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santa cruz race week
Saturday, May 26, was the windiest day at the Moore 24 Pacifi c Coast Championships, part of Made in Santa Cruz Race Week. With winds in the twenties and confused seas, boat damage and crew in the drink came into play. — photo Latitude/Chris
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It's been fi ve years since the fi rst Made in Santa Cruz Race Week. The event was a big hit with racers of various sailboat classes built in Santa Cruz County, and, as that week in May-June 2013 drew to a close, everyone wondered if there would be another one. Santa Cruz Yacht Club fulfi lled the wish this May with a redux in celebration of the club's 90th birthday.
The fi rst weekend, May 19-20, was set aside for PHRF 'big' boats, and only fi ve made it to the line, including one Santa Cruz 27 that would race the following weekend. A one-off precursor to the Olson 30, the SOB 30 Pacifi c High dominated the leaderboard in four races. The team of two couples (Susie and Don Snyder and Dennis and Rainy Bassano, the same old friends who conceived of the boat while delivering Merlin home from the 1977 Transpac along with George Olson and Ellen Neale) scored three bullets and threw out a third place. The Race Week took a break until Thursday, when two very different events were planned.
It seems as if every old salt in Santa Cruz has a little 8-ft Jester sailing dinghy in his garage. They don't get their bottoms wet as much as they used to (the boats, not the sailors), but Thursday's racing in the harbor drew 10 Jester sailors (all full-grown men). Joining them were eight El Toro sailors, including boys and girls and one woman. "The Jester makes the El Toro feel big," said Serge Pond, who's sailed both. Sailboat Data (www.sailboatdata. com) credits George Olson and Ron Moore with creating the Jester in 1970. Skip Allan says that they were based on a generic dinghy that was popular on the East Coast. One was on a foredeck of a visiting boat; someone went over and stole it, made a mold of it, and put it back, and that became the Jester. Skip says that the only way to jibe one when it's windy is, "You run it onto the beach, turn it around, and hop back in." The little boats were sent on four races out to the harbor mouth and back under overcast skies in puffy conditions. While the racing was going on outside, within the SCYC clubhouse a boatbuilding museum had popped up, a plaque was unveiled, and a tribute to the boatbuilders of Santa Cruz was about to begin. See
Sightings on pages 64-65 for that story.
On Memorial Day Weekend, the Moore 24s held their Pacific Coast Championship and the Santa Cruz 27s their Nationals. The forecast for Saturday called for wind up to 22 knots with gusts to 27 and a mixed swell topped by wind waves building to 5 feet. The white caps were coming in fast, making the scattered crab pots harder to see. In all three races that day, there were a couple of boats that didn't set spinnakers. In the fi rst race a few boats missed the offset mark at the top of the course. A little red ball, it was hard to see in the swell. An SC27 lost a crew overboard; he was picked up and taken into the harbor by the Moore 24 Pegasus's RIB. In the second start, the aggressively sailed Pegasus was over early and had to go back and clear themselves. (Their seventh-place fi nish in that race would be their throwout; their other regatta scores would be four fi rsts and one second.) Another Moore, Snafu, had a man overboard at the leeward gate; they got him right back onboard but dropped out. The SC27 Shibumi broke their tiller during the second race when they were tacking for the windward mark. Crew Anthony Murphy was half in the water and had to crawl hand over hand to get back up. A Moore 24, Mooretician, also broke a tiller during the second race. Peter Schoen had to fi nish the race steering with a stubby. They had a spare down below and switched it out before the third race. Peter said, "We'll be OK as long as we don't wipe out." And they didn't. He said that jibing is easier when they're surfi ng because there's less load. Adding to the toll, the Moore 24 Ruby blew up a kite when it snap-fi lled. A local asserted that these were typical spring conditions.
Traditionally, the Moore 24s have a race to Natural Bridges during regattas here, and the SC27 Nationals require a long-distance race. Those needs would be fulfi lled with Sunday's fi rst race. On the beat to the mark off Natural Bridges State Beach, Mooretician skipped ahead of Pegasus, but Pegasus regained the lead. The Moores got in two more races to fi nish up their PCCs; the SC27s raced one more on Sunday and two more on
Eventual 2018 Moore 24 Pacifi c Coast Champions, Philippe Kahn and crew on 'Pegasus'.
Monday. The Moore 24 awards ceremony recognized not just the new champions, but also the top boat with a female crew (third-place Mooretician's Erica Bryan) and the top boat with crew under 18 (fi fth-place Moore Wave*Ohs' Owen and Hayden Lahr and Jayden Benedict). More Uff Da won a prize for traveling the farthest (from Seattle). But when it came time to award the perpetual trophy the Pegasus team was the one called up. "There was no real light air, a little bit at the end of the third race today," reports the winning skipper, Philippe Kahn. He saw similar wind directions and a similar shift at the end of each day as it got lighter. About the race to Natural Bridges, he said, "I love the long races. I think we should do more long races, as opposed to just sausages. We could do a race to Soquel. We love the Moore 24." He's been focusing on sailing A-cats. "Sailing an A-cat in the conditions we have here — big waves and 20 knots — is something most people don't do. It's just a matter of becoming a better sailor." Bowman Cole Kerby has been sailing on Pegasus for fi ve years. "It was absolutely perfect conditions; Santa Cruz offered up a perfect venue once again.
Thursday's thoroughly entertaining dinghy races, clockwise from top left: Chris Watts topped the Jester fl eet; Bob Simpkins and Mark Voropayev focus upwind; Kyle Schaefer was the top junior El Toro sailor — and appeared to be having the most fun; Tom Burden topped the El Toro fl eet.
Sailing is relatively new for me," said the local surfer, "and I'm loving it."
The SC27s sailed in 12-15 knots in two more races on Monday. The Diola family fi nished 1-2-3 in the Nationals. Uncle Rick was aboard third-place Jersey Girl and Patrick Diola was aboard Hanalei. Evan Diola's Mistress Quickly fi nished fi rst. Evan had never won any kind of Nationals before; this was his third Nationals with the SC27 that he's had for fi ve years. The class has no weight limit, so Evan sails with six or seven guys. "It helps when it's windy; Saturday was windy for sure." At the awards ceremony, Saturday's MOB was given a swim noodle. Class president Barry Whittall said, "John not only went swimming, but he decided that he wanted to experience keelhauling." Skippers then went up one by one and chose a crewmember to praise for crew appreciation. The appreciated crew got to pick useful prizes. Swag and prizes were donated by West Marine, Davis Instruments, Santa Cruz Marine, Marine Tech, Pirate's Lair and Ullman Sails. The Dave Diola Memorial Trophy for the winner of the long-distance race went to Dave's son Evan. Next Bill Lee told the story of how the SC27 was conceived. "A 'quarter-pounder' at the time was about 24 feet. We took this 9-ft wide, 24-ft long boat and made it 8 feet wide and 27 feet long. We took all the IOR bumps off it, stretched out the waterline and overhangs, and that became the Santa Cruz 27." The fi rst one was Vanishing Girl. "George Olson
The winning SC27, 'Mistress Quickly' (left) and third-place boat, 'Jersey Girl', sail past Natural Bridges in Sunday's long-distance race.
Clockwise from upper left: Ron Moore hands the PCC trophy to Philippe Kahn; crew were Cole Kerby, Mark Christiansen and Shane Illidge. Tactician Roy Haslup steers 'Shibumi' with what's left of the tiller; Ryan, Diana and Rob Schuyler with the owner-driver trophy and Bill Lee; Andreas Kral, Brad Nieuwstad, Seth Cohen, Adam Borcherding, Peter Faronie and Evan Diola won the SC27 Nationals.
and Dennis Bassano did one called California Zephyr. Paul Daniel did one that became Jersey Girl. It wasn't actually until boat #37 that someone from Santa Cruz bought one." The SC27 class at one time had an owner-driver rule, then they opened it up so anyone could participate. But some high-powered professionals came in, so the class put the owner-driver rule back in. All the boats are now driven by owners, so the class wanted to retire the owner-driver trophy. Whoever's name is on the trophy the most — and is still alive — gets to keep it. The most frequent name on the trophy is Hanalei. "I've been to 36 Nationals," said Hanalei's Rob Schuyler. — latitude/chris
'Sumo' rounds up, but 'Summer Breeze' squeaks past. — photo Latitude/Chris
MADE IN SANTA CRUZ RACE WEEK, 5/19-20 (4r, 0t) PHRF— 1) Pacifi c High, SOB 30, Susie Snyder, 3 points; 2) Dr. Feelgood, Olson 29, John Mowry, 5; 3) Hanalei, SC27, Rob Schuyler, 8. (5 boats) 5/24 (4r, 0t) JESTER — 1) Yiikes!, Chris Watts, 11 points; 2) Ack Ack, We Come in Peace!, Mike Evans, 13; 3) Tequilla, Mike Holt, 13. (10 boats) EL TORO — 1) Warrior, Tom Burden, 4 points; 2) Tampala, James Savattone, 10; 3) #11747, Kyle Schaefer, 13. (8 boats) MOORE 24 PCCs, 5/26-27 (6r, 1t) 1) Pegasus, Philippe Kahn, 6 points; 2) Mooregasm, Steve Bourdow, 13; 3) Mooretician, Peter Schoen, 17; 4) Lowly Worm 2.0, Scott Nelson, 18. (17 boats) SANTA CRUZ 27 NATIONALS, 5/26-28 (7r, 1t) 1) Mistress Quickly, Evan Diola, 12 points; 2) Hanalei, Rob Schuyler, 20; 3) Jersey Girl, Greg Miller, 25. (15 boats)
Full results at www.regattanetwork.com
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