We also introduced a new trophy for the Schock 35s - a perpetual trophy for the series, which we have renamed, the Jim Long Memorial Series.  The first winner of the trophy: RIPPLE!  Ripple totally dominated the Wed. night action in 2000, impressively picking the first shift correctly repeatedly

CYC Fall O/D Regatta

A come from behind win in the last race of the year sealed a Fleet Championship for Outlier and a disappointing loss to Piranha with only one-half of one point separating the two for the year.  In the last race, with Piranha carrying over a one minute lead and with only a half mile upwind to go, the genoa halyard snapped.  Outlier gained the lead during the halyard switch, but Piranha pulled back three boatlengths to end up losing by a nose at the finish line.  Outlier joins Piranha as 3 time Fleet Champions with their victory in 2000.

Duke Jones One-Design Regatta

Seven Schocks showed up for our third local event of the season.  Piranha again won the weekend event which saw winds that were pleasant - generally ranging from 6-9 knots true on a warm sunny summer day.  Piranha picked a large south shift on the first leg of race #1 to sail to an easy win while in race #2, Outlier led all the way start to finish, but Piranha closed in at the finish which was so close that the horn went off before the gun and neither boat knew who had won!  In race #3, the RC did not follow the SI's which said the start would be on the next five minute signal - as a result, the two boats that had been over early were there to start on the next gun while the rest of the fleet was sailing back to the line.  Subsequent hearing found this was error by the RC.  Nonetheless, on the water, Outlier cruised to an unchallenged victory in the race and second place for the day, while Power Play had a strong day to take third overall.

Midwinters: Big Fleet Turnout - Piranha Wins 2d Regatta for 2000

The local Schock 35 fleet is thriving in Marina del Rey!  Nine boats turned out for class racing as once again, there were more sailors on the water in the Schock fleet than in any other class!  Once again, the racing was really close and after one day of racing, Power Play led the fleet with a first place in race one achieved by taking Piranha's transom downwind to position themselves smartly inside at the last leeward mark and cover to the finish for a solid win.  Strategem made the trip up from Newport and showed that it had big plans for this year with some new crewmembers and a lead over the fleet at the first weather mark of the regatta. 

Wind from the SE was very puffy.  Talking with Jim Durden who has sailed here for 18 years, he had never seen a regatta with strong breeze from that part of the compass rose.  Nonetheless, Outlier had it wired in race 2 and although dogged by Ripple throughout, took the bullet for the race.  Piranha pulled out a third and Power Play a fourth before the wind died and the RC postponed race 3 to Sunday.

Talk at the yacht club on Sunday morning was whether the RC was going to cancel the day's races.  Although still out of the SE, the wind was now blowing 15 kts. and building.  To their credit, the excellent race committee of CYC started race #3 with a square line in 16-18 kts.  Outlier nailed the start, but Piranha sailed higher and at the first cross, Piranha tacked directly in front of Outlier forcing them away.  When the boats reconverged on layline, Piranha was still ahead and although Outlier tacked on Piranha's hip, they were forced away again.  However, the wind suddenly dropped to 12, Piranha couldn't get to the mark and found Outlier gunning for them on starboard forcing Piranha to tack up short of the layline and into a gybe to get back to the weather mark all the while dragging a crewman in the water.  White Fang and Ripple slipped by as well. 

Downwind in wind from 100 degrees, Piranha laid the leeward mark after a gybe set and gained some ground.  Upwind, a big right shift lifted everyone to the mark and while Outlier and White Fang did bear away sets, the shift sent them on a course perpendicular to the course to the mark.  Outlier wanted to gybe, but a slipped chute halyard delayed the turn.  Meanwhile, Piranha rounded with a gybe, and in the 25 knot breeze and 40 degree shift laid the leeward mark on a beam reach without chute doing well over 8 knots.  All hell broke loose on Outlier after they gybed and found they couldn't possible sail high enough to get to the mark.  Good views of the keel and rudder on Outlier were had by all.  At the leeward mark with about a half mile to the finish, White Fang (which had done a great job not broaching w/chute) came in several boatlengths behind Piranha.  Although an immediate tack was called for because it was possible to fetch the finish line on starboard tack, of all the ironies, White Fang couldn't tack because they were being blocked by a Martin 242 -- sailed by White Fang's own usual helmsman Jim Durden!  Outlier did a relatively quick tack and almost got by under White Fang, but Don Adams steering held them off for second in the big breeze.  With the second place finish, I guess Don has shown he should only steer when it blows over 20! 

Piranha took the gun for what turned out to be the regatta win when so many boats started to retire from the racing in other classes that even thought they intended to start a fourth race, the RC called it a day.  Outlier was second overall followed by Ripple in third.

Next stop, Newport Beach for the W.D. Schock Regatta as we hit the road for several months.  Next local racing for the fleet is the May 24 Sunset Series.  With three races at Midwinters, our local series now appears to be 13 races.

Champagne Series Concludes on Beautiful Day for Racing - Piranha Wins Series

Mainsail trimmer to helmsman before the start "what do you think they are doing in Detroit today?"  It was one of those glorious days in "Winter" when the sun and wind were perfection.  Wind speeds from 8-14 knots for the day made for great racing.

When the dust settled, Piranha had won its fourth Champagne Series after spending the entire day match racing with Outlier.  Second overall went to Ripple after Outlier was found to be DSQ twice in the last race of the series - once with Absolute and once with a J-24.  Ripple sailed an outstanding series, finishing only two points back of Piranha on the strength of a 3-1 finish on the final day to cap off a great regatta for Jeff Janov and his crew.

In the first race of the day, Piranha was late for the line, having been backing a bag fish off the rudder with a minute to the start, but beat Outlier to the left side in a 1 mile drag race after forcing Ripple out of the Oreo middle.  Piranha had a huge lead, but was puzzled by the A fleet boats going around K instead of E.  As Outlier headed for K, Piranha finally figured out something was wrong (used CYC race chart not SBYRC chart) and headed back upwind to the mark in disarray with the chute flogging and headsail working its way up.  Getting to the mark outside of Outlier, Piranha was forced to sail below a Cal 24 that split the boats.  After a tacking duel in the half mile to weather, Outlier stayed ahead by 1 second for the win.  An earlier port-starboard incident with Absolute on starboard did not result in a DSQ..

Race two was like the Louis Vuitton Cup - are they match racing or aren't they?  At first Piranha and Outlier split to opposite sides of the first weather leg each convinced their weather guess was right, then at the very end of the leg they came back together dead even with Outlier forced to tack away and come back off the port layline.  Meanwhile, Ripple worked the shifts, and Piranha couldn't quite cross them on starboard layline which gave Outlier just enough room to flip around behind Ripple for second at the weather mark followed nose-to-tail by Piranha.  Ripple gladly jibed away from the other two to play the shifts and stretch her lead, while Piranha pinned Outlier to the south side layline.  A fake jibe by Outlier didn't work and Piranha was able to hold inside all the way to the leeward mark.  From that point a series of hard covers drove Outlier back.  Near the end, Piranha almost caught Ripple in the last mile downwind, but Ripple took the bullet by nine seconds.  Meanwhile, two minutes back, Power Play slid in for their third 3rd in four races, Outlier edged out Absolute by one second for 4th (prior to protest between them giving Outlier a DSQ) with White Fang and Minnesota Fast finishing in the minute behind that.

Eight Boats! Mix It Up in Champagne 2+3

With at least some wind to work with ranging from 2.5 knots (masthead) to 9 knots, the two races saw a lot of position scrambling.  Poor Absolute was leading in both races only to drop to the back twice before the finish.  As Sue puts it: "It was so nice, we just stayed on the same tack, banged the corner, really enjoyed the feeling of sailing, and came in DFL.  Ha!"

A nice showing by Power Play with two thirds and continued good races by Ripple accented the racing.  In race one, the winning move was realizing that the wind had shifted to 320 and that spinnakers were useless beating.  Piranha and Outlier went to headsails and quietly ghosted into the lead and then had a tacking duel all the way to the finish as the wind abruptly picked up.  Inside at the leeward mark was all it took for Piranha to hold off Outlier for the win.  In race two, Piranha worked a solid but shifty breeze to pass Ripple and Power Play on the last beat for a second bullet on Dave's birthday.

Fleet Endures Decision to Run Champagne-1 in "Glass-off" Conditions

When all was said and done, Outlier held onto first in a race (Champagne-1) that should have been at a minimum shortened and more likely, abandoned.  It took over four hours for the fleet to drift to the finish with staysails used as windseekers going up and down throughout the fleet.  Enough said.

Results: 1) Outlier 2) Ripple 3) White Fang 4) Piranha 5) Twister 6) Absolute