weekend update
Corinthian Midwinters
“There’s nothing like a strong breeze to make someone look smart,” said PRO Michael Moradzadeh as he opened the awards ceremony on Sunday evening. “I wasn’t looking too smart yesterday.” Moradzadeh explained the light air over the radio during Saturday’s starting sequence: “We work it out months in advance with the Weather Service. We find it causes a lot less wear on the sails.”
The cluster before the cluster. Major players (l-r): the catamaran Endless Summer, the Catalina 30 Tenacious, the Alerion Express Mil Besos getting squished between the bigger boats and catching her rig, the Hunter 33.5 Kelika, and the Farr 36 Petard. © 2008 norcalsailing.com
Saturday’s drifter featured anchoring drills, bare feet and other body parts, freight-train ebb, a decision to go clockwise (much shorter distance) or counter-clockwise (‘around the world’, but some hope of current relief) around Angel Island, and mosh-pits on the backside of Angel. The first boat to drop out was Emily Carr, Ray Minehan’s Santa Cruz 50.
Another Saturday mark rounding cluster. © 2008 dominic marchal
Just like last month, Sunday was a whole other horserace, with plenty of wind in most places and only occasional light spots. In between the two days, most of the racers took advantage of a rockin’ party in Corinthian YC’s beautiful historic ballroom.
Will Paxton’s Schock 40 Secret Squirrel leads Peter Krueger’s Sydney 38 Howl to the weather mark, Little Harding, in Sunday’s lively breeze and ebb chop. © 2008 norcalsailing.com
Results and more photos are available at http://race.cyc.org/midwins.html. As a matter of fact, it seems the results were posted on the web before the awards ceremony, and some competitors were getting a sneak preview on their iPods in the bar!
A very special award went to Michael Kennedy of the Sydney 38 Copernicus. In last month’s Saturday drifter, Copernicus hung in after many others gave up and started their engines. But they got really stuck in the ebb, were sucked under the South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, and found the South Tower Rock. “It really mangled their keel bulb,” said Moradzadeh, and sent a crewmember tumbling down tthe campanionway (apparently without major injury).
A victim of gravity is awarded to a victim of the South Tower Rock, Michael Kennedy. © 2008 norcalsailing.com
The Aotea Team Trophy went to ‘Cooks and Waders’, a trio of Corinthian racers comprised of Michael Land’s Alerion Express 28 Lizbeth, Peter and Jytte Birnbaum’s Catalina 34 Surprise, and Jan Borjeson’s Elliott 1050 Basic Instinct. The top three teams received Tiburon Film Festival swag.
Best Corinthian Performance went to Charles James’ Tartan 30 Roxanne. Best Overall Performance went to Tim Russell on the J/105 Aquavit.
Check out our photo gallery of the weekend. Mark Littlefield sent us a video of Saturday’s ‘mark rounding from hell’; you can watch it on our movie page.
February 18, 2008
So close and yet so far. Looks like a raft-up drifting along together with their sails up. © 2008 Mark Littlefield