- Beurteaux, Stubbs, and Wilder win WA State Champs December 5, 2023
Twelve Vipers competed in perfect conditions on the weekend of 2 and 3rd December 2023 at South of Perth Yacht Club. A total of 8 races were completed in winds ranging from 5 to 15 knots. The wind was variable in both direction and strength making for big gains and losses on the course. Despite the wind variations the racing was extremely tight with all 12 boats finishing within 2 minutes of each other in most races.
After racing was completed on Saturday, a BBQ provided welcome sustenance for 65 people. Champagne, wine, and beer complimented the fish tacos, grilled kebabs, sumptuous salads, and dessert platter. Great to see some younger sailors entering the fleet making it a multi-generational sporting event.
Congratulations to Rod Beurteaux, Jon Stubbs and Simon Wilder sailing “You Get in the Bowl” who won in a close battle ...
...read more - 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 - Long Beach Race Week – 2023 Recap June 27, 2023
The eighteenth annual Long Beach Race Week (LBRW) was held on June 23-25, 2023. This year over eighty boats participated in eleven divisions, including the Viper 640 class. The Viper locals welcomed long time Viperers Mike Hester and John Mayall from Arizona Yacht Club in #107 as well as new owner Cheyne Scoby from ABYC in #133. This event also served as the Pacific Coast Championships for the Viper 640.
Racing was held on two separate courses, with classes switching for each day. The inshore course offered smooth water behind the breakwater, while the offshore course was south of the breakwater in the open ocean. Viperers who sailed in the 2019 Worlds may remember vividly the big waves, wind and chop on the latter course.
The racing started on a sunny California Friday afternoon in perfect Long Beach conditions, with the wind ...
...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 - SYC Winter Series #1 won by Jay Rhame and Peter Beardsley December 14, 2022
The 2022-23 Winter Series is being sailed in New Orleans to help get everyone positioned for the 2023 Worlds. There’s something to be said for learning about the venue in advance of a major event, and in the case of extended time in New Orleans, acclimating yourself to the local social scene. This can be particularly helpful so that you get out of your system all of the rookie tourist moves prior to the main event.
That being said, those rookie tourist moves were in full force in the French Quarter for large portions of the SYC Winter Series #1 out-of-town guests. They enjoyed live music on Frenchman Street, crashed weddings, picked beads off the street on Bourbon Street, and discovered how many Hurricanes it takes to feel fuzzy in the morning. And of course, it’s a great excuse to sail in warmer weather, ...
...read more - Benvenutti, Eagan, and Alexander Crowned 2022 Viper 640 North American Champions October 23, 2022
The Viper 640 Class held its North Americans this past weekend at Gulfport (MS) Yacht Club. Over the four days, a total of 13 races were run in conditions that ranged from 4-5 knots on the first two days to 10 – 14 knots on the final two. In the end, Jackson Benvenutti, Andrew Eagan, and Chris Alexander (USA 296) walked away with the championship. It should be noted that Jackson and Andrew crewed for Andrew’s brother, Marcus, when they won the combined North American and World Championships in Long Beach, CA, in 2019.
Over the first two days, Benvenutti’s team was flawless scoring seven consecutive wins. Over the last two, they added two more ending with 19 points with nine bullets, a second, and two fourths. With the leader “over the horizon” points wise, the keenest competition was for the ...
...read more - And Day 3 Went to Mark Zagol October 22, 2022
The first two days of the 2022 Viper 640 North American Championhsip were the property of Jackson Benvenutti, Andrew Eagan, and Chris Alexander who strung together a series of seven first place wins. However, Day 3 was all Mark Zagol, Tim Desmond, and Drew Buttner. These three delivered a 1-5-1-1 scoreline today, moving them into second (and the top Corinthian team) with 38 points. Jackson and crew still command a serious lead with 14 points after a 4-1-4-2 day making their drop a 4th. Falling a position into third were Marek and Chris Zaleski sailing with Jacob Bradt aboard. Marek’s 11th in today’s final race hurt as it replaces their previous drop of a 6th. In fourth with 43 points are Jay Rhame and Rachel & Peter Beardsley with a solid 2-2-7-6 day. With five points separating second and fourth, ...
...read more - And the picket fence got even longer… October 21, 2022
Jackson Benvenutti, Andrew Eagan, and Chris Alexander extend their streak of bullets to seven!
You know you’re doing well when your drop is a first, and that’s what’s happening for the team from Bay Waveland (MS) Yacht Club. Yesterday, we got Jackson’s take on their first three wins. Today, we’re talking with Andrew Eagan, middle on the boat, who works with Chris Alexander on tactics. Andrew shared the following on today and yesterday’s racing: “We know we have good boat speed, but in the first three races today we struggled to get off the line. The big thing is how well we communicate and move on the boat together. We’re in total sync although we haven’t sailed with Chris before. It seems like our comms are getting better every race between Jackson on the helm and Chris easing the jib in ...
...read more - Picket Fence for Benvenutti after Day 1 at Viper NAs October 20, 2022
Jackson Benvenutti, Andrew Eagan, and Chris Alexander have a picket fence after Day 1 of the 2022 Viper 640 North American Championship.
After a two-hour shore delay awaiting the sea breeze to fill in, the 2022 Viper 640 North American Championship got underway on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico just south of the host club, Gulfport (MS) Yacht Club. PRO Hal Smith, no stranger to Viper racing, welcomed the 30-boat fleet to the starting area and proceeded to run three W2 races. As the wind built from 6 to 9 knots, the course length stretched out from .7 to .8 NM.
In the end, it was Jackson Benvenutti, Andrew Eagan, and Chris Alexander sitting atop the leaderboard with three points…having won all three heats. Jackson and Andrew crewed for Andrew’s brother Marcus when that trio won the 2019 Viper North ...
...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 - Gulfport Yacht Club locked and loaded for upcoming North Americans September 27, 2022
Three Viper 640 North American Championships are set to begin in less than a month. As was discussed in the North American Executive Committee meeting earlier this week, the sailing and social plans GYC has in place make this a “must sail” event…and now that’s even easier than you may think.
Don’t want to tow your boat to Mississippi? Turns out you really don’t have to. Sam Vasquez at GYC has between three and five Vipers available for charter and very, very reasonable rates. Get your crew, book a hotel or AirBnB, and come sail this year’s North American Championships. Open teams, Women, Youth, they can accommodate all.
To arrange to charter a boat, contact Sam Vasquez.
Information and online registration:
Women’s/Youth NAs – October 15-16, 2022
North American Championship – October 19-23
...read more - Announcing the 2022-23 Southern Yacht Club Winter Viper 640 Series July 25, 2022
Thanks to the Viper team at Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans, LA, and SYC Viperer Ricky Welch, we are pleased to announce a four-part Viper 640 Winter Series to be sailed on Lake Pontchartrain, the site of the 2023 Viper 640 Worlds SYC is hosting next March.
Registration is open and you have to apply to each weekend separately, but here’s the schedule and the Notice of Race with links to individual weekend’s sign-ups.
Schedule
Four individual regattas are scheduled for the series:
Event #1……………December 10-11, 2022……….. Event Link
Event #2 …………..January 7-8, 2023 ……………… Event Link
Event #3……………February 4-5, 2023 …………… Event Link
Event #4……………March 4-5, 2023 ……………….. Event Link
The racing schedule for each regatta will be as follows:
Saturday
0800-0900…………Registration
0900 …………………Competitors Briefing
1030 …………………First Warning Signal
Sunday
1030 …………………First Warning Signal
1430 …………………No Warning Signal after this time
Weather permitting, they will attempt to run 6 races per weekend.
...read more - Ed Feo, Chuck Tripp, and Kevin Taugher win Viper PCCs at LBRW June 28, 2022
Long Beach Race Week/PCCs, by Steve Bloemeke, ABYC
Having just completed Long Beach Race Week (and Pacific Coast Championships) with Friday’s windspeed of 16-18 knots, and 18-20 on Saturday; both days with chop and steep wave sets, I thought that it would be fun to take a poll of the fleet and ask – “How would you describe sailing a Viper 640 in 18-20 knots of wind in a healthy sea state?” The replies were not exactly what I expected; some quite colorful. In the interest of keeping things sufficiently reader-friendly, the basic response was that sailing upwind was not delightful and too long, and downwind being exhilarating and not nearly long enough! Sunday’s last day of racing was quite mundane with 5-7 knots in the first race, with 12-14 knot build in the final race which was welcome to many ...
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