MADE IN SANTA CRUZ
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Express 37 Regatta The Carl Schumacher-designed Express 37 was built by Alsberg Brothers Boatworks in Santa Cruz in the ‘80s. Seven of them raced at MISCRW, including Escape, borrowed by builder Terry Alsberg. With the majority of boats based in the Bay Area, the small fleet requested to race on Saturday and Sunday in order to use Memorial Day Monday for the delivery home. The wind topped 30 knots on both days. Sunday started out light enough for a postponement before the breeze built to a steady 30 at the top of the course. For the last race, they were given a three-timesaround course. “At the final windward mark rounding, everyone was primed to hoist,” said Golden Moon skipper Kame Richards. “We saw 30 knots and we bore away. I said, ‘Hold, hold, hold.’ It was too windy.” GM had enough of a lead that they didn’t need to set. Halfway through that final run, the wind settled down to 26 knots and they finally hoisted the kite. Golden Moon won four out of five races. Brendan Busch’s Spy vs. Spy
other Express 37 sailors gave props to Jack Peurach’s Elan, the only one of them who had completed Friday's even windier Spinnaker Cup to Monterey. PHRF Regatta Overlapping with the Express 37s were the PHRF MISC boats, racing on Sunday and Monday. “Sunday was a good day for us,” said Jack Gordon, skipper of the SC50 Roller Coaster. “It didn’t blow over 30, so that was more tolerable than the Spinnaker Cup, which got up to 40. In the third race, we lost the main halyard, and we just kept going on the #3 jib while we got the main back up on a spinnaker halyard. We really didn’t slow down. We never had to jibe — we brought the pole all the way back and sailed a little by the lee.” Gordon described “a mishmash of boats” in PHRF — the Olson 30 prototype Pacific High, Jay Crum’s Olson 30 Piñata, the SC40 Camelot, and the SC50 Deception, which joined them on Sunday on the way north from the Spinnaker Cup. Shana Bagley, crew on Deception, said, “The forecast was for not more than 20, but it was breezy, lumpy and wet. We had the wrong layers on. It was a lot of fun though — makes the delivery home easier to digest.” Another Deception crew, Sue Alexander, said, “After Spinnaker Cup, we sailed up here Saturday in this. I thought I’d get to see some whales. Instead I got to see some barf.” Deception took advantage of Monday's weather window to high-tail it home to the Bay. Monday turned out quite different, as a weak low-pressure system dragged
'Seldom Seen', with 'PegasusMotionX' still in contact, stretches out on the rest of the Moore 24 fleet in beautiful weather on May 31.
won the second race but had to sit out the last due to a crew injury, leaving Bartz Schneider’s Expeditious with the second-place spot on the podium. The Page 88 •
Latitude 38
• July, 2013
in some low clouds, a bit of drizzle, and much less wind. With a southerly shift, the left side of the course (closest to sea) paid off. “We were at the top of the
RICK LINKMYER
M
ade in Santa Cruz Race Week came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. But the excitement built from the beginning, on Memorial Day weekend, to the end, on the first weekend of June. Like many great ideas, MISCRW was conjured up over drinks at the bar. “This was hatched at the Santa Cruz YC bar by builders and designers who thought we should have a homecoming for boats born here,” said Regatta Committee Chair Beau Vrolyk. “Bret Gripenstraw, the event chair, has been working on this for more than three years.”
#1 for the first race,” said Crum. In the second race, the wind died at the leeward mark, and the race committee shortened course. “Sunday we hung on for dear life; Monday we prayed for wind,” said Rainy Bassano of Pacific High. “But we didn’t crash, didn’t break anything, and no one got hurt.” Three partner-couples — Dennis and Rainy Bassano, Don and Susie Snyder, and Ellen Neale and a surfboard shaper by the name of George Olson — designed and built Pacific High 35 years ago. “We were sailing home from Hawaii on Merlin after the Transpac in ‘77,” explained Susie. “We wanted to design a boat that could beat the Santa Cruz 27s. We sailed into the Pacific High during the delivery and that’s where the name comes from. We conceptualized and built the boat in five months. Before we were even done, someone from Santa Barbara offered money to George to build the Olson 30. He built the mold, but it’s not quite the same. We sailed with them in one design before they caught on and kicked us out. By then they had enough boats that they didn’t need us.” “Pacific High is 200 lbs lighter than the Olson 30, with a narrower waterline,” observed Jay Crum. “They do really well in light air. The Olson 30s do better in breeze.” Piñata liked Sunday's wind. “We