October 2009 eBook all pages (free PDF, 36.6 - Latitude 38

Dave and Brock Steffen, Terry Tavelli,
Gabe Murphy, Erik Smitt, Keith Rarick,
and Mike Spencer-Smith, sailed well
enough to score a 3-3-1-1-1-2-1.
"Our win was all about our great
crew," Patterson said. "They're mostly
from Bellingham YC. . . and most came
last year also. Our MVP was 18-yearold
Brock Steffen from Bellingham. He
launched every kite perfectly, without a
single problem."
Express 37
If the competition among the Express
37s seemed a little heated it was because
the nine-boat division was sailing for one
of the most coveted trophies in Bay Area
racing. No, not the Rolex that awaited the
class winner for the second consecutive
year. We're talking about the vaunted
Timex Cup! With its origins in the days
of the class' perpetual snubbing of the
fancier timepiece — despite being its longest-running
one-design class — the Timex
Cup Perpetual, a dime-store watch
mounted haphazardly with duct tape on
an irregularly-shaped piece of plywood,
has become the class talisman.
Kame Richards won both the Timex
Cup and a Rolex this year aboard Golden
LATITUDE/LADONNA
— HANGIN' TOUGH IN '09
Rolex? What Rolex? Kame Richards and Bill Bridge's 'Golden Moon' took home both the Express 37
class's coveted 'Timex Cup' Perpetual, and a fancy watch for a consistent, winning performance.
Moon. Backed up by tactician Scot Owens,
Richards, boat partner Bill Bridge
and the rest of the "Moonies" — Tom
Paulling, Jamal Berkeley, Brad Jeffry,
Todd Hedin, Mike Mannix, Andrew Hura,
David Liebenberg, Lynn Davis and Aimee
Daniel — got out of the blocks strong on
Thursday, scoring a pair of bullets.
"One of the hardest things for me to
control is my stress level," Richards said.
"So it was refreshing to have various crew
members remind us we don't have to win
every race. With two wins on day one, we
were sitting pretty. But on day two, we
got a second and a third
and were feeling fragile,
until someone reminded
us we still had a very
comfortable lead."
Relaxed and groovin',
the Moonies sailed to a
very consistent 3-2-3-3-
3 in the next three days
to fend off Mick Schlens'
Southern Californiabased
Blade Runner,
which followed its opening
5-6 with a 1-1-2-1-2
to get within two points
of Golden Moon.
"The best part of the
whole thing is the people
who own the boats and
people who crew on the
boats," said Richards,
who won his division for
the third time in the last seven years.
"What makes a one design strong is
not how new it is; that's not it. There's
a special glue, a societal kind of glue.
Ron Moore once said, 'The boat chooses
you,' and I wonder if that's not what the
Express 37 has done to us."
LEEANNE PATTERSON
Pat Patterson and his Bellingham,
Washington-based 'Summer and
Smoke' team came down to raid the
Beneteau 36.7 division title.
Cal 40
Perhaps the coolest thing at this year's
Rolex Big Boat Series was the advent of
the Cal 40 one design division. And as
good as it was to see six examples of
the classic Bill Lapworth design racing
against each other on the Bay, it was
even better to see how well-kept they
are. The true peach among this cherry
fleet was Bill LeRoy's Gone With the Wind,
which handily won the division with five
bullets and a pair of seconds. LeRoy, who
came to the boat following the break from
sailing after successfully campaigning an
SC 50 by the same name,
put together an effort as
impressive as the restoration
of the boat.
"I was talking with
Stan Honey, and I asked
him if there were any Cal
40s around," LeRoy said.
"We started discussing the
design and the more we
talked, the more apparent
it became that it was
exactly what I wanted in
a boat. It doesn't have any
bad habits and it has a
safe and secure cockpit for
taking my grandchildren
sailing."
He found a boat last
year and began a restoration
that went, "way over
budget," and culminated in
a beautiful boat, a Big Boat Series win,
and big plans for next year.
"We're going to ship the boat to the
East Coast to do both the Bermuda Race
and some cruising," he said. And when
he does, he'll doubtless get the same reaction
he said he's gotten here at home.
October, 2009 • Latitude 38 • Page 95