News Beat

Week of June 14-20, 2011

Coastal Cup

Encinal Yacht Club's Coastal Cup started on Wednesday and finished a day and a half later at Avalon. The first boat to finish, Andrew McCorquodale's Open 60 O Canada, made it in 36 hours and change. First overall on corrected time was Steve Stroub's SC37 Tiburon, which sailed the course in 44 hours. Rufus Sjoberg's 11:Metre Skiff Sailing, finishing after more than two days on the course, came in second on corrected time.

Rufus, whose crew were Dylan Benjamin and Jason Crowson, told us about the race and the ocean-optimized 11:Metre. "The boat worked great and all the mods to make it safe proved themselves. We have four flotation tanks and beefed up bulkheads. Although the rig is stock, it has been sleeved and all the important bits made stronger. The windiest section was off Monterey with strong 30-plus knots of wind, and we saw 40 knots at one time. Boat speeds were in the twenties and on one wave we saw 31 knots on the GPS. At Monterey we had a big crash and had to douse the chute. We went wing on wing for a couple of hours after that. We also went white sails at night because we thought everybody would be worried about us. At 0600 we set the kite again and it was game on. We didn't have any weather routing underway and just relied on GRIBs before the race to decide the course. Tiburon stayed way outside of the Channel Islands and did well. We split them and saw some light wind. The next race we are doing is the San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race, and then hopefully the Pacific Cup."

Left to right: overall winner Tiburon, the Wauquiez 455 Lucky Duck, and J/120 Shenanigans at the start. ©2011 Sergei Zavarin/http://ultimate-yachtshots.smugmug.com

Sixteen boats started; 11 finished. Among the five that didn't make it, Frank Slootman's J/111 Invisible Hand put into Half Moon Bay with a leaking Saildrive. For complete results and more, see www.encinal.org.

Master Mariners Wooden Boat Show

Corinthian's A, B, and C Docks were packed to the gunwales with floating woodcraft. The tallest masts and biggest hull belonged to Alma, and a whole flock of Bird Boats made the scene. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

The Master Mariners Benevolent Association couldn't have wished for a lovelier day for their Wooden Boat Show at Corinthian YC in Tiburon on Sunday.

What a great way to spend Father's Day! The little wooden boat models appealed to the young sailors in the crowd. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

Zach Railey Leading Finns in Germany

Among the Americans at the Kieler Woche in Kiel, Germany, is Finn sailor Zach Railey, who is a member of St. Francis YC. With eight races under his belt, the Olympic Silver Medallist is leading the Finn fleet by two points. Another St. Francis member, Genny Tulloch, is a skipper in the Women's Match Racing competition, sailed on Elliott 6m boats. Racing continues through June 26. The Kieler Woche is the seventh and last event in the ISAF Sailing World Cup circuit. We found the event's website rather difficult to negotiate, but you can give it a try at www.kieler-woche.de.