Gay Games Cleveland

SFST Sailors waiting to march into the stadium for opening ceremonies.

Event organizer Mark Cheslow, Tartan representative Christine Corbissero and outstanding spouse support and event volunteer Ian Berardi-Cheslow march in with the Cleveland crowd. 

Connie is the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, LGBT ally and wife of Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown.

Senator Sharrod Brown welcomes us to Northeast Ohio.

A special welcome from none other than the President of the United States Barack Obama...very cool, big applause!

This is Marina Coleridge and Holly Krueter, ice hockey players and non-racing members of SFST at the opening ceremonies.

The names I know include Mark Cheslow, far left, to his left in white hat, Cheri Morabito, and to her left also in a white had, Christine Corbissero.  Sorry...give me the other names and I'll fill those in!

L-R: Christy Leffall, Jan Crosbie-Taylor, Chloe Arnold, Dorothea Crosbie-Taylor.

L-R: Ando Jones, Beth Richards, S, Heather Stewart

Part of the main gathering places for participants and visitors, right down near the lake and the R&R museum and football stadium.

Part of the main gathering places for participants and visitors, right down near the lake and the R&R museum and football stadium.  It wasn't the greatest: little to no shade for the attendees, no real places to sit other than the grass and a few benches around the perimeter...none by the food, standing tables only...club music played too loud so you can barely hear each other unless you're totally in the far back end by the food...not conducive to being able to casually and comfortably talk and converse with others and meet new people.

This was the first night, and this was kind of funny...have no idea how long this lasted throughout the week.  Still, you could barely hear anyone shouting out the colors...you had to look at the wheel to really know.

Entertainers on stilts

SFST found an actual bench we could sit down for a while...and share some smiles with others!

Yacht club flags...that red & white striped one on the bottom is the postponement flag (AKA the "Cat in the Hat")...we waited to get started, would we sail?  We made one race and then raced the clouds and storm back to land.

Our SFST friend Sara Benjamin and her team...who really did have the best team name!

Seriously...ain't that the best! :)

Several of the borrowed Lightnings used for the competative division.

Co coordinator Cheri Morabito welcomes us hither to hear more about the boats.

Each of these boats was borrowed from a private owner, picked up and trailered to Edgewater and back to their owners at the end of the regatta by the Lightning guru and all around boat caretaker, Mr. Bill Buckles.  That's the guy in the white shirt on the right whom everyone is listening to.  The trick was, these were not true one-design boats.  Every boat was rigged a bit differently and had different kinds of gear...so there was a lot of labeling attempted to let everyone know what line did what...some were better than others.  That's why we rotated boats *every race* on the water so that everyone had a chance to sail a 'good' boat and the dogs.

Talking about the boats.  There was also a recreational class sailing Tartan 10s...they didn't need this kind of lecture!

Our only German team, heck...our only fully European team at Cleveland.

Photographer Dave Mathias was out on the water throughout the regatta taking some great shots of both fleets.  THAT is where you can see some sailing photos! Check them out here at ClevelandSailing.com.

The video produced for our sailing regatta opens with this cameo shot of SFST Team Lightning Bugs getting ready to head out to the course.

Christy Leffall, Dorothea Crosbie-Taylor, Jan Crosbie-Taylor & Chloe Arnold.

The Oakland Wave Riders and Heather Stewart, sailing on Team Lightning Bugs.  Dorothea, Jan and Heather are the only SFST members who have sailed at the 4 Gay Games who have offered sailing, starting with Syndey in 2002, Chicago in 2006, Cologne in 2010 and Cleveland 2014...and we're planning on heading to Paris in 2018 if the coordinators can make it happen!  Chloe only missed the Cologne Games and this was Christy's first regatta...and a newbie sailor at that!

Betsy Yingling, skipper...third from left.  Cleveland locals with Betsy's sister (far left) the only lesbian aboard!

Members of the brand new Toronto Gay Sailing Club flank Elad Strohmayer, a deputy counsel general and diplomat stationed in Philadelphia...also one of the gold medal team members from the Aussies a Buckeye and an Israeli.

Elad Strohmayer shows his Israeli pride...and some hidden talents?  Must be how fast their boat sailed! :)

Skipper of the Snatches! ;)  Also known as Galaxy...just chillin' dockside.

Owner of the NY30 Amorita, Jed Pearsall (right) and his partner Bill Doyle (left) screened their movie for us.  A pretty amazing and gut wrenching story, with a "happy" ending.  You can read more and view a trailer of the movie here:  http://www.ny30.org/amorita.htm 

Thanks for sharing, guys!

Mark waiting "patiently" for everyone to be quiet, Cheri about to blow the whistle to get everyone quiet, and Christine...just making sure she's all together! ;)

The Knickerbockers from New York succeeded in capsizing one of the Lightnings, inside the transfer marina, and proceeded to have the mud in which the mast got stuck ceremoniously dumped upon their heads as the boat righted!

Wasted Seamen, an all straight crew.  We still believe our pals Batten Down the Snatches should have won this one, most def! :)

This is where the Snatches won their award.  As it was, they had trained and fully expected to be sailing in the Tartan 10 class.  Imagine their surprise when they found out they had mistakenly registered in the wrong fleet!  Because of the limit of the available number of Tartans, they were not allowed to switch fleets, so they stayed in the Lightning fleet and gave it a shot on our first wild & wooly - and only! - day on Lake Erie and decided that was enough.

The only competitor ever having to leave the venue in an ambulance...but it wasn't for sailing.  He climbed a fence trying to take a picture, lost his footing and fell about 10 feet down to a bed of very uncomfortable rocks.  Luckily, Warren had only a few bumps and bruises, but he was okay!

The ever friendly & kissing Malaysian machine... Li from Team Toronto!

Our Primary Race Official, Judy...from Florida!  She did an outstanding job in leading her team of volunteers and assuring we had as many safe races as possible...and boy, did we race a lot!  Thanks, Judy!

Most definitely the sweetest, friendliest and most supportive spouse and volunteer, Mr. Ian Berardi-Cheslow!  Thank you so much to Ian for being our morning shuttle driver and for everything he did to help our primary coordinator, Mark Cheslow.  We love you, Ian! Mwa!

The skippers who traveled the furthest from around the world who camp to play were given a burgee from Tim of Edgewater YC.

Christine Corbissero, who was the rep from our primary sponsor Tartan Yachts, together with one of the Federation's organizing committee members passed out the official GG9 Awards.

Team Toronto Gay Sailing Team 2

Rainbow Spinnaker Sailing Club from Team DC

Team Frankfurt.  Bronze medalists in Cologne in the recreational fleet from Frankfurt, Germany move up the ranks and grab the gold!

The Naiads, mostly straight locals...except Betsy's sister next to Mark who traveled in to compete with them.

Team Newport, perennial podium winners.  Accompanies by Greg Group, a member of Edgewater who was connected with Bill through Bill's boat Amorita...it's a long story...but we were there because Greg helped make it happen, thank you Greg!

The beautiful Cleveland Public Library flying our colors...beautiful inside and out.