race report
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 The J/105 fleet still provide spectators with a visual treat as they sail along the Cityfront. All the races finish right in front of StFYC clubhouse deck. The red chute is Donkey Jack, the white is Blackhawk, which is leading the division. ©2013 norcalsailing.com |
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Rum-Soaked Notes from Rolex Big Boat Series
September 29, 2013 The second day of racing at Rolex Big Boat Series on Friday ends with St. Francis Club's famous Mt. Gay Rum Party. But the day began with a shoreside postponement, as race officials waited for the westerly to push out the easterly. Once the westerly filled, they were able to get in two long races. So long in fact, that boats were still racing when the Mt. Gay Rum Party, featuring free rum shots and cocktails, free beer and hot hors d'oeuvres, began promptly at 5:00 p.m., with no more than a few guests and media types around to indulge. Brad, the main trimmer on the Express 37 Mudshark dubbed it, "The Medium Boat Twilight Series."
The multihull division were fortunate, as they were the first sailors to finish and thus the first to the party. Urs Rothacher of the SL33 BridgeRunner said, "There's a quick new Marstrom. It sails quick and it's lightweight. We have good competition this year." Ian Klitza of the D-Class cat Rocket 88 quipped, "When the going gets weird, the weird get multihulls." Bill Turpin and Brendan Busch are the other two sailors onboard. "Ian and Brendan are always yelling at me to do something different, so one of them is always disappointed," said Bill "We work our asses off. The others have at least five." Serge Pond added, "We can't afford that many." The builder and former owner of the Howard Spruitt-designed cat, Serge has been tagging along in the Rocket's Protector. "It's wonderful. They take me along in the Larry Seat. They always include me in their management. It's a great team." They couldn't pass up RBBS, and are looking forward to Great Pumpkin at the end of October.
Lori Tewksbury, the pink-clad bowchick on John Clauser's 1D48 Bodacious+, and crewman Jay Hickman told us about their race out to Point Diablo on Thursday, with a start near Alcatraz and a windmark mark set off the Marin shore. "It was really cool, really fun. There was a barge on the course at the start. It came into play tactically. Twisted had to duck it. Swiftsure got stuck on the other side in bad current, then we had a nice tacking duel with them." Swiftsure won that race, and all but one other so far. Of Friday's racing, Jay Hickman said, "I'm wearing shorts today, so it can't be bad." Lori added, "We had a really good time. We have a really good crew and we get along really well."
Simon Winer stepped in to helm the J/70 The Perfect Wife after the owner fell off the boat when he was launching it at Richmond YC. He was a Knarr sailor, and the Knarrs don't have lifelines. He caught his foot on the lifeline of his new J/70 and broke his wrist in the fall. Simon is sailing with four Lithuanians.
The J/120 Mr. Magoo went from fourth to first in one of the races on Friday. "We're the only ones who went north of Alcatraz," said skipper Steve Madeira. "There was more current to the left. We had a terrific angle and passed everybody." Tim Russell is their tactician, and Tom Allard is "on shark watch" (besides being crew boss and a trimmer and grinder). "The fleet's very tight right now," said Tom.
One J/120, Peregrine, is sailing in IRC-D because they have a carbon rig – the others are aluminum. In other J/120 gossip, the owner of Dayenu, Don Payan, moved to the McConaghy 38 Whiplash, which is sailing in HPR. Dayenu has new owners and has been renamed Paka'a. Chance and Mr. Magoo are tied for points, so the series is coming down to the last race on Sunday for their six-boat class. Jack Peurach of the Express 37 Elan said they had their "best day ever. The crew work was incredible. We were able to hang on in front." Jack has owned the boat for three years. "We usually do ocean racing, and this is the best we've done in one design. We made all our jibes and douses today. On Thursday we were middle of the pack. We went home and talked about how to coordinate things better, and we won the first race today and took second in the second race."
"The most important thing about Snowy Owl," said crew member Elisa Williams, "is that without us the Express 37s would not have had a fleet. The skipper Jens Jensen's daughter Liv is the foredeck and she really wanted to do it. I haven't done it before and really wanted to do it too. The closest I've come is Cowes Race Week."
For much more see www.rolexbigboatseries.com. Also see our previous story, posted on Friday.
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