- Tim Carter Takes 2016 High Sierra Regatta August 10, 2016
The fish that got away!
Fresno Yacht Club
July 9-10
Reported by Tim Carter
This was an amazing adventure, Steve Bloemeke, Jennifer Weisman and I set off 12:30 Thurs afternoon for our trip up to Huntington Lake… Yes! It’s true the lake is full, it’s been three long years since we could sail here so we were very excited to go back. We crossed the statea new way, from the coastal wine country of Paso Robles across the “Great Valley” and on up the Sierra’s. Along the way we were able to pay homage to the great James Dean and tipped our hats at that infamous intersection.
Friday morning, we woke up and started visiting with the local teams and planned out our day. We hiked up to Rancharia Falls a couple miles away and she was flowing in glory. We scrambled down the rocks ...
...read more - Jeff Grange, Bill Blazer and Chris Parker win Viper 640 Pacific Coast Championship June 27, 2016
Congratulations to Jeff Grange, Bill Blazer and Chris Parker for winning the Pacific Coast Championship at 2016 Long Beach Race Week. 16 Vipers, 7 races, a heck of a regatta.
Full story to be submitted shortly
Long Beach Race Week 2016
Reported by Tim Carter
Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and Long Beach Yacht Club once again hosted Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week and the 2016 Viper 640 Pacific Coast Championship. We had 16 boats on the line over the weekend, a bit down this year due to work issues with several of the regulars…but we had beer, some breeze, and some sunshine.
Friday’s skippers weather brief was talking about 14-18 kts at some point over the weekend; however, I think their instruments need calibration. Friday we saw 5-8 kts max and we had lots of the famous Long Beach Ganga (Kelp) floating around.
The ...
...read more - Mary and Geoff Ewenson win Southern Bay Race Week June 9, 2016
Mary and Geoff Ewenson win Southern Bay Race Week
SOUTHERN BAY RACE WEEK
Hampton (VA) Yacht Club
June 3-5
Hampton Yacht Club again ran a tremendous event with a dozen one-design and handicap class racing on the lower Chesapeake. After three days of racing and 11 races it was Mary and Geoff Ewenson aboard Terminally Pretty taking the Viper title. They recorded seven bullets in the six-boat fleet. In second, winning three heats, was David Eberwine sailing with Henry, Barb, and Doug Amthor aboard their Viper #227. In third were Mark Wheeler, Kathy Wheeler, and Mike Gravitt aboard Vapor Trails.
Results
...read more - Jeff Grange Wins 2016 SF Bay’s Delta Ditch Run June 9, 2016
Jeff Grange Wins 2016 SF Bay’s Delta Ditch Run
Stockton Sailing Club
June 6
Most of us race Vipers one-design around the buoys while others race their Viper PHRF. Some of our California Viper brethren decided to race their Vipers on a distance race: the Delta Ditch. As background, the 25th annual Delta Ditch Run was sailed on June 6, starting in the San Francisco Bay and went up the Delta to finishes at the Stockton Sailing Club. In the past this event has attracted over 200 boats with racers from across the country showing up for this generally downwind sixty five mile race. Sixty five miles in a Viper. Egad! (Editor’s note: I hate, hate, hate exclamation points…but this truly warrants one.)
This year three Vipers went the distance: Jeff Grange, Chris Paulsen, and Olan Bleck finishing in that order.
Here’s a recap from ...
...read more - Chris Parker, Jeff Grange and Mike Kuhney top Viper fleet in Santa Barbara June 9, 2016
Chris Parker, Jeff Grange and Mike Kuhney top Viper fleet in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara Skiff Festival
Santa Barbara Yacht Club
May 14-15
Host club’s Chris Parker with event chair Jeff Grange and Mike Kuhney winning three of five races followed in second by Viper Governor and Alamitos Bay YC member Tim Carter sailing with Jennifer Weisman and Steve Blowmeke while Arizona YC and Viper Treasurer Tony Chapman, sailing with Luce Sushali and Paul Wojtczak finished third. Timbo started strong, winning the first two heats, but Chris Parker’s winning the three final ones made the difference.
Interestingly, after the first day the tables were turned with Timbo recording two bullets making it seem easy. Guess that woke-up Jeff and his crew. Note to self: sometimes it’s best to let sleeping giants lie!
Results
...read more - Lee Shuckerow at top of Podium at Bayview One-Design Regatta June 9, 2016
Lee Shuckerow at top of Podium at Bayview One-Design Regatta
Bayview One-Design Regatta
Bayview Yacht Club
June 3-5
The Bayview ODR is a major mid-west regatta with over 225 boats sailing on Detroit’s Lake St. Clair in 16 divisions. Within the 7-boat Viper fleet, it was Lee Shuckerow, Eric Vigrass, and Mike Weber sailing Jackpot that stood at the top of the podium when the smoke cleared. They finished third in the first race and went on to deliver a picket fence score line of all 1s for the remaining eight races.
Solidly in second place was First World Problem being sailed by Andrew Kiteley, Philip Kiteley, and Mike Vigrass. The trio recorded all top-three places plus one fourth. Rounding out the winner was Black Sheep with Darren Gilbert, Steve Gilbert, and Mark Miller aboard placing second three times and third three times, too.
Results
...read more - John Dane, Dave Bolyard, and Thomas Duffy win Viper 640 Gulf Coast Championship during the GYA Opening Regatta May 25, 2016
May 20-21, Fairhope Yacht Club, Fairhope, AL
It was the first major Viper regatta since the Gulf Yachting Association selected the Viper as its new Capdevielle interclub boat (as of 2018)…and what a regatta it was. The details will follow, but the topline report is that John Dane, former Olympic Star sailor and relatively new to the Class, won the Gulf Coast Championship sailing with his regular Viper crew Dave Bolyard of Ullman Sails and young Thomas Duffy. The trio was representing Pass Christian Yacht Club in what was actually a dual event.
The racing was part of the GYA’s Opening Regatta with a total of six races sailed over the two days: the first five (with no throw outs) counting for the GYA Sportboat Championship, and all six (including a throw out) determining the Viper 640 Gulf Coast Champion.
The GYA’s Opening ...
...read more - Ghost Panda Wins 2016 Viper 640 Atlantic Coast Championship at Charleston Race Week April 19, 2016
Team Ghost Panda, with Peter Beardsley, his wife Rachel, Jay Rhame, and his fiancée Rachel Daugherty, handily won the 2016 Viper 640 Atlantic Coast Championship. The Championship was sailed as part of the Sperry Charleston Race Week from April 15-17. This is the first Atlantic Coast Championship win for the crew, which sails regularly out of the Larchmont (NY) Yacht Club.
Ghost Panda posted a dominating scoreline, with all firsts and seconds through the first two days. Keeping the Panda crew on its toes was Zeke Horowitz, also from Larchmont Yacht Club and the College of Charleston Yacht Club with Brendan Healy, Katie Gluskin, and Seppie McAdams as crew. Horowitz’s four bullets kept him in the hunt, but a couple of deeper results meant that Ghost Panda only needed to finish within four points of Horowitz in Race 9 on Sunday ...
...read more - DUSTIN JOHNSON, KENT MORROW, AND TREVOR DiMARCO WIN TULIP REGATTA April 12, 2016
PNW Tulip Regatta
April 2-3, 2016
The Northwest Viper Fleet converged on Anacortes, Washington for the Tulip Regatta, a contest far more spirited than the name implies. In addition to fervent competition between Vipers, Saturday’s racing saw a battle between a prevailing southeasterly breeze and a punchy thermal from the west. Sunday saw sunny skies and morning zephyrs from all around the compass eventually submit to a relatively stable northeasterly. Above average race management allowed the Vipers to duke out seven hard fought races in winds that ranged from four to fifteen knots.
Race one began with a battle for the pin end, with Rafe Beswick’s Dragonfly nailing the start while Timeline crossed the rest of the fleet on port tack. Oscillations favored those who could hit the shifts and rapidly generate speed out of the tacks. It took several well-timed facials from ...
...read more - ALEX STEELE WINS 2015 HELLY HANSEN SAN DIEGO NOOD REGATTA April 12, 2016
2016 San Diego NOODs
Written by Tim Carter and Steve Bloemeke
March 18-20, 2016
Tim: So, Steve. We need crew for San Diego NOODs. Know anyone?
Steve: Yep. Got the perfect person in mind. Let me reach out to her husband, Craig Leweck and get her mobile number. They live down there and it will be great if she can make it.
And so it went. Lisa Leweck, who Steve has known since, well, many decades having grown up racing in the infamous Southern California Naples Sabot fleet (which has spawn numerous Olympic and World Class Sailors since the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s). Craig and Lisa have won Snipe Nationals and have dominated in every class they have set their minds to; however, Lisa has been on a 4-year sabbatical from sailing and, while she wanted to sail with us, she was concerned she would ...
...read more - LAWRENCE CRISPIN SWEEPS MIAMI VIPER REGATTAS March 14, 2016
March 14, 2016
Congratulations to Lawrence Crispin, Hector Cisnaros, and Luka Crispin for turning in a stunning sailing performance this past week in Miami. After convincingly winning the EFG Winter Cup (March 6-7), this trio from the UK’s Stone Sailing Club carried their momentum into Bacardi Miami Sailing Week. They dominated the 28-boat fleet with an impressive score line of 1-8-1-3-2-2-3-5 over the eight races sailed for a final score of 17 points. This put Crispin seven points ahead of Tyler Moore sailing with his wife Jane and Tim and Karen Fallon who won four races—including the last three—and finished in second.
Third whet to another UK sailor, Ian Nicholson, who had fellow Brit David Hitchcock sailing with him and Australian David Chapman at the helm. Nicholson’s crew didn’t win any races but had a consistently strong string of finishes allowing them ...
...read more - Lawrence Crispin Wins 2016 EFG Winter Cup Regatta March 8, 2016
So I’m sitting with my crew mates having just finished the EFG Winter Cup regatta and asked, “What should I write?” Simple, Peter replied, just say “It was windy!” High teens into low twenties and the Viper 640 fleet sailed six races over two days in Biscayne Bay. The fleet sailed out of the US Sailing Center Miami but the race committee, headed by PRO Scot Giering, brought an excellent team from Biscayne Bay Yacht Club.
The EFG Winter Cup is the final qualifying regatta for the EFG Viper Pan-American Championship. This year’s EFG Pan-Am qualifiers were sailed in key areas of the US as well as Lake Garda, Italy, and both the east and west coasts of Australia. With qualifier points carrying over to the Pan-Am Champs (to be sailed this coming Thursday – Saturday as part of Bacardi Miami ...
...read more - VIPER 640 CLASS ANNOUNCES ITS INAUGURAL INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP REGATTA February 23, 2016
February 24, 2016
2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the design of the Viper 640 and the 10th anniversary of the relaunch of the Class Association. The Class is now a truly international class with Viper 640 fleets active in seven nations across three continents. The Class Association is celebrating these milestones by hosting the first Viper 640 International Championship, with sailors competing for a prestigious new trophy open to Viper teams from around the world. The International Championship will be hosted by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club on Bermuda’s Great Sound November 16-19, 2016, preceded by a warm-up regatta November 13-14. There are over 50 Viper 640s already registered for the International Championship, with representative teams coming from North America, Europe and Australia, and it is anticipated this number will grow in the ...
...read more - Horowitz, Coleman, and Healy Win Sarasota Sailing Squadron’s Viper 640 Winter Circuit February 7, 2016
Sarasota, FL
February 7, 2016
Sailing weekends in December, January, and February, the Sarasota (FL) Sailing Squadron’s Winter Circuit has become a mainstay for east coast Viper sailors…and some from the west coast and Canada. Not only are there three weekends of racing, but this series gets everyone’s boats to Florida where they will stay for the two Viper regattas in March: the EFG Winter Cup (March 6-7) and the EFG Viper Pan-American Championship sailed during Bacardi Miami Sailing Week (March 10-12).
This series is scored in two ways: individual weekend winners and series champions. Key to participation is that over the three weekends, each competitor may drop 30% of their scores so if they couldn’t compete one weekend they aren’t necessarily out of the running.
Skipper Zeke Horowitz (SSS, Larchmont Yacht Club, and CofC), sailing with long-time crew Brendan Healy and Ian Coleman, ...
...read more
