- Jimmy Praley Seals Viper 640 NAs In Final Race September 25, 2023
The 2023 Viper 640 North American Championship sponsored by BMO Private Wealth was held this past weekend (Sept. 22-24) at Nepean Sailing Club in Ottawa, ON. Sailing on Lac Deschênes, the competitors found challenging conditions across the three days.
On Friday, a shore postponement delayed the start for an hour until minimal breezes filled in. One race was gotten off but the second one was abandoned due to a major wind shift – shifts would be the story all weekend. Saturday’s racing was also limited to a single race despite the race committee’s efforts to relocate the course to various parts of the lake.
It wasn’t until Sunday that there was wind. An amendment to the NoR had been posted earlier allowing for five vs. only four races a day. The RC maximized that option completing five races Sunday for a seven-race ...
...read more - Viper Worlds wrap-up video April 11, 2023
Icarus Media did a bang-up job covering the All State Sugarbowl 2023 Viper 640 World Championship two weeks ago at Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans. Here’s their wrap-up video.
Viper 640 Worlds videos
...read more - Allstate Sugarbowl 2023 Viper 640 World Championship – Final Report April 3, 2023
Jackson Benvenutti Goes Wire-To-Wire to Win Allstate Sugar Bowl 2023 Viper World Championships
New Orleans, LA (March 31, 2023) – The Allstate Sugar Bowl Viper 640 World Championship experienced the extremes of Lake Pontchartrain this week, when it started Monday with no wind and no racing, then finished Friday with too much wind that canceled races after the first one.
But Jackson Benvenutti of Southern Yacht Club sailed to high finishes through all the conditions, scoring only 23 points the whole week to edge out second place Brad Boston of Windsor, Canada, who finished with 27 points.
Benvenutti with his crew Christopher Alexander and Andrew Eagan never lost first place throughout the regatta, although they were tied with Boston after the second day of racing. Overall, Benvenutti took five firsts out of the ten races sailed. Boston took fourth in Friday’s race, sailing ...
...read more - Rachel Beardsley wins Women’s NAs and Michael Burns wins Youth NAs October 17, 2022
October 16, 2022
Viper 640 2022 Women’s and Youth North American Championships
Gulfport (MS) Yacht Club has turned into Viper 640 Central this weekend through next. The weekend of October 15-16, Gulfport Yacht Club hosted the second Viper 640 Women’s NAs and the Class’s first Youth NAs. GYC PRO Steve Nolte got in a full schedule of eight races over the two days commenting, “The sailors came to sail and we had the time and ideal conditions for a final race today…so we went for it. It didn’t change any of the finishing positions, but the sailors got to spend another hour racing in today’s ideal conditions of 7-10 knots.”
Conditions for the regatta tended to be in the 5-7 knot range with only the final heat seeing 9-10 knot on the course.
The 2022 Women’s North American Champion is Rachel Beardsley (Shelter Island, ...
...read more - Vipers in Miami – The Bacardi Invitational 2022 March 31, 2022
Sunshine, warm weather and a strong sea breeze on Biscayne Bay welcomed a very international group of Viper sailors in Miami for the Bacardi Invitational Regatta. Add in the Bacardi hospitality and the night life in Coconut Grove and you have all the elements of a great sailing event.
We started the week with the traditional Miami Scorch, a fun race across Biscayne Bay to the Boaters Grill where we were warmly welcomed with cold beer and Cuban style seafood.
The return race (LeMans start) showed valiant seamanship as teams worked to fix inter-team attempts at minor sabotage while flying spinnakers out of the tiny harbor (the Mambo King turned into the Mambo Joker….).
The visiting teams from Ireland (perennial Bacardi participant Anthony O’Leary and his crew of Clive O’Shea and Neal Fulcher) on 296 and Italy (Oriano Lanfranconi and Giulia Puccetti, who ...
...read more - 2022 Bacardi Invitational Regatta Final Recap March 18, 2022
Here is another amazing video from Miami courtesy of Skylla Filmworks. This really sums up what it is like to sail a Viper in Miami!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqK6jtNABNQ
...read more - After winds, light and heavy, Mark Zagol surfs to 2021 Viper 640 North American Championship October 12, 2021
Friday evening, at the end of the second of four days of racing, points leader Mark Zagol said, “Looking at tomorrow, we want to see how we stack-up in the big breeze that is forecast to start tonight. And, of course, we’re looking forward to the down winds.” Mark got his wish in more ways than one. After two relatively light-air days, Saturday’s Day 3 forecast called for winds from the east in the high teens with significant gusts and then building to the low-to-mid 20 knot range.
When the competitors arrived at Noroton Yacht Club (Darien, CT), winds were as forecast in the high teens and the overnight easterly had generated steep and close three-to-five-foot breaking wave sets across Long Island Sound. The first planned race of the day got off on time at 1100 as the winds and wave ...
...read more - Tight pack at the top of the leaderboard at Viper 604 2021 North American Championship October 8, 2021
Thursday, October 7, 2021
It started out as a day when nobody was expecting to race due to a dire forecast of very light winds. All the weather models called for 3-4 knots and then even less. After a two hour shore postponement, PRO Sandy Grosvenor (Annapolis, MD) started the first of three light air races in the middle of Long Island Sound off Noroton Yacht Club (Darien, CT). A light 5-knot southerly filled in at about 1300 and the 2021 Viper 640 North Americans were off and running. Well, maybe not running!
“The key today, was to get off the line cleanly and connect the dots of breeze,” said Jay Rhame sailing with his boat partners Peter and Rachel Beardsley in GREAT SCOTT! “In the first race, we were boat-third at the start and tacked out to the right early. We ...
...read more - Grace Howie and Meredith Killion win inaugural Viper 640 Women’s North American Championship October 3, 2021
After four races on Day 1 of the Championship, Grace Howie and Meredith Killion had a solid lead going into the second and final day. Sailing with Cardwell Potts and Ted Ferrarone, after the completion of six races (two on the final day), they reported a scoreline of 1-4-3-1-1-2, by far the most consistent performance in the 18-boat fleet whereby they threw out the fourth for a total of 8 points and a convincing win.
When the sailors left the host Noroton Yacht Club (Darien, CT) last night, today’s forecast was for very low winds. However, when the fleet arrived today, they were met with 5-6 knot breezes from the southwest which was more than enough to get in two more races. A third race, that would have been Race 7, was abandoned due to a major wind shift and conditions ...
...read more - Northern Honey Badger wins 2021 Nepean One-Design Regatta August 20, 2021
Nepean One Design
Aug. 14-15, 2021
Vipers from all over Ontario and a new owner from Detroit made up the 12 entries at our first 2021 official two day Viper regatta, hosted by the Nepean Sailing Club in the country’s capital of Ottawa, Ontario Canada. The forecast was calling for 15 knots on Saturday and less than 5 for Sunday which sounded like a good introduction for 3 new Viper owners’ first regatta.
The majority of the people arrived on Friday, with the furthest travelled boat “Surf” having come a whopping 1500km or 17 hrs of drivetime from Thunder Bay. Surf (“Drey” Audrey Dallaire Gagnon – 74) was hoping to get in some training for the female crew for the Women’s North American’s in Noroton. Unfortunately while sailing out to the race course on Saturday they noticed an issue with the keel hold ...
...read more - Great Lakes 2020 COVID Cup Regatta October 5, 2020
October 3-4, 2020
2020 has been a tough year for everyone. Viperers, with travel limited and restrictions on social contacts outside the household, have missed what was supposed to be an event-packed season of one-design racing culminating in the North Americans on Long Island Sound. As of mid-September, there had been no one-design racing on the Great Lakes since 2019, though boats had been sailing PHRF in Sarnia, Ottawa, and Hamilton.
Out of some threads of text messages, the fleet decided to try and throw an event on short notice before the season was completely done. The Royal Hamilton Yacht Club on Burlington Bay proved to be excited about hosting, and able to provide boats and RC—so the regatta came together for October 3 – 4. Five boats raced with a higher proportion of family teams than usual—the Molimard brothers came from ...
...read more - Marcus Eagan wins Viper 640 World and North American Championships August 25, 2019
Congratulations to Marcus Eagan, Andrew Eagan, and Jackson Benvenutti (Mandeville, LA) for winning both the Goslings 2019 Viper 640 World Championship and the 2019 Viper 640 North Americans. Hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club (Long Beach, CA), the four-day Championship consisted of 13 races in atypical Long Beach conditions – light, 8-10 knots except for the final race on Day 2 and the last two on the final day when winds were mid to high teens. It was a regatta where sailors were faced with a wide range of conditions and those atop the podium had to be capable of dealing with them all.
Eagan ended with 33 points after five of the races atop the 41-boat fleet. In second was Geoff Ewenson (Annapolis, MD), Ryan Cox, and Jon Ziskind with 44 points having won an extremely consistent series with 11 ...
...read more - Sharon Green Photos from the Goslings 2019 Viper 640 World Championship August 25, 2019
Award-winning photographer did an absolutely superlative job capturing the color, flavor, and texture of the Goslings Viper 640 World Championship. Many have been posted in low resolution on this website and on Facebook, but if you want a photo from Sharon, simply click on this link.
2019 VIPER 640 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PHOTOS
Great images, great sailing, great Vipering!
...read more - Faces in the Crowd – Goslings Viper 640 Worlds August 24, 2019
From 1958 to 2006, in the back of Sports Illustrated was a column of editorial called Faces in the Crowd. These started out being the super stars…but transitioned into both pro and amateur athletes who made a difference in the world of sports.
In the world of sailing, particularly in the world of the Viper 640 World Championship, there are many Faces in the Crowd.
Award-winning photographer Sharon Green (UltimateSailing.com #ultimatesailing) has been capturing the faces of the 2019 Viper Worlds. Here are just a few:
...read more
