lamb was eager to fish. On the first day their boat had experienced a steering failure that cut their fishing day short and required navigating their triple outboard center console through Jupiter Inlet us- ing just the throttles to steer. “We waited for slack tide before attempting to run the inlet. It was pretty crazy. We got the steer- ing pumps replaced overnight and we were back in the game on the second day,” com- mented Lamb. Evidently the fish gods were with them. ‘Doing It All’ earned top daily boat honors on day two of the Derby with an impressive total of 12 sailfish releases and climbed to the top of the leader board. High angler on day two was Rick Burton of Wellington who tallied 6 sails aboard ‘Doing It All’. Heavy weight fish honors went to Boyd Youngblood of Lake Como, New Jersey, who landed a 14.4 lb. dolphin aboard the Team ‘Lumitec’ boat. A total of 98 sails were released on the second day bringing the tournament total to 157 releases. The Derby leader board began to tighten up with five boats, ‘Jichi’, ‘Wrenegade’, ‘ProPayroll’, ‘Double Diamond’ and ‘Miss Annie’ all within reasonable reach of the leader. It was still any team’s tournament to win. The weather gods were not finished punishing the Der- by fleet on the fi- nal day. The wind clocked around to due south and blew a sustained 25 to 30 mph throughout the entire day. Despite the strong wind, few had trouble running with the sea as they headed to the north- ern boundary line where the fish were. Within the first ten minutes of fishing, sailfish were being reported to Derby head- quarters. A real horse race developed several hours into the final day. After catching two more fish in the morning, ‘Do- ing It All’ held the slimmest of leads based on the time of their last release with a tournament total of 14 sails. Meanwhile, Team ‘Miss Annie’ was having an excellent day adding 6 more releases to their score for a total of 14 sailfish as well. Six other boats were within just four fish of the lead with just a few hours remaining in the contest. As the lines out of the water time ap- proached, the thought of the return trip into a heavy head sea became a concern for the boats at the top of the leader board. Derby rules give teams ninety minutes after the fishing day ends to return score sheets. Staying far north to the bitter end and trying to catch one more fish became a gamble consider- ing the sea conditions. Even though they were in the prime fishing zone, Team ‘Miss Annie’ made the strategic decision to cut their fishing day a little short in order to get back to tournament headquarters safely in time to turn in their score sheet. It would prove to be an excellent decision. When the fishing day concluded at 2 p.m. boats began paying the price as they raced back in rough seas. The tournament leader ‘Doing It All’ was one of them. With a little more than one hour remaining before the score sheet cut off time they found themselves broke down. A throttle control module had snapped off under the console. Tournament rules allow for score sheets from a broke down boat to be delivered by another vessel, as long as that vessel is able to deliver the sheet by the required time. In a demonstration of great sportsmanship, fellow competitors, Team ‘Good Call’, led by Captain Matt Al- ligood, offered to help. With time running out the score sheet and tournament observer aboard ‘Doing It All’ was transferred to the ‘Good Call’. In fact to save time and eliminate any risk of boats crashing into one another in the heavy seas, Derby observer Rich Ebersold dove off the stranded boat and swam to the other boat. “It just seemed like the right thing to do since time was so critical,” said Ebersold. Despite a valiant attempt, ‘Good Call’ was un- able to make it back in time. As a result, the 2 fish caught by Team ‘Doing It All’ were disqualified, rearranging the leader board. “I wished it would have worked out differ- ently, but everything happens for a reason. Those guys on ‘Good Call’ went above and beyond for us. We really Derby......continued from Page 1 Andrew Stewart (l) & teammate, WPBFC member Kevin McCluskey, with Andrew's award winning dolphin. Rough seas on Day 1... Top Boat Day 2 - Team 'Doing It All'