photo by Sharon Green

Friday, July 27, 2012

Fiesta Cup Wrap Up


Here is Jeff's article for the Farr 40 West Coast site:
Steve Murphy’s JoAnn posted two bullets in Sunday’s two races to be the only boat to win two races and came from behind to take the victory in a tiebreaker with Jeff Janov’s Dark Star. JoAnn’s weekend didn’t begin so well as they fouled in the first race of the regatta and took a scoring penalty to post a 5th. From there the JoAnn team of Andrew Campbell, Karen Campbell, David Stotler, Sam Heck, Stacie Straw, Christine Perakis, Ray Winstead and Jeff Shenton just got better and better. The racing was tight all weekend with Bill Durant and Jeff Shew’s Viva La Vida completing the podium in third, two points back.
Saturday’s conditions started with 6-8 knots of breeze steadily increasing to 14-15 knots by the end of the final race. The fleet was excited to compete against two new boats making their debut at a Farr 40 West Coast Fleet event. Wild Thing, owned by Rhonda Tolar, and Flyer, owned by Stanford Shaw, made their presence known with solid racing all weekend. Saturday’s races consisted of two and three lap courses with tight mark roundings and crew work at a premium. Three different boats won the three races and scores were tight at the end of the first day. As the crews retired to the yacht club for free margaritas, beer and Mexican cuisine, the scores showed Dark Star in the lead on a tie-breaker with Viva La Vida. JoAnn was two points back in 3rd and Skian Dhu another point back in 4th.  Foil held a one-point lead over White Knight for 5th and Wild Thing was two points ahead of Flyer for bragging rights of the new boats to the fleet.
Sunday’s conditions were similar to Saturday, except the wind took a little longer to build into the teens.  The first beat of the first race saw better pressure on the left and JoAnn pounced on it leading wire to wire with Dark Star second and Viva La Vida recovering to third. Skian Dhu was unable to recover from an over early effectively taking them out of contention for overall. This left Dark Star, Viva La Vida and JoAnn with only one point separating them. Each boat had won one race, so whoever won the final race would win! JoAnn got off the line well near the boat end with Dark Star slightly to leeward and Viva La Vida further down the line. JoAnn made the most of getting to the right side first and led at the top mark. From there JoAnn sailed conservatively and protected the right side to win the final race and the regatta! Gordon Leon’s Foil, showed they had been working hard practicing and was able to have their best race in the finale to beat White Knight for 5th place. Complete results are below.
The final event of the 2012 Season is Campbell Cup at Long Beach Yacht Club in October.

RankBoatSailNoHelmNameR1R2R3R4R5Total
1st
JoAnn
46957
Steve Murphy
5 SCP
2
2
1
1
11
2nd
Dark Star
80808
Jeff Janov
2
4
1
2
2
11
3rd
Viva La Vida
131
Bill Durant / Jeffrey Shew
1
3
3
3
3
13
4th
Skian Dhu
51044
Dirk Freeland / Jeff Grange
5
1
4
5
6
21
5th
Foil
50060
Gordon Leon
6
5
5
7
4
27
6th
White Knight
888
Zoltan Katinszky/Tom Bodkin/John Forbes
4
7
6
6
5
28
7th
Wild Thing
USA41
Rhonda Tolar
7
6
8
4
8
33
8th
Flyer
104
Stanford shaw
8
8
7
8
7
38

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Fiesta Cup update

We are in fourth, but only three points out of first. Yesterday was a beautiful day on the water. The fog cleared leaving aquamarine water, sunny skies, and building breeze. Crew worked well together and we had a lot of fun. Finished 5, 1, 4. Here are some photos from our second race as we head into the finish.

Dirk with all the competition behind him!

Nice when there are no boats between you and the finish line!

And here's Lucas hanging with the Dark Star crew. They said he was a great addition, though I think his parents were conflicted about rooting for their son versus the Santa Barbara boats!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Fiesta Cup practice 7/20/12

Skian Dhu got some new 3Di sails and we took her out yesterday to check them out. It was a beautiful Santa Barbara day; maybe a little too windy for the new light. Hoping the breeze stays for racing today.

Go Skian Dhu!





Thursday, July 19, 2012

Fiesta Cup 2012

Looking forward to Fiesta Cup in Santa Barbara. Skian Dhu will be practicing tomorrow to prepare for the weekend's festivities. Eight Farr 40s will competing for the Fiesta Cup this year.

Go Skian Dhu!