Wednesday, July 28, 2010

REPEAT OFFENDER Wins Fiesta Cup

J/105s sailing Fiesta Cup in Santa Barbara, CA

(Santa Barbara, CA)- This past weekend, the Santa Barbara YC hosted yet another fun event for the J/105s as part of the city's local Spanish celebrations.  They host a great beach party with good band (The Spencer Gardner Band) and free beer, food and Mai Tai's after Saturday's racing.  What's wrong with that picture?  Can't imagine why they didn't get more J/105s this year!

Saturday had a slow start in light air but the breeze continued to build all day. Because of the fickle conditions off the yacht club, the whole course was moved up by the point were there was better wind.  Steve Howell's BLINK from San Diego DYC had a great day in the J/105 class with 8 points followed by 3 Santa Barbara boats with 10 points each. Not an ideal racing day but the RC did a great job of shifting marks with the shifts.

By Sunday, after the breeze settled in, the standings flip-flopped with Steve's BLINK taking a beating, getting a 7-8-6 to drop down to sixth overall.  The locals ran the table, with the Santa Barbarians taking the top three positions on the podium.  Last year's winner, Rasmussen's FREE ENTERPRISE nearly pulled off a repeat of last year's win.  However, two sixths mid-series hurt FREE ENTERPRISE's chances (with a 4-1-6-6-1-2 record), losing by a point to Larry Harteck's REPEAT OFFENDER which managed to get a more consistent tally of 5-4-1-2-4-3 for nineteen points.  Third was J/105 Class President, Bernie Girod, sailing his well-traveled ROCK & ROLL to a 1-2-7-4-7-1 record, winning both first and last races to happily finish off a well-sailed series.  For more Fiesta Cup sailing information.