- Twenty One Vipers at Marblehead Race Week July 27, 2009
Written by Justin Scott
Marblehead Race Week is the “homecoming” regatta of the Viper circuit. The class association was born in the upstairs bar at Maddys sail loft in Marblehead five years ago and that gathering of the original half dozen early Viper owners has grown into a national class of well over 100 boats. Marblehead Race Week is where we invite local North East Vipers and Vipers from around the country to come back to Marblehead, enjoy a dinner at Maddys on Thursday evening, have some fun sailing for three days off Tinkers Ledge and see where it all started. It is a rendez vous regatta, with the emphasis as much on catching up with friends as it is on the typicaly close and tactical racing.
What is not to love about this charming New England Town in July, with its narrow winding streets ...
...read more - The Tour hits the mountain stage. July 16, 2009
Written by Justin Scott
“The profile of the stage suggested it would suit strong climbers and cunning, powerful and daring descenders” – Tour De France Progress Report July 11th 2009.
We were slumped exhausted in our Viper communal house at Newport after the first day of racing, watching stage 8 of the Tour De France, and the analogy was not lost on us. Five races of 4 legs apiece. A sixth race of 3 legs Each leg of 1.1 mile. A 3 mile ride to and from the race course. You do the maths! In stunning weather of sunshine and breeze of 14 – 18 knots, at the Coastal Living Newport Regatta, the Viper North East circuit had definitely hit the “mountain stage”.
Category one uphill legs and Yeee Haw planes downwind certainly suited the strong climbers and daring descenders. The Barrington YC Race Committee took full ...
...read more - “‘Charlie Course’ of Dreams” July 5, 2009
Written by John Riddell, Arizona Fleet
“Is this Heaven?” “No, it’s Iowa.”
… a simple, yet memorable exchange of lines in a classic movie about the creation of the ultimate playground to satisfy one’s dreams. Well, Field of Dreams was created by a Hollywood studio, Long Beach/Alamitos Bay was created by Mother Nature and it is without a doubt the ultimate playground to satisfy any sailor’s dreams, especially if they happen to be racing a Viper 640 on ‘C – Charlie Course’: a consistent western afternoon breeze, building to 12-18 knots every afternoon under clear, sunny SoCal skies and inside the breakwater of Long Beach Harbor. Heaven…, why not?
Long Beach Race Week has come and gone, and this year like last, it provided all in attendance with three of the most perfect days of racing for which any of us could ...
...read more - Have you checked out what they are saying about the Viper? June 19, 2009
Written by Justin Scott
The list of quotes about the Viper has been growing recently with folks like Scott Nixon, Craig Lewis, and Brad Boston joining the list of fans. Check them out on the bottom of this page :- https://www.viper640.org/the-viper-640 There is even some grudging admiration from a Melges 20 owner and a ringing endorsement from the past president of the Melges 24 class. If you have any quotes that are either amusing or aptly describe why sailors love their Vipes, feel free to send them to us and we will add them to the list.
...read more - Leonard Wittman June 18, 2009
Written by Lake Lanier Viper Fleet
It is with deepest sorrow that we share the news with fellow Viperers about the untimely death of Leonard Wittman.
Len was one of the first movers on Lake Lanier to buy a Viper when, without much ado, he drove up to North Carolina and came back with #42 on his hitch. Len was both a keen sailor and active outdoorsman. He passed away last evening at the end of a bike ride. He was always full of energy and brought a smile to those he interacted with. Leonard will be deeply missed by his wife Helen, his son Chris, and his many friends on Lake Lanier. There will be a celebration of Leonard’s life at a memorial service on Sunday June 21. The service will start at 2:00pm and will be followed by a reception. The Carl House ...
...read more - ScuttleButt – Video of The Week June 13, 2009
Written by Scuttlebutt
“The 20-foot sportboat niche is hard to pin down. Are they dinghies or keelboats? They have attributes of both, but what they mostly are is an exciting AND growing segment of the sport. To help market this genre, there will be a Chicago Sportboat Demo event this weekend with all the popular choices, and next week’s Chicago NOOD has opened up a sportboat class to insure that everyone can participate regardless of their individual class numbers.
This week’s video provides a tease of the Viper 640, which was filmed this winter on the windy and warm waters of Biscayne Bay…….
Thanks to Viperer Harvey Barnes for producing this great video!
...read more - Viper Long Island Sound Regatta June 3, 2009
Written by Justin Scott
This was lots of fun over the weekend.
Great little regatta. Represents everything that owning a Viper stands for. Friendly gathering. Good Racing. Forty bucks. Beer and burgers on the yacht club lawn on Saturday afternoon after racing. Race Committee that fired off four great races on Saturday afternoon and two on Sunday in time to get us in early. Great attitude among the competitors. Tight starts (one well deserved general recall!) .
Indian Harbor YC in Greenwich hosted this low key and fun event. The NOR was posted on our class forum and we recieved a cheerful email from IHYC “We don’t need advance registration, just show up with $40”.
The first gun was at 1.00pm on Saturday, which gave plenty of time for us to drive down and rig on the day . On Sunday the ...
...read more - Viper North Americans Early Registration Discount May 29, 2009
Written by Jason Weisberg
21 Boats to date have signed up for the 2009 North Americans.
Early signup discount expires May 31, 2009. You can get a full refund up until August 28th 2009.
No need for social tickets its all included. Be a part of class history by being at the largest Class event since inception.
Register now at: http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=264
...read more - Drew Harper’s Secret Weapon May 12, 2009
Written by San Francisco Examiner
The key to winning races with the Viper on San Francisco Bay . http://www.examiner.com/x-3070-SF-Sailing-Examiner~y2009m5d8-Great-mustaches-in-San-Francisco-sailing
...read more - Debrief Notes From the Experts at Charleston May 6, 2009
Ched Procter, Tac Boston and Ethan Bixby hosted a debrief session on Saturday after racing at Charleston Race Week 2009. Ethan and Tac took detailed notes on the debrief session and many still consider these notes and “tips” as the the “GO FAST GUIDE” . Here they are:-
Tuning –
We went through some of the tuning points and it is best to use the sailmakers guides specific to the design. In general, we were decreasing the shroud tension in lighter air, and a rough guide can be that the leeward shroud will just go soft when the mainsheet is at max leech tension. When you give a small ease the leeward shroud would then take tension. As the wind increases the rig is increasingly tighter, and I also like to record the gaps in the turnbuckle stud so you can return to your base settings at ...
...read more - Conversations With The Sport of Sailing – Scuttlebutt May 4, 2009
Written by Craig Lewis
Scuttlebutt carried an interview with our very own Class Prez’, Justin Scott after Charleston Race Week.
(April 22, 2009) Last year the Viper 640 circuit included Charleston Race Week for the first time. They had such a good time that they promised to spread the word and bring back their friends. Did they ever! Last weekend, 32 Vipers showed up on the start line at Charleston making the Viper 640 the largest class at the regatta. Link is here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0422/
Or read more below
Charleston Race Week is fast becoming a Mecca for smaller sport boat racing on the East coast, with the combined fleets of sport boats under 26 feet accounting for over half of the 162 participants. Race Week organizers view the 20-foot sport boat category as one of the fastest growing and most exciting niches ...
...read more - Animated Race Replays from Charleston Race Week ’09 April 30, 2009
Some of the 32 Vipers competing at Charleston Race Week carried Velocitek GPS devices onboard during the regatta. We’ve used the track files recorded by the devices to create animated replays from the regatta, using Velocitek’s SpeedPlay software.
Click on any of the videos below to play back a race.
If you had a Velocitek onboard at CRW and your replay track is not shown below, contact Felipe Payet to get him your track data and have it added to the race replays.
Tips:
After clicking on a replay to begin playback, Make sure the “HD” button at the bottom right of the replay window is highlighted in red, to play back a race in High Definition. If it’s not red, click on the HD button to enable High Definition.
To really see what’s going on in a replay, expand the playback to full screen ...
...read more - Care Of Carbon Masts April 25, 2009
Written by Christian Jensen
The following is answers Christian posted in response to questions.
Can a carbon mast last as long as aluminum masts. Like a 30 year old Ensign mast?
There are 30 year old carbon masts around. What is required for them to last is that you have to keep UV from breaking down the resin matrix (what you would notice by the resin turning yellow and chalky).
This can be achieved by a good coating of the spar and obviously patching it if the coating flakes off. The Viper sticks are clear-coated – am unsure which brand of clear-coat but am 99 sure it has an UV-filter in it. My preference for clear-coat is Awlgrip as it has a very good UV filter – BUT – not as good as a colored coating, which has better UV filtering properties. Ideally ...
...read more - Charleston Race Week Rocks!!!!!!!!!! April 22, 2009
Written by Everybody at CRW
If anyone has stories or pictures from CRW that they would like added to this informal, organic article, please email them to Justin or Dan and we will add them.
Come back to this page and check it out again. We will add more articles and more pictures as they come in.
The first contribution is from John Strauss. This was not only his first Viper regatta, but his first ever time racing a sailboat. The Viper is all about the “young at heart” and John shows that you can never stop having fun.
“Just returned to Campton Hills, IL 60175 and thought I’d chime in a bit. #99 had an awesome time.
Yes, we were a bit slow and yes, we sailed jib/main on Sunday BUT Given that I turn 65 in a few days and that this ...
...read more
