race report
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 The Express 27 Nationals had the San Francisco skyline, sandwiched between two layers of fog, as a backdrop over the weekend. ©2013 norcalsailing.com |
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Express 27 Dominance
August 26, 2013 Dominance is a term used occasionally for sport, and this week at the 15-boat Express 27 Nationals at Richmond YC, one boat clearly was ahead in performance compared to the others in the fleet.
Will Paxton and Zach Anderson's Motorcycle Irene had all bullets in six out of seven races, and if it wasn't for a brilliant flyer by Dan Pruzan and crew on Wile E Coyote in the first race, the 'Cyclers might have had a perfect score. On Friday, in generally light air, the boats were sent out on a long distance course around the Bay. After a start on the Berkeley Circle, the fleet had to negotiate a flood current around Little Harding Buoy, Red Rock to port and back up through Raccoon Strait to round Angel Island to port before returning to the finish back in the Circle. Called the Long Island Special, once the parade started all the boats were clumped in a fairly tight pattern until they got Red Rock. That's when Wile E Coyote took off in search of current relief along the Marin shore. "We all were watching them as they headed off away from the next mark, wondering what the hell they were doing," remarked Steve Sarsfield, bowman on Take Five. "Then they got headed and were going backwards, to the north. But by then they were committed." After taking the mile flyer, Wile E Coyote found the current relief they were seeking along the shore and never looked back. "They finished miles ahead of the fleet and the rest of us just followed along in the same group as we started," said Steve. The wind blew all night, fetching up some wicked chop, so that on Saturday, the competitors awoke to a windy morning and found lumpy seas when they headed out to the Circle for three windward/leeward races. The wind died to 15 knots by race time but left behind the ugly water. "It was brutal with the square waves bouncing us around," said one competitor. But they did get in three races, and the battle between Motorcycle Irene and Brendan Busch's Get Happy!! had begun. Get Happy!! had three seconds to Motorcycle Irene's three bullets.
Sunday's racing started off with a tribute to Noe Goodman, crew and friend of Ray Lotto's El Raton. Noe lost his life at the end of this year's Delta Ditch Run. After a postponement for one minute of silence and a sprinkling of flowers, the racing began in 10 knots of breeze and mercifully flat water.
As the day progressed, the breeze built and waves resumed. Which brings up the point that one way to dominate is to try new things on the race course. Motorcycle Irene has a new method of surfing. They have a sail-tie attached to the boom to pump the main on each wave, and their foredeck, the lightweight but athletic Sherry Smith, scrambles forward at just the right moment to help catch the wave. Co-owner and pit man Zach ("Secret Weapon") Anderson explains: "The big main pump from the pit was something we have been working on for a couple of seasons. Sherry hanging ten off the front of her 27-ft surfboard was trimmer and tactician Parker Mitchell's suggestion. Parker (a coach at Cal Maritime) kept us all in sync and on time with a wave countdown. All together it felt fast, and it was certainly a lot of fun! " And that's your tip of the day from the crew on Motorcycle Irene.
On Sunday it was all over by the second race of three, and the final standings saw Motorcycle Irene ahead of Get Happy!! by 10 points and Wile E Coyote by 14. See www.richmondyc.org for complete results.
We have it lucky here on the Bay with the variety of racing, and a variety of boats, but the luckiest is the level of competition and camaraderie among the various fleets. The Express 27s have some of the best of both. And they are really cool boats.
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