oyra winners

Last month we told you we d bring you the one-design and off¬ shore winners for the 1981 season in this issue. We were half right. Due to the scheduling of the banquets for the respective winners, we decided to present the OYRA and MORA champions on/y. We think we got them right, but this is a complicated game; there were spring winners, fall winners, overall winners, individual race winners, etc. It took some figuring out as to who to feature and who not to. In any case, here's our wrap-up.

Crew of Stuff, with skipper Bill Twist, upper right.

IOR I —' Danforth Series

Leading Lady, Peterson 40, Bruce Munro/Stan Reisch, Los Altos. Crew.- Chuck Artigues, Ted Wilson, Mike Dias, Rob Sharnau, Bob Bergtholdt, Warren Seward, Russ Boudreau, Ken Munro and Jessa TeWalt.

Bruce Munro considered the big boat division one of the most competitive he s sailed in during his eight years of racing the spring Danforth series. Providing good competition were Wings, Sioc, Irra¬ tional, Monique, Scaramouche and High Noon. Bruce knows one of the key elements to success on the ocean is keeping your concentra¬ tion up. Personally he was always thinking and talking about the race, keeping attention focused on sail trim; boat speed, where the wind was, etc. On the ocean, there’s a tendency to lower your in¬ tensity and its the skipper’s job to keep everyone interested.”

IOR I — Gulf of Farallones Series

Monique, Farr 2-Ton, Chris Gasparich, Alameda. Crew.- Paul Wood, George Nagel, John Warnlove, Tom Jones, Steve Graham, Hank Lindeman, and Brad Clerk.

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Chris Gasparich wasn’t particularly joyous about his second half of the season win. “We were the only Class A boat in the Half Moon Bay Race!" he said. Ffe was disappointed neither Wings or Swiftsure made an appearance for the seaon finale. Against the division II IOR boats, Monique took a fourth correct in the Half Moon Bay Race.

This is Chris’s third year with Monique, and his first win. He finds the Farr-design, with lots of wetted surface, a great boat in any kind of breeze, but sometimes on the light, lumpy ocean races they suffer. Before Monique, Chris campaigned the PJ43 Sunchaser for four years in the ocean series.

IOR II — Danforth Series * Stuff, Chaser 33, Bill Twist, San Francisco. Crew: Rob Moore, Peter Daly, Jack Adams. Chris Viering, Mathew Quint, J.B. Bateman, Beth Ailing. Jeff Gardner and Dave Lapier.

Bill Twist and his Stuffcrew not only won their division in the Dan¬ forth, but took the overall IOR trophy for the series as well. They started slowly in the Schoonmaker-Stewart Lightship race, hitting the wrong side of the course and finishing well back. From then on, though, they led the pack. Going into the last race they were tied with Bob Klein’s Amateur Hour. Sailing the finale in thick fog, they never knew how they stood. They sailed hard all night, taking the , rhumb line course;.when the mist cleared they wound up second in • the division and third overall, enough to give them the win over both

Amateur Hour and Division As Leading Lady.

Bruce Munro. right.

Bill has owned Stuff, a Peterson 3/4 Ton, for four years. He’s had great success with her, winning the Golden Gate mid-winters four times and the Danforth and Gulf of Farallones in 1980. He finds the boat very well suited for the varied ocean conditions. They go better outside the Gate than on the bay, where they’re often overpowered in strong winds. * >

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With ocean waves sometimes traveling at 20 knots, each one you catch shoves you ahead. Jim’s surprised more boats don’t use the same technique.

PHRO II — Hal Nelson Series

Desperado, Pearson 10M, Jaime Muniz, Sausalito. Crew-. Ted Turner, Pat Uhl, Jim Aubrey, Dale McKeag, Gary Watson. Jeff Gething, Kara Haluorsen, Bank of America.

This was Jaime’s first season on the ocean, following sessions with the Sausalito Cruising Club midwinters and the YRA. He says his crew goaded him into racing out the Gate and he’s glad'now he took

jim Cate.

Magic Too, Wylie 34, Roy Raphael, Richmond. Crew: Guy Raphael, Tom Wylie, Tom Krace, Kim 'Desenberg, Ian Klitza.

Roy Raphael attributes his victory to a super crew, which included four good drivers. By rotating the person on the helm frequently, they kept their speed up ail the time. Roy sees boat speed as the most crucial factor on the ocean, whereas boat handling is more important on the bay. He also gave thanks to his Loran, without which he feels they couldn’t have done well in the foggy races.

Roy’s major competition came from the other Wylie 34’s in the fleet: Killer Duck, Leading Edge, and Unlikely. Monique was a threat as well.

PHRO I — Hal Nelson & George Gester Series

Temptress, Swede 55, Jim Walton, Danville. Crew• Mike Monahan, Matt Blake, J.R. Buckinham, Garrett Walton, Bill Albers, Jeanine Stojkovtch.

Jim feels consistency was the key to his triumph in both halves of the season. After winning a couple of the early races, his rating drop¬ ped from 78 PHRF to 66. Mistress plidn’t win any races after that, but still managed to sail well enough to win overall. “It’s pretty hard to keep an eye on your competition when you give them 30 seconds a mile!” Jim even offered a winning formula for the rest of the fleet, suggesting they sail well and dog the Swede 55 around the course and they’d probably correct out the winner.

Jim finds that high pointing ability isn’t as crucial on the ocean as the bay. Often it pays to foot fast rather than jam the boat up into the wind. Downwind there are big benefits to be reaped from surfing.

Bill Carter, above, says "the reason they're called Perpetual Trophies is because-we're perpetually trying to get them returned!"

their advice. Weather-wise they had perfect sailing weather for the first three races and some fog after that. They never had any really rough sailing, which Jaime had worried about before the season.

Desperado’s main competition came from Wave Length and Mist II. Jaime gives much credit to his crew’s consistent performance. The hardest part of ocean sailing is keeping everyone’s mind on the race, but they still find'time to relax and tinker with sail trim to generate more boat speed. They relied on dead reckoning for navigation, along with keeping a sharp eye out for boats with Loran antennas and following them!

PHRO H — George Gester Series

Mist II, Columbia 36, Ray Sieker, Belmont. Crew. Ken Popplewell, Ken Iriouya, Nancy Hine, Mike Southerland, Rick Wolfrom, Mike MacIntyre, and Alan Hollingsworth.

Ray Sieker loves to sail out on the ocean, where, he says, “you get

Jim Walton.

away from the rat race and it’s relaxing even though you’re racing.” He’s been competing outside the Gate for five years in Mist II. This year he found the best rivals in Desperado, Wave Length, Scrapper, and Gypsy. Mist Ifs success came from a good crew and being wise to the situations. In light air, says Ray, they picked the right place to be at the right time, a skill they’ve picked up over the years. They navigate by dead reckoning, and Ray maintains the fog doesn’t disturb them.

MORA I

Rocinante, Yankee 30, Alex Malaccorto, San Jose. Crew: Bill Childers, Daphne Richardson, Beth Summers, Rich Wiedenweg, and Joshua Lindsay.

After three years of campaigning in the ocean, Alex and his crew have learned which way to go most of the time. Their level of skill has also risen to the point.where there are enough good helmspersons aboard to keep going fast both upwind and down. Two of the lessons they ve learned are 1) when beating up or down the coast, stay in¬ shore and play the lifts off the cliffs and 2) when it’s foggy, go for the blue sky because that’s where the wind is.

The ocean, Alex says, demands more seamanship that the bay. It also requires fighting with yourself to maintain optimum perfor¬ mance. He s found that a lot of races are won or lost by less than a minute, which means any slacking off can be deadly. Rocinanate flew a mylar 150% jib with a very narrow “groove”. The difference between being in or out of the “groove” was three quarters of a knot! That’s part of why they rotated the helm every half hour to keep the steering sharp. ALL PHOTOS BY

MORA II 86ED, Santa Cruz 27, Rolf Soltau, Campbell. Crew: David Hodges, Doug Hodge^-.and alternates.

Rolf found his best competitors were Bloody Mary, Saint Anne and Rocinante during the first half of the season, and the new Ex¬ press 27 and Felony in the second half. He feels crew consistency and brand new sails helped him win his second Division II title in three years. Rolf likes the ocean, which he finds less hectic than the bay. He considers it more of a thinking game out there, whereas the bay requires more muscle. He also greatly enjoys the camaraderie of the MORA sailors. “We’re a nice, tight group,” he says.

MORA IOR

Saint Anne, Olson 30, Richard Heckman, Castro Valley. Crew. Bruce Heckman, Mark Heckman, Wally Hanson, Dave Hankel, Donny Dixen, Varon Smith.

Richard was pleased and surprised at Saint Anne’s victory. After sailing his Santana 27 Quetzal for many years in MORA, he began to

Alex Malaccorto. right.

notice the boats that finished before sunset often did well on cor¬ rected time. This was due simply to the fact that the wind shuts down at dusk and the smaller or heavier boats still out on the course suffer. His new Olson 30 (named after, as he puts it, “me dear sainted mother! ”) gave him the speed needed to pull off both first to finish and corrected time honors. Richard also loves to surf out in the ocean, and the ULDB Olson 30 is perfect for that.

Richard felt pressed in the spring series by Tequila Sunrise and in the fall by Felony. They gave a lot of time to Tequila Sunrise and knew if they saw her they were in trouble. Felony, the new Pyramid 30, rated similar to Saint Anne.

LATITUDE 38/SHIMON

SANTANA 35

Dream Machine, John Aitken, Atherton. Crew-. John Chris¬ tianson and Ed Lehmar (both partners in the boat), Dr. Jim Boso,

John recalls the Farallone race as the most exciting. Dream Machine carried a two-mile lead around the islands, but Wide Load and Friendship managed to claw their way up, making it a three way battle coming under the bridge. Friendship eventually triumphed by one second — after 60 miles of racing!

John was also particularly proud of his navigator, Dr. Boso, who relied completely on dead reckoning, and the fact that they were us¬ ing two year old sails.

Association of Singlehanders (ASH) Dominique, Yankee 30, James Cate, Jr., Livermore.

Competing in his third ASH campaign, Jim finds he no longer has to screw up his courage to face going out on the ocean alone. “Now it’s like any other race,” he says, “only you work harder and there’s no one to shout at.” He also found one of the benefits of solo sailing is not having to buy all that beer for the crew.

Jim used both RDF and dead reckoning to navigate. In the foggy

John Aitken artd son "JM.

Fred Lahr, Jerry Tameo, Willie Jensen, Steve Aldridge.

“We were not the greatest sailors out there,” says John Aitken, “but we had a positive attitude and we always tried hard.” Last year, Dream Machine’s first, saw them at the bottom of the fleet, but one year of experience got them into the game for the 1981 season. The one-design fleet started off with 12 boats and eventually came down to five or six serious entries, especially Wide Load, which challenged Dream Machine for the title.

The crew of Desperado, skipper Jaime Muniz second from left.

Jim Ong triangle race he found himself lost on the approach to Duxbury. He hooked up with two boats carrying Loran, only to find out that they, too, didn’t know where they were!

Jim’s main competition came from Hans Vielhauer’s Chaparral at the beginning of the year, and from two very dissimilar craft at the season’s end. He gave 42 seconds a mile to John Hendrick’s Surf, a modified Santana 20, and received 72 seconds a mile from Frank Dinsmore’s Francis Who?, an Olson 30. “We spread out rather quickly after the start,” says Jim, “and I didn’t see much of them for the whole race.”