(San Francisco, CA)- This year's Sperry Topsider San Francisco NOOD
Regatta was marked by "classic" San Francisco Bay conditions- "nuking"
when the interior Valleys hit 90-100 degrees in the extreme hot weather
the American west/southwest coasts have been experiencing. Two solid
days of breezes and sunny skies with one day hitting the upper end of
the sea-breeze range, blowing 15-25 kts gusting to 30 knots. The
sailors who know the Bay love it and live for these conditions when they
see it-- cool, foggy mornings punctuated by walking down to the local
Peet's Coffee bar for fresh-roasted, fresh-brewed yummy coffee and
breakfast treats. Then, head down to the Marina District to savor the
cool, light morning breeze and sunshine, waiting in anticipation of
another day of racing on one of the sailing world's more spectacular
venues.This year saw a nice turnout of J/24s with nine entered for the event and the J/105s had their usual strong turnout with fun, tight racing with seventeen entered to compete for that great "free" trip to race in Tortola BVI if you happened to have the best record and performance for all classes in the regatta!
Perhaps
savoring it more than most this year was Bruce Stone (pictured at right
with tactician Nicole Breault). Having just competed in the Rolex
Block Island Race Week and finishing 2nd in the J/105 class after five
days of sailing, Bruce and crew flew direct from Boston to San Francisco
to sail Saturday/ Sunday in the SF NOODs! Mike Lovett from SAILING
WORLD magazine caught up with Bruce after the first day-"Bruce Stone really, really likes racing J/105s. On Saturday morning, he flew from Rhode Island, where he'd just spent the week competing at Block Island Race Week, to San Francisco, where he had just enough time to zip down to St. Francis YC and lead his Arbitrage team out to the racecourse for the first start of the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta.
In Block Island, the team was racing a borrowed boat in light and variable conditions; returning to San Francisco, they were back in a familiar boat, racing in familiar, 18-25 knot conditions. "It was like putting on an old pair of shoes," says Nicole Breault, who calls tactics and trims mainsail. "And that's such a good feeling. You just know when it's happening. All the information is coming in, everyone is doing their job, and the boat-handling is like clockwork. If we had to make a last-minute douse at the leeward gate, the team just made it happen."
With
flawless crew work, stellar starts, and a never-say-die attitude, the
Arbitrage team put up a 2-1-2-1-2 scoreline to win the 17-boat J/105
class and earn the event's overall prize, which includes an invite to
compete in the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Championship regatta this November
in the British Virgin Islands. "There were plenty of times this weekend
when we found ourselves in a tight spot," says Stone. "At a couple of
the starts, we were sandwiched between two good sailors and had to fight
to maintain our lane. Other times, we'd get the slows in the heavy
chop, and we'd have to make some adjustments to get back up to speed."In addition to Stone and Breault, the Arbitrage team includes Terry Brennan (pit), Mike Straus (trimmer), Will Madison (bow), and Marc Acheson (mast). "What makes the teamwork good," says Breault, "is when you do make mistakes, you fix them right away."
Stone moved to San Francisco from the East Coast in the early 1980s and has been running a bi-coastal program for the past 11 years. "We keep Arbitrage here on the Bay, and then we borrow boats on the East Coast," he says. "We find owners who want to race but don't have a team, or don't have the experience, and then we bring the team, help re-rig the boat, and go racing. I pay the variable costs, and they provide the boat.
"We've raced seven different boats in 11 years," he continues. "A few years ago, on Power Play at the Sail Newport Regatta, we had three bullets in one day. The owner was just ecstatic. He said, 'I've never been on a boat that had one bullet, let alone three in one day.' We had him doing mast, and he just had a blast. It's worked out really well that way."
Bruce's
ARBITRAGE team ended up winning with a 2-1-2-1-2 record for 8 pts. San
Francisco Bay veteran Rolf Kaiser on DONKEY JACK finished 2nd with a
6-7-3-2-1 tally for 19 pts. Scooter Simmons on BLACKHAWK was third with
a 1-5-4-4-6 for 20 pts. 4th and 5th were settled on a tie-breaker with
Jason Woodley on RISK taking the 4th and Jeff Littfin on MOJO taking
5th. Amongst the J/24s, it was another past winner taking the gold with Mike Whitfield on TMC RACING winning with four firsts! Second was Don Taylor sailing ON BELAY, third Darren Cumming's DOWNTOWN UPROAR, fourth Luther Strayer and fifth Raymond Lynch's BAD FISH. For more information on the Sperry Topsider San Francisco NOOD Regatta. Sailing Photo Credits- Tim Wilkes Photography
