(San Diego, CA)- This year's San Diego YC's Hot Rum Series could be
deemed a "classic" Hot Rum Series, sun, fun, gentle sea-breezes and
laid-back sailing. Basically, you just start off the Piers near SDYC,
beat out in a lightish Southwest 5-8 knot breeze, tacking up under the
Point Loma shoreline, making sure to not run over any incredibly curious
sea-lions, avoiding the US Navy submarine pen tucked under the Loma
cliffs (currently nurturing an old "boomer"--one of those monsters of
the deep that lurk beneath the surface of the world's oceans for a
century armed to the teeth with a gazillion MIRV'd nuclear warheads),
turning left to go offshore to a marker way south of Coronado Island,
then reach/fetch back to the finish and head home. Easy. Simple to
follow the directions. And, hundreds of sailors love to do it as their
fall (or early winter) right of passage just before the Christmas
holiday shopping spree often lubricated with a bit of "cinnamon-spiced
hot rum cider"! 
This
year's event seemed to be skewed to the much larger boats- the 50 to
70-plus footers that were roaring around the course with their towering
rigs. Nevertheless, amongst the J/125s in PHRF 1, Jim Madden's crew on
STARK RAVING MAD led the pack of J/125s and ended up 9th in class. From
there, the standings flip-flopped for the other three 125s. Second
J/125 in the class was Viggo Torbenson's TIMESHAVER with the unusual
paint job (white topsides with a PINK bottom paint!). Third was Tim
Fuller's RESOLUTE and fourth in the 125s was Mark Surber's DERIVATIVE.
Because
of throw-outs, the PHRF 2 Class also saw a complete jumbling of their
standings. Local ring-leader Chuck Nicholl sailing his famous J/120 CC
RIDER dropped to 4th in class and first in the J/120s. John Laun's
J/120 CAPER was next, finishing 5th in class and 2nd J/120. Third J/120
was Mike Hatch's J-ALMIGHTY sitting 9th in class. Top J/109 was
Daylen Teren's GREAT BALLS OF FIRE, lying 12th in class. And, top J/124
was Seth Hall's MARISOL in 18th class, just ahead of Tom Barker's
J/124 GOOD CALL finishing 19th in class. This was a huge class, with 38
boats sailing on ONE starting line! 
The
J/105s sailed very well in PHRF Class 3, with Dennis and Sharon Case's
WINGS leading the pack, finishing 2nd in class and top J/105. Jumping
up into 3rd in class, 2nd J/105 was Dave Vieregg's TRIPLE PLAY with a
second on the last race. Third J/105 was Team Fisher/ Dagostino on
VIGGEN, also sailing well on the last day grabbing a third, but not
enough to win the tie-breaker over their classmate TRIPLE PLAY. A good
performance was turned in by Herb Zoehrer's J/35 Z-FORCE, finishing 9th
in class.PHRF 4 Class had David Cattle's J/27 BLACKADDER hanging tough to finish 9th in class ahead of J/classmate Steve Worcester's J/32 RHAPSODY at 14th class.
The epic battle for Hot Rum braggin rights in PHRF 5 resulted in a few of the J "classics" melting down while others soared like Phoenix's rising from the ashes. Mary Snow's J/24 BOGUS secured third overall by virtue of their 1-3 in the first two races, not even sailing the last race and tossing her DNC! Amazingly, by doing so she lost a three-wayY tie for second-- huge bummer. Bob Noe's J/30 MAD HATTER was the third leg of that stool, losing the three-way tie and ending up fourth despite having the overall best record of the three boats-- sailing a solid 2-2-4 for the series! Next time, Bob, next time you'll get that keg of hot rum! Shala Lawrence's cute J/22 NOTHING DRIVES LIKE A RENTAL sadly didn't sail the last race, so had to score a 5-DNF to slide into 7th. Sailing photo credits- the infamous Sir DA-Woody (a.k.a. Dennis St Onge). For more San Diego YC Hot Rum Series sailing information
