Moore 24 Nationals: Cruzin' for a Bruzin'

October 6, 2010

Cruzin' for a Bruzin' could have been the slogan of the Moore 24 Nationals held last Friday-Sunday in the Moore's hometown on Santa Cruz. In a moment of presience, the Moore 24 website even titled their pre-race promo 'Bruise in the Cruz'. Some bruisin' came from the wind-swept ocean, and some from Morgan Larson's Bruzer, which won four out of seven races to finish in first place. Scott Easom's Eight Ball also won four races, but finished two points behind Bruzer in the overall scoring. Philippe Kahn's Pegasus-MotionX took third, with six points separating them from Eight Ball.

A downwind line-up of Moores comes off the windward mark. ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

Conditions on Friday were light and only two races could be run. Saturday was almost perfect with ideal wind and only a little swell, so no big surfing but still fun. Sunday was the same only with a little cloud cover.

Ruben Gabriel, crewing on Peter Schoen and Roe Patterson's Mooretician, described the series: "The racing was so tough, one mistake and you lose five to six spots. We were saying that we are better sailors than this and tried to get it together. In the last race we were right behind Morgan Larson and finished second. That made us feel real good after the whole weekend."

Mooretician, Paramour and Numaboa drop off the back of a wave. ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

"We had 30 boats on the line and getting more each year," said Morgan. In comparison, "the J/24s had about 20 in their Nationals."

Ruben and wife Robbie are motivated now and plan on getting their own Moore 24 up and running for next year's Three Bridge Fiasco and beyond, with the plan of competing in the Roadmaster Series in 2011.

Crazy Eights rounds up. ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

And Adios rounds down. They came in fourth. ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

The crew of the lovely Ruby sets her pole. They finished second in the first race but were unable to stay within range of the trophies after that. ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

Wet Spot (#51) and fellow jibers. ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

Una Mas and more coming atcha. ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

Results can be found at http://scyc.org. Also be sure to check out photographer Erik Simonson's video on YouTube and Jeremy Leonard's detailed background story on Pressure-Drop.