- 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 - Video Links to Beacon Group Viper 640 North American Championship October 31, 2017
Petey Crawford from Penalty Box did some sterling work with his camera during the NAs. Here are links to some of his video updates. Enjoy!
Arrival & warm-up:
https://www.facebook.com/brian.johansen.121/videos/10213529453723274/
Day 1:
https://vimeo.com/239988904
Day 2:
https://vimeo.com/240156415
Day 3:
https://vimeo.com/240284198
...read more - Marcus Eagan Wins 2017 Viper 640 North American Championship October 30, 2017
Ft. Walton Yacht Club, Ft. Walton, FL
October 27, 2017
After three days of close, competitive racing, Charleston, SC, sailors Tom Loutrel, John Bowden and Karl Schutte held a fragile eight point lead in the fifty-four boat fleet having finished in the top four for all except one of the preceding nine races. The top four boats at that point were separated by only 13 points in a fleet that kept turning itself inside out. Loutrel held the lead throughout the first three days and credited his success to having stayed in the pressure and in phase as the winds had osculated unpredictably.
Going into Saturday’s final two races, only 13 points separated the top four teams: Loutrel; Marcus Eagan in second, sailing for Mississippi’s Bay Waveland Yacht Club with his brother Andrew and Jackson Benvenutti; Brad Boston from Sarnia, ON, sailing with ...
...read more - Wet And Wild Day Three At Beacon Group Viper 640 North Americans October 27, 2017
Ft. Walton Yacht Club, Ft. Walton, FL
October 27, 2017
After a light-air Day Two that saw only one race completed, Friday’s Day Three of the Beacon Group Viper 640 North American Championship found the wind gods smiling on the sailors. Winds from the southeast averaged in the mid-teens for most of the day with the fourth and final race of the day seeing gusts approaching 25 knots.
After nine races, Tom Loutrel has held onto his Day Two lead with another solid performance scoring 4-4-3-3. So far in the Championship, Loutrel, from Charleston, SC, sailing with John Bowden and Karl Schutte, has finished in the top four for eight of nine races…a remarkably consistent scoreline. Loutrel now holds an eight point lead over Marcus Eagan (Mississippi’s Bay Waveland Yacht Club sailing with his brother Andrew and Jackson Benvenutti) who moved into second ...
...read more - Light and Tricky Second Day of Viper 640 North Americans October 26, 2017
October 26, 2017
Sailboat racing is hard. Anyone who is a sailboat racer will agree with that comment 110%. OK, but running a major regatta—like the 2017 Beacon Group Viper 640 North American Championship AND sailing in it, is even harder. Being an event chair for the largest regatta in your class’s history and pulling out a great race in tough conditions is a monumental event. And that’s what Craig and Deb Wilusz from the host Ft. Walton (FL) Yacht Club did in the only race that was run on Day Two of the event. Sailing together, the Wilusz team, sailing with Canadian Paul Currie, put themselves ahead of almost all the competitors in a race that can be described as light, shifty, current affected, puffy, challenging, trying, and a lot of fun, placing fifth in the 54-boat fleet.
When asked about ...
...read more - Viper North American AGM 10/26/17 at NAs October 17, 2017
NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE MEMBERS
Of the North American Viper 640 Class
NOTICE is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the Members of the North American Viper 640 Class(the “Class”) is called for and will be held at the Fort Walton Yacht Club,180 Ferry Road NE, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, on the 26th day of October, 2017, at the hour of8:00 pm (CST)for the following purposes:
1. Carry out a Roll Call of Fleets and receive the Minutes of the last meeting
2. To receive the reports of the Executive Committee
Presidents Report
Regional VP’s Reports (Great Lakes, North-East, South and West)
Treasurer’s Report
Report from the Technical Committee
3. Discussion on Class Dues
4. To carry outany other business as may properly be brought before the meeting.
Note as the term of the current Executive is 2 years there are no elections of officers to be held in 2017.
On behalf ...
...read more - Viper Sailor Patrick Mauro Summits Mt. Everest! July 26, 2017
Patrick Mauro thrilled his Larchmont Yacht Club shipmates and other Viper sailors this past May as many of us followed in real time (largely thanks to Facebook) his expedition to Himalayas to tackle the world’s tallest mountain. We uninitiated were totally unaware of the preparation and training that must go into such a venture, and how long the actual ascent and descent of the mountain would take…and the obstacles that had to be overcome along the way. Pat was asked to share his thoughts on elite-level mountaineering as it relates to his having grown up as a sailor.
Pat’s commentary:
Among the varied amalgam of interests, relationships, and experiences in my life, water has been a constant motif. I grew up on the shore of a lagoon in Hilton Head, SC, where alligators, cranes, and magnolia trees provided the backdrop for my ...
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