- Brad Boston, Lee Shuckerow, and Nick Lounsbury named 2018 Viper 640 North American Champions July 8, 2018
After four days of sailing in big winds and sixteen races, the team aboard JACKPOT won the 2018 Viper North American Championship. This is Brad Boston’s (Port Edward, ON) sixth title, having won many with his boat partner Lee Shuckerow (Detroit, MI); this is their crew Nick Lounsbury’s first North American title.
Boston’s team took the points lead as of Day 2 and extended their lead throughout the remainder of the championship. The event was sailed out of CORK/Sail Kingston and hosted by the Kingston Yacht Club who, together, staged a world-class regatta.
In addition to the podium prizes, the following awards were presented:
Top Corinthian Team – GREAT SCOTT! Peter & Rachel Beardsley and Jay Rhame
Top Masters Skipper (over 55) – Justin Scott
Youngest Competitor – James Owen
Furthest Traveled – Somers Kempe’s and Butch Agnew’s crews from Bermuda and Jay Golison’s crew from ...
...read more - Brad Boston sets his sights on sixth Viper 640 North American Championship July 7, 2018
The 36-boat fleet of Viper 640s, sailing out of Kingston (ON) Yacht Club and CORK/Sail Kingston in the waters where Lake Ontario meets the St. Lawrence, had a looooooooong day on the water for Day 3 of the 2018 Viper 640 North American Championship. The wind returned to the south and built from the low teens for the day’s first of five races to the high teens with puffs up to 23 knots. “Puffs? There were some pretty big ones!” noted Jackson Benvenutti who is crewing for Zeke Horowitz and sitting in second place. As the breeze built, the ideal flat water with breeze went away as the chop built, rewarding those who could skillfully manage the waves.
When the exhausted sailors returned to shore, everyone agreed that four races would have been just enough…but that the fifth race was epic. ...
...read more - Boston dominates Viper 640 NAs Day 2 as leaderboard shuffles July 6, 2018
It was “breeze-up at the Viper 640 North American Championship being hosted by the Kingston (ON) Yacht Club and being sailed out of CORK/Sail Kingston. Day 1 saw moderate winds from the south but Friday’s northerly came with a cold front dropping temperatures to the low 70s and increasing wind up to the mid-20s in puffs. Boats with lighter crew weights that enjoyed an advantage on Day 1 found today’s sailing a bit of a challenge. The northerly wind was full of puffs and holes at the bottom of the course with massive oscillations and shifts on the top half.
Brad Boston (Port Edward, ON) took over the lead of the 36-boat championship with a two-day 14-point total. Boston entered the day in second two points behind Jay Rhame/Peter Beardsley; but Brad reminded everyone why his name is on the North ...
...read more - Jay Rhame, Peter and Rachel Beardsley Lead Viper 640 North American Championship After Day 1 July 6, 2018
July 5, 2018
The 2018 Viper 640 North American Championship is being sailed in Kingston, ON hosted by the Kingston Yacht Club and CORK/Sail Kingston.
IMG_7022After days of unusually high temperatures and lack of wind, when the 36 crews arrived at their boats this morning there was a brisk 10-12 knot southerly blowing giving promise that the Championship would get off to a good start. Actually, the event got off to a very good start as the Kingston Town Crier, adorned in his full uniform regalia, rang his bell and delivered a stirringly official welcome to all the competitors to Kingston, “the fresh water sailing capital of the world!”
The sailing got underway on time and four races were completed with excellent competition leading the fleet as positions shifted leg to leg; but the lead was held throughout the day by the Rhame/Beardsley ...
...read more - Jeff Grange crushes it at the Santa Barbara Skiff Festival May 21, 2018
Held at the Santa Barbara (CA) Yacht Club May 19-20, the annual Skiff Festival brings together diverse fleets of high performance boats including Viper 640s, 5o5s, and 29ers.
After seven races it was local sailor Jeff Grange with Scott Deardorff and George Witter on board who showed “how it is done!” with a score of eight points. Grange posted four bullets and three seconds out of a fleet of nine Vipers. (Editor’s note: nobody who has a second as a throw-out gets any sympathy from this sailor!) In second, was SBYC’s and Viper 640 Class Western Regional Vice President Geoff Fargo with 13 points and fellow local sailor, Pat Toole, in third with 19 points.
Full results HERE.
...read more - GREAT SCOTT! Wins 2018 Viper 640 Atlantic Coast Championship May 21, 2018
Sailing out of Eastport Yacht Club in Annapolis, MD, over the May 19-20 weekend, Peter and Rachel Beardsley (Brooklyn, NY) and Simon Karstoft Jensen won the 2018 Viper 640 Atlantic Coast Championship…Beardsley’s second ACC win. The Championship’s two days’ conditions seemed as though they were from two totally different weather worlds. Saturday found everyone dress in full kit as rain drove away the wind after a single race. On Sunday, however, everyone broke out the shorts and sunscreen for four races in light-to-moderate winds. The wind shifted steadily left with plenty of holes and oscillations. It was a true test of “changing gears” as wind velocities were up and down in virtually every leg.
Beardsley’s GREAT SCOTT! took Saturday’s sole race by focusing as much on maintaining light air boat speed as staying in phase. After days of drenching rain, the ...
...read more - Geoff Ewenson wins Sperry Charleston Race Week 2018 April 23, 2018
CRW and Sailing Inside
CRW Viper Champ Geoff Ewenson tell the tale of this year’s regatta
This was my first CRW sailing a Viper and sailing for the fun of it. Typically I am stuck sailing some big boat outside and kicking myself seeing how much fun the fleets are having racing inside the harbor. This year I decided I was no longer going to be looking from the outside in. Literally! All of my expectations were met. The sailing inside was epic and the poor sods outside complained of light, mealy winds and generally uninspired racing.
Sarah Schaill, Jonathan Colarusso and Tom Loutrel did a great job this year securing the hospitality of the Hobcaw YC as a staging area for the Vipers. This hidden gem up the Wando River made the CRW dreaded hassles of launching and hauling virtually disappear. The ...
...read more - Viper NAs Champs Marcus and Andrew Eagan and Jackson Benvenutti win 2018 Viper Winter Cup March 21, 2018
The 2018 Viper 640 Winter Cup was moved from its traditional home in Miami to the Sarasota Sailing Squadron this March 16-18 and was sailed as part of the SSS’s One-design Midwinter Regatta. 24 Vipers showed up for this multi-class event…the wind…not so much. On each of the three mornings, the easterly breeze steadily faded resulting in shore postponements every day. On Friday, the wind filled in around noon and the boats went to the course and sailed three races. Saturday’s start was even later and the second of the day’s two races was sailed in very light, marginal racing conditions. And that turned out to be it for the regatta as Sunday’s sea breeze didn’t fill in until well after the final race time.
Despite only having five races, the competition was fierce. The reigning North American Viper Championship team ...
...read more - Mike Pentecost Overall Winner of the 2018 Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta March 21, 2018
Mike Pentecost of Ranchos Palos Verdes, CA, had another big regatta over the March 16-18 weekend ending up on top of the 16-boat Viper division and then being named the overall winner of the regatta. Mike shares his thoughts on the San Diego NOOD with his fellow Viperers:
San Diego is a super fun venue for racing, with lots of great restaurants and nightlife, and excellent yacht clubs. This was my first time doing the NOOD here. I was very pleased with the 16-boat turnout which made racing exciting.
Coronado Bay is a challenging place to sail, as it is known for big wind shifts. We experienced that in the extreme, with shifts of 10° to 40° every day, in almost every race. We were blessed that the unseasonable rain predicted, didn’t hit us while we were racing.
With nine races over three ...
...read more - Sailing World – Inside the Classes features Viper 640 March 21, 2018
A great article (below) and video produced during the 2018 Helly Hansen San Diego NOOD featuring and interview with PNW Viperer Garrett Johns.
SAILING WORLD WROTE:
Sailing World’s Boat of the Year judges nailed it back in 1997 when they pegged Brian Bennett’s Viper 640 as the Boat of the Year. At a time when symmetric was about to become old school, the judges knew the 21-foot sportboat would be around for a good long while. It was solid in every measurement: “Fun and challenging to sail, a good value and appealing to a wide range of sailors,” wrote Betsy Alison at the time.
She was right.
As a testament to this enduring one-design, fleets prosper in pockets around the country. Used boats trade hands easily while new boats arrive regularly from Rondar, the Viper’s top-notch British builder. While the East Coast is ...
...read more - Max Albert and Pontchartrain YC win first GYA Capdevielle regatta sailed in Viper 640s March 21, 2018
Sailed out of New Orleans Yacht Club, the first Capdevielle sailed in Viper 640s was held March 16-18, the Mardi Gras Regatta. The team from across lake and Pontchartrain Yacht Club, skippered by Max Albert, dominated the eight-boat regatta with a “picket fence” score of five firsts in five races. In second was Gulfport Yacht Club’s team with three seconds and 14 total points, and then Southern Yacht Club, skippered by Norm Vallette, with twenty points.
After years of the GYA’s comprehensive review of one-designs to replace the venerable Flying Scot as the interclub Capdevielle boat, and the recent activity by the GYA, the Viper Class and Rondar Raceboats to quickly establish a fleet of Vipers across the GYA, this was a major event for which all should be proud.
Sailed in conjunction with the Capdevielle racing was Viper Open racing which ...
...read more - Jerwood continues to outpace fleet at Schweppes Viper 640 2018 World Championship February 22, 2018
Schweppes Viper WorldsWith One Day to Go
In perfect conditions on Perth’s picturesque Swan River in Western Australia, another four races of the program were completed, leaving just two to go on tomorrow’s final day. Today’s breezes remained relatively steady between 250 and 260 degrees, ranging in strength from ten to fourteen knots – perfect weather for Viper 640’s.
Today also showed that Nick Jerwood is after all, fallible. After racking up another two first placings in the first two races today, his uncharacteristic start in the third put him in the middle of the fleet. No amount of tacking could find a clean lane and he reached the top mark in tenth place, his worst performance of the series. Maintaining that position on rounding the second time, Jerwood then executed a gybe set, heading to the northern side of the course ...
...read more - Sarasota Winter Viper Circuit #2 – Houston YC’s Pat Gibson takes light air weekend January 22, 2018
After several years of good fortune with wind, the 2017-18 Sarasota Viper Winter Series has had a tougher start. The December event was skunked on Saturday but managed 4 light air races on Sunday, and January’s event was a near carbon copy of December. Despite great breeze for a Brad Boston-led clinic on Friday, Saturday’s wind never materialized long enough to get in a race, and Sunday saw two races in light and tricky conditions.
In Race 1, Ken Kleinschrodt and family from Buccaneer YC in Mobile, Alabama, led nearly wire-to-wire, while Jay Rhame and Peter Beardsley found enough passing lanes in the thin puffs to go from 20th at the first mark to 2nd at the finish. Pat Gibson ended up on the right side of a 5-boat melee at the finish to place third in a scrum that would ...
...read more - New Northern Honey Badger video of 2018 NAs January 15, 2018
Only Brian Johansen can pull together a video like this that takes you “behind the scenes” both on and off the water.
Video Link HERE.
...read more
