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 have easily gotten in a 4th race, but for some reason, they waited. Maybe they were having lunch, or issues, or who knows what. It’s just as well since our team was not quite on par that day anyhow. Ever have one of those days where nothing you do goes well? …that was our Saturday, though I should have known it was going to be an “off weekend” when my Friday evening flight was delayed and the flight attendants were cranky about it!

The Vipers had 6 boats on the line including a new owner who drove out from Texas to race for the “maillot jaune” (yellow kite). The yellow kite came about from a fellow French Viperer and it was inspired by the Yellow Jersey from the Tour De France. Owners of the west coast Viper fleet pitched in to purchase the kite and it travels around with whomever is in the current lead, though I personally believe the darn thing is hexed. At any rate, Tony Chapman had the honors of flying the maillot jaune and consequently is headed to the next west coast event with it by taking two bullets in Saturday’s races. Congratulations Tony!

Sunday’s racing proved to be patchy light air, and once again, the Tigers were our best buds offering tows out and eventually tows back in as we only got one race in before RC had called it for the day! As it turned out, it was our best race of the entire 4 race regatta coming from the back of the pack to finish 2nd. The overall racing for our fleet was tight and leaders were swapping positions at any possible chance they had, but it was Drew and his crack crew on Boomslang that took the overall win for this years edition! The fleet is very much looking forward to the next showdown at Long Beach Race Week coming up in June and we hope to see more Vipers on the line!

Thanks again to Coronado Yacht Club for hosting us and we look forward to next year!

-Venomiss