19 Moores flocked home to Santa Cruz this past weekend, to sail in conditions that make SCYC proud to host the Pacific Coast Championships.
With all of the GOTB passion poured into the event and folks doing whatever it takes to get a boat and a crew together, Saturday’s 20-25 right off the bat boasted some excellent wipeouts, gear failures, surfing, and DNF’s / DNS’s.
Straight from the DOB (Driver over board) on Gruntled:
"Ohhh that dipping bow is just such seductive feeling and then comes the zoom and the loss of any tension in the sheets. Dive low as you can and that leeward gate is a few yards closer. Go too far and that roll to weather will stop ya dead and prolly take your spin pole with it, OR, you could just lose your foot hold and join the circus!
Without so much as a peep, we’re told that Bart did a perfect back flip right outta the boat, though the Olympic committee did dock him a few points for dragging one hand over the deck to grab the sheet that would save him. The small curl on the luff of the spin never changed and before too long, and before we lost a single position, Bart was back in the southern half of the cockpit where he belongs."
Sunday toned it down a notch, but still into #3 territory as everyone settled into their stride. Philippe on Pegasus thanked heavy air as the equalizer, that allowed them to recover easily despite an over early on the ocean race. After last year’s exploration of a Moore 24 without winches, they were even happy to have them this time.
Pegasus’s Cole Kerby took home the perpetual and a super cool adirondack throne - the most lux of three furniture trophies generously made by Scott Nelson of Lowly Worm. Banditos with guest driver Dave Hodges took second, and Gruntled cleared the SCYC deck with compressed sparkling cider while accepting their bronze.
Next stop Stockton!
