 North
Sails Race WeekOfficial Press Release |
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NORTH SAILS RACE WEEK Long Beach, Calif., June 22-24 Presented by Golison & Golison and Premiere Racing June 22, 2001 BIG WIND BLOWS CITA, CHAYAH AND ULLMAN TO VICTORIES LONG BEACH, Calif. - Robust conditions found men - and women - to match its muscle Friday when 160 boats in 15 classes met North Sails Race Week head-on. Opening day of the 17th year of Southern California's largest grand prix sailing event generated 16 knots of breeze with gusts to 20 that churned up a Maytag type of sea. Those who handled it best included Cita Litt's bright yellow Schock 40 Cita, boat of the week at Long Beach Race Week a week earlier; Oscar Krinsky's One-Design 48 Chayah, despite a lump on the owner's head, and Dave Ullman's Melges 24 with Olympic silver medalist Pease Glaser as tactician. Less fortunate was Long Beach's Mike Campbell, whose Andrews 52 Victoria, designed to the new Transpac 52 rule, lost its headstay while leading the PHRF-1 fleet near the end of the first windward leg and dropped out. Racing will continue with two races each Saturday and Sunday on three courses, including one for smaller boats inside the breakwater of the Long Beach outer harbor. Cita won all five races in last week's event and made it look even easier Friday. With George Twist driving, the non-conventional boat with the canting ballast bulb and fore and aft steering foils ran far away from the rest of the PHRF-2 fleet, which included two similar boats, over three laps of a windward-leeward course measuring 13 ½ total miles and finished third among the Farr 40s, which started five minutes earlier. John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti, with John Kostecki taking time off from his upcoming Volvo Ocean Race campaign to call tactics, and Alexandra Geremia's Crocodile Rock were the only Farr 40s Cita didn't catch. Ullman pulled a similar feat among 18 Melges 24s, showing the benefits of three days of practice before the event and the importance of that even after half a century of sailing all kinds of boats. Meanwhile, with Victoria gone, the battle of big boats fell to Krinsky's Chayah and Dennis Conner's Reichel/Pugh 50 Stars & Stripes. Conner finished 2 minutes 12 seconds ahead of Chayah but, with his minus-36 rating, owed the Chayah (minus-24) 12 seconds a mile. That was just enough for Chayah to correct out by 29 seconds.As it was, the Long Beach boat almost didn't get to the starting line on time. Helmsman Walter Johnson said, "We became aware we were in the [starting] sequence when we saw the P [code] flag come down on the committee boat with a minute to go. Fortunately, we were able to tack and start just to leeward of the fleet." Although Stars & Stripes led around every mark, Johnson said, "We just paced them, knowing that boat for boat they weren't going to outrun us." Later, near the pool at the Seaport Marina Hotel, Krinsky lifted his cap to display his battle wound: a dark red knot above his left eye. "I guess I was going one way and the runner block was going another way," he said. Gladiator, a Schock 35 from California YC that wasn't even on the entry list, won that class. Co-skippers Marc Skipwith and Ray Beckett had also been practicing in Long Beach this week but each thought the other had taken care of the entry process until two hours before the start. Then they won going away. "We were drinking beer by the time [the other boats] were finishing," Beckett said. Nautica Watches has joined North Sails and Team McLube on the Race Week sponsor team. Nautica features quality timepieces for on-water and onshore use. J/Boats, the Seaport Marina Hotel and Albertsons are among the Supporting Organizations. Sam Adams is the official beer. Saturday will be a special day. The SVIC Day of Racing and Post Race Party is presented by Silicon Valley Investment Capital, a member of the new Race Week Donor Program. Results and photos will be posted nightly at www.Premiere-Racing.com. Click on the North Sails Race Week logo and then the appropriate links. Class leaders (after 1 of 5 races): FARR 40 (14 boats) - Samba Pa Ti, John Kilroy, St. Francis YC. 1D35 (7) - Wild Thing, Chris and Kara Busch, San Diego YC. EXPRESS 37 (5) - Eclipse, Mark Dowdy/Bill Melbostad, San Francisco YC. SCHOCK 35 (13) - Gladiator, Mark Skipwith/Ray Beckett, California YC. F-BOATS (trimarans/12) - Merloc, H.L. (Loe) Enloe/Kurt German, Shoreline J/105 (11) - Incorrigible, Tom Carruthers/Harry Pattison, San Diego YC. J/120 (8) - Indigo, Scott Birnberg/Randy Smith, Long Beach YC. MELGES 24 (18) - USA 3, Dave Ullman/Pease Glaser, Balboa YC. SANTANA 20 (9) - Altitude Sickness, Chris Winnard, Southwestern YC. OLSON 30 (6) - Intense, Allan and Ron Rosenberg, Alamitos Bay YC. PHRF 1 (11) - Chayah (1D48), Oscar Krinsky, Alamitos Bay YC. PHRF 2 (13) - Cita (Schock 40), Cita Litt, Lido Isle YC. PHRF 3 (11) - Silhouette (Beneteau 40.7, Warren Gross, San Diego YC. PHRF 4 (11) - Chimera (Baltic 38), O'Conor/Hoenemeyer/Johnstone, California PHRF 5 (11) - Whisper (S2 9.1), Al Berg/Stuart Cram, Santa Monica Results and photos will be posted nightly at www.YachtRacing.com
CONTACTS Premiere Racing: (781) 639-9545 PUBLICITY |