THE RACING What do you put in Racing Sheet when there's been no actual racing? Here's what: Spinning and Drifting into the Bay Area; Beer Can Zooming with RYC; and Santa Cruz YC Checks In. A few more Midwinter Series finalized results. We're sad to ring eight bells for our old friend and skipper Paul Plotts. Race Notes wraps up this shorter-than-usual May edition. deal, and I became a new boat owner about three weeks before the Rolex Big Boat Series, sponsored by St. Francis YC each September. The Express 37s have been a fixture at this series for nearly 30 years. After a few phone calls and a fair bit of shekels, I had entered my first regatta as skipper of a boat over 30 feet long. It's not hard to convince sailors in SPINDRIFT V
Spinning and Drifting into the Bay Area I always knew sailing on the Bay was the place to be. For the last 10 years I was regular crew on several boats, from Moore 24s to the 72-ft Tanton Velos. Spring 2019 brought the opportunity to set up an Oyster 56 for the Transpac, and then it was back to the Bay for the fall sailing scene.
'Spindrift V's 2019 Rolex Big Boat Series crew, left to right: Jerry Vanderveen, Kurt Lahr, Andy Schwenk, Jeff Vernon, Brian Parr, Brooke Miller, Vaughn Seifers, Jeff Kise and Toné Chin.
One day I was working in a local boatyard when an Express 37, Spindrift V, that was coming in for survey, had a particularly hard mooring mix-up, and the prospective buyer walked on the transaction. The broker was ready to Page 80 •
Latitude 38
• May, 2020
my old stomping ground of the Pacific Northwest to come enjoy some California sunshine. If you and your pals are built like me and mine, you don't need too many, as the Express 37 class limit is 1,825 lbs of crew weight. With updated
safety equipment and the class-required checklist checked off, we were off to the hospitality tent to formulate our strategy. The old owner had a veritable plethora of sails in his basement. The fact that the newest in the pile dated to the mid-'90s didn't bug me — hell, I was a big-boat owner now. Of course my crew wasn't as kind. On the way to the first start on Thursday one of them queried if we were sailing in the Classics division. Undaunted, we had a solid first leg and were arguably leading at one point on the run when the spinnaker split seam to seam. We rehoisted an older, heavier kite, took a big gamble on the next beat, and finished fourth outta six. Fortunately for us, uncommonly light breeze held out for another day. Even though we finished dead last, optimism prevailed on the second day, and we felt like our plan was coming together. We got a surprisingly good start in a building breeze on Saturday and held on for our first podium finish of the series. This newfound confidence led to a round-down of epic proportions in the second race, followed by the requisite yard sale of anything not bolted down in the cockpit. Even though we weren't last, it kinda felt that way. Sunday featured the Bay tour in plenty of breeze, and the mighty Spindrift V proved there was still a little magic in those old threads. We finished in a solid second place — a terrific team effort. Making it happen were Jerry Vanderveen, a delivery skipper by day out of Mt. Vernon, WA, who serves on the local sewer board and is a budding thespian. He did pit and navigated. I kept the ice box full and got a couple of good starts. Kurt Lahr from Richmond YC only sailed Sunday because now he thinks he's a paddler, but the fact both his kids got full-ride sailing scholarships to bigtime colleges would suggest otherwise. No bribes suspected — I have sailed with both his son and daughter, and they're that good. Jeff Vernon from Bellingham, WA, worked the bow. He has the Melges 24 Cougar Hunter and raises snakes. He's fearless and doesn't talk back. Brian Parr, an arborist out of Seattle, doesn't need winches even on windy days. He's strong like ox, smart like fox. Every crew needs a foundation to build on. Brian was ours. Brooke Miller is a Santuna 22 sailor from Phoenix, AZ, associated with the Magnum Racing syndicate. The star-
