Finalists battle in an empty hall in Sunday's last chance at wood.	Line breaker!

Game designer Neal Schlaffer bid adieu to his event after 17 years in hopes that a new GM with the time to run heats and an Introductory Demo would breath new life into its declining attendance. So far, so good. Many new faces were sprinkled among the returnees who came to play in the three heats scheduled this year. The Demo attracted at least four new players. The format change to multiple Heats, and "B" status, combined with playing only two-hand games with tiebreakers to speed play worked well. A few pined for the original rules of playing to 100 points, but the majority agreed that two hands was enough to determine a winner Many "old hands" were pleased that Enemy in Sight was being played in multiple heats on three different days while others were pleased they could still take their last chance "at wood" on Sunday morning while winning the final heat. While tiebreakers were defined, none proved necessary, as every game was won outright on points alone.

Unfortunately, the heats were scheduled as two-hour events, which meant the first Heat was truncated as we ran out of time. This disappointed many players. Fortunately the second and third Heats did not have schedule conflicts after the two hours, and were allowed to play until both hands were completed. Next year's heats will be scheduled for three hours, even though two usually suffices.

There were nine heat winners -- eight of whom eagerly appeared for the semi-final on Sunday. Four had just qualified moments before in the Sunday morning heat.) Given the number of qualifiers, the semi was axed and the eight proceeded directly to the Final. All were experienced players and finished the two hands before 1 PM. Eight former champions played in all, but only two (Bill Peeck and Tim Evinger), made it to the Final.

Rob Eastman sailed out to a lead at the end of the first hand, with 46 points, followed by Peeck at 38, Evinger at 34 and Bill Alderman at 30. Most of the scoring was in prizes, though there was the usual spate of sinking the smaller ships once the Break-the-Line cards made their appearance. The second hand deal left some players with initial powerful 1st Rate Broadsides but only 3rd Rate Ships or less. Eastman was under siege immediately, targetted by a Break-the-Line and a variety of attacks. He was whittled down to one ship in his line at one point, but used an Additional Ship card to return to two. In the meantime, others had the pleasure of attracting attention, including all of the players with 30 points or more. No one lost all their ships, but many had three or less in the line at one point. Through it all, Eastman had Boarding Party cards while others did not, so he captured prizes and was able to keep them afloat even though he was unable to remove the Line Breakers. He won with 62 points, followed closely by John Elliott at 60 and Kevin Coombs with 57. Grabbing the remaining laurels were Tim Evinger with 52 points, Bill Peeck with 46 and Bill Alderman with 39.

Luck plays a larger role in this game than most, as evidenced by no one winning the event more than twice in its 18-year WBC history.