- Sailing Anarchy ISAF Worlds (lol) September 30, 2010
And here’s Ronnie’s report:
It must be that time of year again, because I find myself returning to San Francisco with an empty wallet, a deep sunburn, a sore body and a massive hangover. Yes, the World Championships of the World, er, International Sportboat Anarchy Festival took place this past weekend in sunny San Diego. I found myself racing a Viper 640 in a 28 boat mixed design fleet that included 14 Vipers. We had our ups and down throughout the weekend, but the weather was great, the racing close and the parties lively.
After winning the Ultimate 20 class at ISAF last year, Ullman sailmaker Ben Lakin and I decided to team up and see what we could do in the Viper class. With an old borrowed boat and Viperette Stacey Loula, we saw ourselves as somewhat of a dark horse ...
...read more - EFG Bank Pan Am Series. Results going into Final Event September 5, 2010
The final event in the EFG Bank Pan American Championship is the HPDO at Rye on October 9th/10th. The scores are suprisingly tight after 22 races with only one point between 1st and 2nd, and five points between 3rd and fifth.
There will be between 6 and 9 races at the HPDO, and the final scoring will allow 1/3rd of all races to be discarded, so its still wide open.
Currently 43 boats are qualified.
Top Ten are:-
Barry Parken/John Logue GBR/USA (1), Brad Boston/Lee Shuckrow CAN/USA (2) , Justin Scott GBR (3) , Somers Kempe BDA (4), David Guggenheim NZL (5) , Albert Heller CAN (6), Dan Tucker USA (7), Jeff Jones TEX (8) , Brian Kamilar (USA) (9), Stuart Hebb (CAN) (10).
With a strong showing from Canadian, British, NZL and Bermudan sailors, the USA teams have some work to do.
Let’s get it on at AYC for the final ...
...read more - 2010 Sarcoma Cup – SF September 2, 2010
This past weekend the Vipers attended the Sarcoma Cup hosted by Berkeley Yacht Club on San Francisco Bay. There were 5 vipers in attendance, 3 of which were from the SoCal area, making it the largest fleet of vipers on the bay to date. Team Viral drove up on Thursday night and rolled into South Beach around 2 am. Drew Harper was kind enough to let us stay on his beautiful Santa Cruz 50, Yukon Jack, for the weekend.
Friday morning some of us got together at the local coffee shop and discussed next years schedule and our plans for the weekend. We spent the better half of the day rigging our boats, and then we went out for a sail. This was my first time on the bay and what a BLAST it was! We sailed up past Alcatraz and ...
...read more - SPONSORED SPINNAKERS AT THE HPDO August 12, 2010
EFG Bank International are “practitoners of the craft of private banking” crafting global solutions for private individuals around the world.
EFG Bank International are also generous sponsors of the sport of sailing and they crafted an exciting Pan American Championships for the Viper 640 Class. Those of us who were at the Bacardi Cup in Miami or who are going to CORK in Kingston Ontario have already experienced the EFG parties and seen their wonderful publicity supporting our circuit.
They are taking this to a new level for the concluding regatta of the Pan American Championships on October 9th and 10th at the HPDO, American Yacht Club, Rye New York.
Every entrant to the HPDO will qualify for an EFG spinnaker at a highly subsidized price starting from $600.
Practising the craft of generous sponsorship
Most of the class approved sailmakers will be participating in this scheme, so ...
...read more - Vipers on Puget Sound August 6, 2010
Okay, this is it! For those of you Viper sailors that are used to your boats and know what they can do, the following will be only interesting in as much as there are sailors out there like me that haven’t been exposed to the modern technology “blow your socks off” sailing excitement. We newbies are someday going to be a threat on the racecourse but know that we will be having just as much fun as you during our learning phase…and I did not see this coming.
I have sailed and raced successfully for many years in everything from Lasers and Thistles to IOR and PHRF displacement boats in the Puget Sound, Washington area including British Columbia. I have sailed with and against some very accomplished sailors and have enjoyed this history immensely. I thought that the newer hull, sail ...
...read more - Vipers at the US Sailing Junior Championships Regional Qualifier August 1, 2010
I am happy to report the Vipers were a huge success .
We had junior 5 (triple handed) teams race 5 loaned Vipers boats where each team raced each boat at least once. The Mystic River “Mudheads” won the regatta with 5 bullets, they are now heading California where they will sail Lightnings in a couple of weeks for the national title. (These kids would have challenged all of the locally sailed boats, I hope to see them out with us in the future. They can sail my boat any time it is available!)
They had great winds, ranging from 2 knots to 12 knots and fairly flat water. We learned the Mudheads spent a lot of time on a Viper prior to this event, obviously giving them an advantage but they were also just downright good sailors and a great team, ...
...read more - NOOD Through the Eyes of Viper Noobies July 27, 2010
Joe Healey picked up Viper #121 from Justin Scott less that 2 weeks before the Marblehead NOOD. He arrived at the regatta never having rigged up his new boat, never mind having sailed it before! Here’s his regatta report-
My first introduction to the Viper V40 was back in 1997 when it was chosen as Sailing Worlds Boat of the Year. Soon after I heard of a demo sail at Larchmont YC, which I went to and was very impressed with the boat. To me it seemed like the perfect combination of keel boat and dinghy. I have kept my eye on the class ever since and when the resurgence started 3 or so years ago and after watching Justin Scott on You Tube doing 18kts in Charleston. I thought to myself enough is enough and finally I was able ...
...read more - 2010 High Sierra Regatta July 21, 2010
This past weekend 7 Vipers traveled to Huntington Lake for the 57th High Sierra Regatta. After 6-hours on the road and no AC, Team Viral arrived around 12:30 Thursday evening. The drive through the San Joaquin valley smelled strangely similar to Texas and it was just as hot there too. Tim Carter, Bryan Milne, and myself set up camp at the Dear Creek campgrounds and then walked down to the lake to see the stars. It was such a beautiful sight. I can’t remember the last time I could see the Milky Way.
Leaving Thursday evening and having all day Friday to set the boat and practice was key. We made several runs up and down the lake to get a feel for the wind, and decided that the south side of the lake would be the most favored. Huntington Lake ...
...read more - Momentum – Vipers in Texas July 11, 2010
Last weekend Texas viper sailors kicked off the 2010 championship series in Houston Tx. The first stop of this three-regatta series was hosted by the Lakewood Yacht Club, run in conjunction with their “shoe” regatta. On-line registration for the event opened on April 27th and by the 28th eight Viper 640’s were registered for the event. A post on the local racing forum says it all “where in the heck did the vipers come from”.
Having that many boat’s registered before there were any other two boats in a class made a very strong statement – Texas viper sailors love their boats and were excited about attending this event!
The following week a ninth boat would complete their registration and make the Viper fleet the largest OD group at this major Texas event. Backing up a little – 2009 brought major growth ...
...read more - 2010 Long Beach Race Week July 1, 2010
Written by Stacey Loula aka Venomiss
Long Beach Race Week 2010 had one of the biggest turn outs yet with 144+ boats in
18 different classes! That being said, the Viper class saw boats on the line including boats from Arizona and Texas with crews stretching as far away as Canada and Rhode Island.
Here’s some nice coverage from the Ullman Website
Tight racing in our fleet saw 1st-4th position within 2 points of each other going into the last day and though the “Long Beach Doctor” wasn’t in most of the weekend, we still had decent enough breeze to make for some wild fun rides at times. The start lines were fierce, and a particular instance on Saturday stands out as we had one of those epic “uh oh….” moments one minute before the start gun when our tiller extension broke. ...
...read more - Sailing with Grace – Savannah, Ga MacIntosh Cup Regatta Report May 26, 2010
Written by Jay Harrell
On the heels of big fleets and big wind in Miami and Charleston, I invited Scott Findlay to come sail the SYC MacIntosh Cup. He had mentioned before that he would like to get his daughter on a Viper, so I suggested that he bring her along too. The Mac is probably the most cozy and personal Viper regatta anywhere, so perfect for beginners and kids. Savannah local and Viper technical chair David Guggenheim puts on a great event, helping everyone with lodging and logistics and throwing a great party Saturday night. The whole thing is easy and comfortable on land and with great racing on the water. Grace, a 10 year old 4th grader, had only sailed a few times, but she was willing to bear a 7+ hour drive from Boca to Savannah for a chance to sail with ...
...read more - Wickford, RI Regatta Report May 24, 2010
Thanks Skip Whyte and crew for running a delightful, down-to-earth regatta! Viperers, Wickford definitely puts on a worthy event.
Five Vipers made it out, all regional boats. Despite being unusually becalmed on Sunday, we got off four good races on Saturday in 8-12knots. The water was just short of flat, with tidal currents and land-influenced wind shifts making for some good tactical racing. (Too bad my boat, Bennett #56, keeps sinking… LOL still working on sealing that keel trunk…)
In fact we caught a shift just right on the first race and were substantially leading the fleet back to the finish from the weather mark, when we and another boat did what one could only call a failure to read the SI’s, thinking we were finishing when we were expected to do another lap. Sigh… rookie mistake.
The RC kept things moving all ...
...read more - Snake Charmed April 20, 2010
Written by Drew Harper
– by Tripp Westbrook (crew on #129, “Animal”)
As I sit here typing a few weeks after returning from Miami Sailing Week and competing in the 2010 Viper640 North American’s, I can’t help but notice that I’m still grinning from ear to ear. This wasn’t my first time on a Viper, but it was my first time at a major Viper event.
As my blistered hands, sore body and battered liver will attest, it did not disappoint.
This years’ event was sailed out of Coral Reef Yacht Club on beautiful Biscayne Bay and sponsored by Bacardi Rum. Twenty-one Vipers from as far as Great Britain, Canada and Bermuda lined up to vie for the title of North American Champion.
Walking around the dock, you’d get the impression that this was almost one big Wednesday night beer can event. Teams ...
...read more - 2010 San Diego NOOD March 24, 2010
Written by Drew Harper
2010 San Diego NOOD – Stacey Loula, AZ Vipers
It goes without saying that Coronado Yacht Club is a great host for SD NOODS and the South Bay playing field is fantastic with flat water and decent breeze! We had a good number of boats there including Buccaneers, I14’s, Tigers, Ultimate 20’s, and Vipers. You would think with all of those boats, mainly the bigger Tigers, that it would be a bit crowded on the course. However, everyone played well with others and we were especially thankful to have the Tigers around for tows!
Saturday saw breezes in the double digits and RC were able to get at least 4 races off for some of the fleets, but the Vipers only saw 3 races that day. It’s a shame as we had good breeze and could ...
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