THE RACING
Star Lipton Cup With the class's North American Championship coming up in Marina Del Rey later this month, the Santa Barbara YC-hosted Star Lipton Cup — doubling as the District 5 Champs — was bound to have a quality fleet. It didn't disappoint. Steeped in tradition that's nearly a century old, the Star Boat has some unique pr otocols. For instance, when you've won a World Championship in the class of all Olympic classes, you get to change the colDr. Lee Kellerhouse, still or of your class charging hard in Stars. insignia to gold. At the Lipton Cup — dedicated to the Star Class for the last forty years after being deeded to the Yacht Club in 1923 — on July 10-11, there were three gold stars flying among the nineteen boats. One belonged to George Szabo, the '09 World Champion who would end the regatta in fourth place sailing on a borrowed boat with Isao Toyama in the hiking harness. Another belonged to Louis Vuitton Cup veteran and '99 World Champion Eric Doyle, sailing with another Louis Vuitton Cup veteran John Ziskind, who finished third. The third gold star belonged to Mark Reynolds and Hal Haenel, who between them have a few Olympic medals also.
LATITUDE/ROB
You might recognize these two . . . Hal Haenel, left and Mark Reynolds, winners of the '10 District 5's.
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But who finished second? Steve Gould and Greg Sieck. Who? In a class where the top finishers usually have more name recognition than just about any other sailors, these two ended up in second in a loaded top five that was rounded out by longtime Pyewacket regular Ben Mitchell and crew Mike Marzhal. It turns out that Gould, a resident of San Francisco, and Sieck who lives in Mill Valley, sail out of St. Francis YC, which surprised us, because other than the odd year where the Joe Logan Trophy is the District Championship, we didn't know that there had been any kind of Star boat presence on the Bay in a long time. After a short delay on Saturday, the breeze filled from the south at 6 to 8 knots. After four races, Reynolds and Haenel led Gould and Sieck by just two points with Doyle and Ziskind another seven points back. Saturday night was reserved for a 40th birthday celebration for Szabo, and while we'd like to tell you all the gory details, bear in mind that Star crew are typically very big and strong dudes. Sunday morning rolled around looking like what many of the sailors' heads must have felt like — gloomy. It wasn't looking promising to begin with, but the sun finally popped through during the first of the day's three races and brought 8 to 10 knots. Reynolds and Haenel recovered from a seventh in the first race — their throwout — to win by a seven-point margin. Doyle and Ziskind slid into third by winning the final race. When we asked Gould if they ever sail their boat on the Bay, their response was something along the lines of 'not if we can help it; it's cold.' After July's weather, we couldn't agree more. We were asked to fill in as crew with Dr. Lee Kellerhouse. A retired radiologist, Kellerhouse is 74 years old and still sailing hard in the Star Class. It had been more than a decade since we last sailed on a Star, and after three races, we were amazed to find out that Kellerhouse's only concessions to getting older aboard these physically chal-
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LATITUDE/ROB
Thank heavens August is here; hopefully we'll get some weather that resembles summer for a change. In this month's Racing Sheet, we take a look at the Star Lipton Cup, then it's on to the Bay View Boat Club's visually-appealing Plastic Classic Regatta. Following that, we head back South for Ullman Sails' Long Beach Race Week. Then we come right back to the Bay for the Sperry Topsider N.O.O.D. Regatta. After that, it's time to honor a group of successful Beer Can Challengers before heading for the mountains and the Trans Tahoe Regatta. The Westpoint Marina Regatta gets a belated look and finally we check in with the El Toro Jr. North Americans. Enjoy!
lenging boats are a couple modfications to his boat's barney post to allow him faster passage under the low boom during tacks. He was incredibly patient with us even though we probably cost him a couple places in the regatta, and had to bail during de-rigging to get photos and do the whole work thing. After meeting guys like Kellerhouse, and Ernie Rideout, who won the Santana 22 Nationals at the age of 89, we can't help but think that there's no excuse to get out there and sail hard. Complete results are up at www.starclass.org. Plastic Classics Invoke the word "classic" for any regatta around the world and you're likely to make a sailor think of wooden boats, but the Bay View Boat Club's Plastic Classic regatta is as steeped in history as the vintage fiberglass boats that make up its fleet. With a banner turnout of 53 boats with a design vintage at least 25 yearsold, the event, held on July 17, shows that you don't have to be wood to be good. With everything ranging from a few Lasers to a 40-ft yawl, this year's event
