Wednesday, January 16, 2013

J/27 BLACKADDER Loses to Dennis Conner's FAME!

Dennis Conner's gaff-rigged schooner FAME(San Diego, CA)- True Story. David Cattle, owner of the J/27 BLACKADDER in San Diego, California, loses to FAME!  Seriously.  "FAME".  The man, the boat, the designer, the legends.  This time it was in the form of Dennis Conner (Mr. America's Cup and J/105 owner)  on a completely revitalized and gorgeously re-built schooner, called "FAME".  She's from "turn of the century days"- back in 1910 when gorgeous J/Class yachts of 130+ feet were racing for the America's Cup!

Conner picked up the 40-foot BB Crowninshield-designed gaff schooner FAME in 2009. The yacht was the winner of many Great Lakes races, but she had seen better days.  Conner bought FAME for $17,000 and had her sailing the summer of 2010, her centenary year. FAME is a 1910 Long Island Sound gaff-rigged schooner that was designed and built by BB Crowninshield for his personal use. He wanted to create "the largest and fastest boat he could handle and take care of alone."

J/27 sailing with Dennis Conner's schooner FAME David commented on his experience of being beaten by two legends, "It was a fun day, though it got colder and we were forced to put jeans on at the end of the race.  We had Dennis for two-thirds of the race, then he made a great tactical move, avoided current and got a great shift and angle to the leeward mark. And with his waterline and a long reach leg back into the finish, he got us!

FAME is gorgeous. Look at the difference in size in the picture here. My crew were complaining she has two spinnakers to our one, each of her's are bigger than ours! Dennis St Onge- a.k.a. DA-Woody- sailing photographerDC was about 300 yds away from us in this pic."  We wish you "Good Luck" next time, DC's a hard man to beat in his home waters!

FAME and BLACKADDER sailing photo credits- DA-Woody (Dennis St. Onge)- himself another local legend in that funny little yellow car and giant American flag flying off the back.