(San Francisco, CA)-
the inside story on how two guys "doubled" up their efforts to campaign
the famous J/125 DOUBLE TROUBLE and take the Pacific offshore and
round-the-buoys circuit by storm. Apparently, it all started on San
Francisco Bay. As young kids, both Andy Costello (left) and Peter Krueger (right) grew up as classic Bay area kids with a love for the water and dreaming about what it would be like to sail a boat on the Bay. While Andy continued to grow up and learn how to sail on the Bay along its eastern shores, Peter got married and started spending a lot of time in Reno, Nevada and going to Lake Tahoe on weekends to sail Thistles with his father-in-law. Later, Peter and family started sailing Catalina's on the lake. Not soon after, Peter then got into the Air Force and stopped sailing for awhile. After his tour of duty, Peter ended up buying a Beneteau First 36.7 to sail on San Francisco Bay. The racing bug bit him hard and, as part of his training, Peter visited the J/World San Diego Sailing School to learn how to sail better on J/24s.
Over the course of the next few years, Peter kept coming up against another guy named Andy Costello who'd also bought and was racing a First 36.7 on the Bay. After meeting each other, they became friends. Both decided to trade-in their 36.7s and bought Sydney 38s, racing them for awhile on the Bay. But, as Peter said, "we were having a tough time with them on the Bay and couldn't compete against some of the other boats". As a result, Andy sold the Syd 38 and bought the 1D35 DOUBLE TROUBLE and raced it in the Big Boat Series. After knocking heads with some of the Bay areas top boats, Andy then turned to Peter and said "let's get together and instead of chasing each other around the bay, let's get a J/125". The rest is history.
At
that point, they went in search of the red J/125 sold by Pat Nolan,
from SailCalifornia, a boat they were most impressed by when she was
racing on the Bay, often streaking by them with the big asymmetric
spinnaker flying in clouds of spray. It turns out the boat had gone to
Baltimore and was sailing on the Chesapeake and been re-named "Narrow
Escape". After a bit of negotiating, Andy and Peter bought it, shipped
it back to the West Coast and began the process of continuous
improvement to her. Said Peter, "it was a natural move and it was
significant move-up in speed and performance. Andy's done most of the
maintenance and crew organization. Plus, he really loves all the carbon
stuff, so we keep replacing SS stuff with carbon here and there! Even
the swim ladder! We dry-sail the boat to keep it light and fast.""The partnership with Andy has been great", says Peter. "I love buoy racing and Andy loves to do the offshore stuff. He's got an amazing crew sailing with him, including Trevor Bayliss and other skiff guys. The amazing part about them was that after the Pacific Cup, we got the boat just one week before Big Boat Series, in fact it was around Thursday 8 am the delivery crew brought her into San Francisco. By Saturday morning were out practicing and re-tuned the rig and got her out of 'offshore-mode' and into 'buoy-racing mode'. After hauling on Monday, we got it ready to sail again and sailed throughout the end of the week and weekend. Jeff Madrigali ("Madro") was a huge help!"
"Our biggest dilemma was how to tune the rig right for the regatta," commented Peter. "It's mostly light in the mornings, then increases velocity quickly. We'd start at 11 am, but we'd get off the line around 11:30 am as third class to start. The breeze would usually be up by then, enough to use the new #2 North 3DI jib. This sail was amazing, it allowed us to point higher and go fast. Conditions never got nasty-- just 22-23 kts of breeze tops. In the afternoon races, we usually switched from the #2 to a new Quantum #3, that happened for 3-4 races. By the way, I picked up the North 3DI's (new main and the #2) right from their Reno, NV plant- what an amazing facility- very technologically advanced!"
When
asked what were some of the most memorable events of this year's Big
Boat Series, Peter said "wind conditions were just enough for our new
North 3Di #2, too light for a #3 and too much for a #1. That plus using
the staysail meant we were incredibly fast. Tim Fuller on the other
J/125 RESOLUTE took two days to figure out how to tune for the
conditions, but got really fast quickly. RESOLUTE had a new huge North
kite, so by Friday were equally as fast as us. The fun and excitement
really came from the three J/125s duking it out racing around the Bay.
We were over early in race #4, so now had to restart and catch up, slog
it out with a lot of upwind work. We were able to win that race! We
first had to focus on knocking off Richard Ferris' J/125 AUGUST ICE,
then Fuller's RESOLUTE after 2-3 legs. Then, we stuck to it, focused
and ground down Bernie's Farr 400 ROCK & ROLL to win!"Peter continued to say that, "it was mostly an ebb-tide regatta. The Bay Tour on the last day was really exciting. Nothing like reaching with the J/125, over 17 kts flying down the bay, waves and water spraying everywhere. Great regatta. Winning the event was a tremendous feeling."
"The RC boats and RC management overall did a wonderful job, especially after coming off helping out the America's Cup", commented Peter. "The mark boat people get the least recognition, but had to work the hardest-- they were great! I can't even imagine having to 'draw' the Boston Whaler duty as the port pin boat and be bounced around all day long!"
Are there plans for a "three-peat" in 2013 for Big Boat? "Yes, absolutely" says Peter. "We have a very full race schedule for 2013, including Big Boat and Andy doing the TransPac Race".
With Andy looking after his BMW Marin County dealership and Peter looking after special interests as a lobbyist in Reno, Nevada, they will be keeping busy balancing out work & play! Nevertheless, "I love to head down for weekends to hang out on the 125 in Richmond", said Peter, "it gives me time to catch up with Andy and hang out with the boys. It's a nice break to have once in awhile between regattas." We wish them well on their racing in 2013-- God Speed to the DT gang! Sailing photo credits- Rolex/Daniel Forster. Sharon Green/ Ultimate Sailing
