Bold Forbes By A Nose, Samba Pa Ti Plays It Cool In Clincher: North Sails Race Week Crowns New Champions in 20th Anniversary Regatta

LONG BEACH, Calif.---Bold Forbes, the boat, is on track to achieve what Bold Forbes and Smarty Jones, the horses, couldn't manage: win a Triple Crown of sorts.

Crocodile Rock chases Samba Pa Ti to first place in Farr 49 class at North Sails Race Week. Photo © Rich Roberts

Jack Franco drove Ed Cummins' J/105, recent winner of Southern California's prestigious Lipton Cup for Balboa Yacht Club, as it ran down Dennis and Sharon Case's Wings in the stretch to claim victory in the largest class of the 20th North Sails Race Week Sunday on a tiebreaker.

The photo finish triumph also brought Bold Forbes the Boat of the Week award as winner of the most competitive class.

Cummins now plans to campaign the boat throughout the country, including the New York Yacht Club's Race Week in July and the J/105 Nationals at Marion, Mass. in September the third jewel of the crown.

Wings, a steady contender from San Diego, sailed into the last of six races with a seven-point lead, but weather conditions---a stark switch from the first two days of breezy southwesterlies---were made to order for shuffling fleets.

In light southeasterly air of 8 to 9 knots oscillating through 30 degrees, Bold Forbes, named for the 1976 Kentucky Derby winner, finished second behind Tom Coates' Charade as Wings struggled to ninth place.

That left them tied at 24 points, and since each had one win it was Bold Forbes' two seconds to Wings' one that nailed the tiebreaker.

Bold Forbes started quietly with an 11th place in the Friday race, then settled into a 3-2-1-5-2 groove. Partway through the last race Sunday when they saw Wings get tangled up in a crowd of boats, Franco said to the crew, "Hey, guys, we can win this thing."

Pete Heck drives Jay Steinbeck's Margaritaville, recently modified from a Farr 50 into an Andrews 52. Margaritaville, despite a minus-60 handicap, placed second overall in the PHRF 1 fleet. Photo © Rich Roberts

In the marquee Farr 40 class, John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti sailed into the last day with a seemingly insurmountable lead.
Forget seemingly.

Scott Harris and Alexandra Geremia's Crocodile Rock took its best shot by winning the first of two races, with Samba Pa Ti fourth, but even with some aggressive pre-race match racing---Chris Larson calling tactics for Crocodile, Paul Cayard for Samba---the best the Crocodiles could do was to cut the margin in half with a third to Samba's sixth in the last race.

It was Samba Pa Ti's fourth win in as many Farr 40 events in Southern California recently, with the class Worlds at San Francisco in September as the goal.

"I don't feel we're perfect, but we have upward momentum," Kilroy said.

With the hard campaigning, Kilroy said, "I'm lucky to have the most supportive sailing wife in the world. Catherine was captain of the Brown sailing team."

Crocodile rode Samba deep past the pin end before the last start, and Samba issue.

"We just said, 'We're going to be conservative and not take any chances,' "Kilroy said. We knew it was going to be dicey."

Oscar Krinsky's 1D48, Chayah, from Long Beach, with Walter Johnson driving, won out among the event's biggest boats in PHRF 1. But Jay Steinbeck's Margaritaville, a newly modified Andrews 52, found the light wind to its liking. With a minus 60 rating that had it giving 40 seconds per mile to Chayah and the other 1D48, Lew Beery's It's OK, Margaritaville, with Pete Heck driving, continued to finish far ahead in every race but this time won and finished third on corrected handicap time, as well, leaving it second overall.

Given a choice of conditions, Steinbeck said, "Light air is much better for us. It's the weight of the boat relative to the sail area."

Heck said, "We have an overlapping jib we use in light air that nobody else had."

Their closest competition, boat for boat, came from Alec Oberschmidt's Reichel/Pugh 50, Staghound, with North Sails president Gary Weisman as tactician.

Heck said, "The results don't show how well those guys sailed. I told our guys, 'We're racing Staghound. We can't see the other guys back there.' "

Samba Pa Ti's crew in action at the windward mark. Tactician Paul Cayard is at far left, owner/driver John Kilroy third from left. Photo © Rich Roberts

John Carroll's Arana, a heavy 24-year-old Dencho 51, suffered in the light air with a ninth and a fifth but held onto first place in PHRF 2 for a two by two points over Paul Kent's Farr 395, Chance, from San Francisco.

Kent's team collected the Lydia Kent Family Trophy for the best family performance. The award is named for his late mother, who lived in Long Beach. The crew included Kent's brother Steve and sons Robert and Peter.

The biggest surprise winner was Gary Mozer, a 44-year-old real estate investor from Long Beach, in the six-boat J/109 class. It was Mozer's first regatta. He started taking sailing lessons three months ago, took delivery of his boat one week before the event and after two days of practice, with some help from an able amateur crew, drove it to three wins, two seconds and a third.

He said he knows "it's not that easy. We worked very hard. It's concentration and teamwork. Just watch the telltales on the jib and listen to what your crew is telling you."

Bruce Ayres' Monsoon team won five consecutive Melges 24 races before stumbling in the last one.

Ayres' brother Don, a crew member, said, "We had a bad start, missed one shift and that was it."

They dropped out, knowing they were already assured of first place.

"It would have been nice to have that other first, though" Don Ayres said.

Some of the one-designs also sailed for class championships. Samba Pa Ti and Dave Voss's Schock 35, Piranha, won their Pacific Coast titles, and Chris Winnard's Disaster Area crew from San Diego won the Santa 20 Western Regionals.

Piranha won four of six races---including the last after returning to the line from an early start.

Dick Velthoen and Paul De Freitas' J/35 Rival was named PHRF Boat of the Week for its victory in PHRF 4, with no finish worse than third among 12 boats.

Long time supporter North Sails is the event's title sponsor and Nautica Watches the official timekeeper and day sponsor. Supporting sponsors Samson Rope Technologies and Raymarine are the official rope and marine electronics companies, respectively. Official supplier, Rigworks, is the official rigging company for race week.

The Seaport Marina Hotel is the official site and hotel(www.SeaportMarinaHotel.com). The Ayers Hotel at Seal Beach is also an official hotel (www.AyresHotels.com).