race report
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 Steve Madeira's J/120 Mr. Magoo on an upwind leg slides past J/105s going downwind. ©2011 norcalsailing.com |
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Stone Cup May 15, 2011 This year's Stone Cup (brought to you by St. Francis Yacht Club) had two different days with two very different weather conditions. The racing was held on the Cityfront with temporary buoys marking windward/leeward courses. During Saturday's overcast and light wind affair, the boats had to contend with weird currents and a slack tide right in the middle of racing. Some boats got confused and headed to the wrong side at the wrong time.
Some follies occurred too, with the 1D 48 Bodacious+ hooking the committee boat for five or ten minutes, delaying the start of the next division, the J/120s, which had their own contre-temps on Saturday. Rich Hudnut, crewing on sistership Twist, described that incident: "Chance and Dayenu had a small contact at the start, Chance below, Dayenu above, Dayenu needed to give room, and turned fast, sweeping his port pulpit into the side of Chance."
On Sunday the skies brightened up and the wind was strong, gusty and shifty, and the leaderboard changed with each race. The J/105 Advantage3 and a sistership brushed rigs as they passed each other in big wind near the windward mark – and Advantage3 lost their mast.
Tom Allard crewing on the J/120 Mr. Magoo talks about the regatta from their perspective. "Our Stone Cup experience could be surmised with two bullet points:
"After executing our best start of the season, winning the boat and going to wire-to-wire in race one, we and the rest of the fleet then ran into the buzz saw that was Chance and tactician Jon Stewart, who was on his ‘A’ game. They hit every shift, every layline, covered the center properly when the fleet split, and arguably put together their best overall regatta in two or three years by posting a line of 2-1-1-1 – an incredibly difficult feat in an incredibly competitive fleet, where one minor mistake will quickly send you from first to worst. They not only recovered from being fouled, but from fouling another boat in another incident, taking their circles with a Corinthian smile and sailing on to win.
"It doesn’t get much better than that and it was fun to watch – even if from astern where the spring melt-off and shifty puffs proved to be a challenge for us. We all were racing on the same track, and we normally excel when the wind pipes up, but this weekend we chose to employ what we call, 'Castanza' tactics where the correct call always seemed to be the opposite of what was right. It wasn’t our weekend, but it was still a good weekend of good one design racing at it’s best. My name is Mr. Magoo, I’m unemployed and I live with my mother."
In the J/105 fleet, Scooter Simmons' Blackhawk prevailed. In IRC, Brad Cooper's Tripp 43 TNT topped the four race series. For complete results, go to www.stfyc.com.
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