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

SHARON GREEN/WWW.ULTIMATESAILING.COM
ROLEX BIG BOAT SERIES
"When you tell people you have a Cal 40,
they light up and say, 'Ohhh.'"
The battle for second went to Steve
Waterloo's Shaman, which pulled away
from Rodney Pimentel's Azure in the final
races of the regatta.
Melges 32
The Melges 32s were sailing for their
U.S. National Championships; unfortunately
you wouldn't know it, given that
only five entries showed for the regatta.
With the class' World Championships
beginning in Sardinia a week-and-a-half
later, the deck was stacked against the
class' chance of matching last year's
total of nine entries that included two
European teams.
But the lack of entries didn't translate
into ho-hum racing. Mill Valley's Don
Jesberg and his all-corinthian team on
Viva — which had won the seven-boat
North Americans held earlier in the week
at Sausalito YC — battled with Andy
Lovell and Burton Benrud's Louisianabased
Rougarou.
Rougarou finished strong, posting a
pair of bullets on Saturday to pull away
and finish three points clear of Viva.
Stephen Pugh's Sausalito-based Taboo
rounded out the top-three, another three
points behind Viva.
With 45 years under its belt, the
'09 Rolex Big Boat Series proved the regatta
can hold its own no matter what's
Page 96 • Latitude 38 • October, 2009
Andy Costello's Pt. Richmond-based J/125
'Double Trouble' screams downwind.
happening in the greater economic
context. It also proved that IRC can do
the same, and while there are some areas
that could use improvement, many
people — whether they like the rule or
not — agree that it's working better than
anything that preceded it.
Count IRC D winner Gerry Sheridan
among them:
"I think IRC is saving big boat racing
around the world," he said. "It's giving
a new sense of purpose to racing and
serious big boat campaigns. Handicap
racing is never perfect, but this is close
to perfect."
Newly-crowned National Champion
Mitchell agreed:
"I like it, and not because we won,"
he said. "With IRC, your boat's not obsolete
every year. I didn’t design it as a
stripped-out boat; it has a proper galley,
cherry-wood floors, benches in the cockpit
for when I take my dad and friends
sailing, plus it's comfortable for distance
races."
Yet another division winner, Dan
Woolery, pointed out that despite the
success he's had with Soozal, there are
still some areas in the administration
of the rule — which in the 45- to 50-ft
range begins to favor lighter displacement,
more power, and planing hull
forms — that need work.
"Most of the sailing venues around the
U.S. typically feature less breeze than the
planing conditions we get here in Northern
California," Woolery said. "The planing
verses non-planing attributes of the
50-plus footers become an issue for the
equity in IRC. When racing in all kinds
of wind conditions over this past year
against the typical IRC boat — the racer/
cruiser, the medium displacement boat
with legitimate headroom, a real head,
a galley, berths, water tanks and so on
— we had many occasions where places
were determined by just a few, or 20 to
30 seconds — which is pretty close after
two hours of racing. The results of this
year's Big Boat Series show that all of the
TP 52’s, even the last-placed boat, corrected
out ahead of anyone in our fleet.
To make a good rating rule even better,
there should be some accommodation
to level the playing field, if combining
all these types of boats together into an
overall regatta format is the goal."
With so many great stories to tell,
and not enough space, we were forced to
make a difficult decision: run more awesome
photos, or a blue box with tiny type
inside, that esssentially duplicates the
body of the story? We chose the former,
and hope you're happy. But if you want
to see the full results, video and images
from the '09 Rolex Big Boat Series, all
you have to do is visit: www.big-boatseries.com.
latitude/rg