SEASON CHAMPIONS, PART III — Sr. Solo Dinghy El Toro
Byte n/a
Vanguard 15 #598
Art Lange Fremont SC/HPSC
Michele Logan Richmond YC
Lowry/Szabo/Krivkovich St. Francis YC
Art learned to sail near where he was raised in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. He made the usual progression from Sunfish to Jet 14s (I-14s with Snipe rigs) and, by the mid-'70s, was racing Flying Dutchmen and trying out for the Olympic sailing team. Then he moved to the Bay Area, got a job at Hewlett Packard, discovered the company's sailing club — and El Toros. He's been a disciple of the 8-ft dinghies ever since. "After the FD, it was a bit of a step backward performance-wise, but it was sure a fun way to spend two hours every Wednesday afternoon," said Lange, who these days works at Trimble Navigation as an electrical engineer. From Hewlett's sailing club, he expanded his horizons into the Bay Area 'Toro organization. He was pleasantly surprised at the friendly atmosphere, but taken aback by the sailing skills of the top guys like Fred Paxton, Gordie Nash, Hank Jotz and others. In 2000 he decided to get serious himself, buying a Moore-built El Toro and sailing it a lot. The fruit of those labors was a win of the El Toro season in '05, and again last year. Art set the '08 tone early with a win of the first counting race, the Bullship, as well as the next two races. But even with that momentum, winning in a talent-laden fleet that consistently puts 15-20 boats on the starting line isn't easy. "We raced 11 races and had three throwouts," said Art. "If there had been four, Gordie would have won."
This year marked Michele Logan's return to sailboat racing after an eightyear hiatus, and the 2008 Byte Season Champion showed the time away did nothing to hurt her touch. "I’d forgotten how much I missed racing and playing on the Bay," she said, explaining that she's owned her boat for 10 years and likes the new 'C2' rig introduced since she'd last been sailing. "The new rig is powerful and very importantly, it offers impressive de-powering features which allow me — on the light end of the weight range at 110 pounds — to sail competitively against heavier sailors." Logan, a bank manager, sails Wabbits and Ultimate 20s when she's not tearing up the racecourse on her Byte. She got her sailing start as a kid before stepping up to a Laser II and a windsurfer after college. Later she co-owned and campaigned an Express 27. Her big success of the year in this gender-balanced fleet, whose sailors range in age from 12 to 65 — although she says most are of legal drinking age — came at the Richmond YC's Dinghy Invitational in May. "That stands out as one of the highlights of my racing career," she said. "The conditions varied from light and tactical racing on day one, to 20-knot winds and near survival conditions — on a Byte — the second. I overcame the mental demons, found some new gears and dialed in my heavy air technique."
If work and family commitments mean you only have enough time to sail the minimum number of races to qualify for your season championship, then you'd better make those races count. That's exactly what Adam Lowry and crews Linda Szabo and Alexis Krivkovich did — they won 11 of the 21 races they sailed — en route to winning the 2008 Vanguard 15 Fleet 53 season championship. The StFYC member has an impressive sailing resume, which includes a pair of Olympic campaigns. Lowry finished third at the 2000 trials in the 49er before serving as a coach for eventual bronze medallists Jonathon and Charlie McKee. While the season championship regattas plus the popular Svendsen's Thursday Night Series at Treasure Island Sailing Center have been a mainstay of his sailing, Lowry didn't get much sailing in this year — he and wife Mara had a baby in September. "That cramped the schedule," he said. And not just because his wife was pregnant, but because she's been his number-one crew ever since they started sailing together — and dating — at Stanford, where both were All-Americans. Lowry is a co-founder of Method Home, the now-ubiquitous brand of environmentally-friendly cleaning products. Between work, family and V15 sailing he'll be getting out on a new toy in 2009 — by the time you read this, he will have taken delivery of a foiling Moth.
2) Gordie Nash; 3) Fred Paxton. (20 boats; www. eltoroyra.com)
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Latitude 38
• January, 2009
2) Laurie Davis; 3) Bill Tieman. (16 boats)
2) 1765, Tom Allison/Greg Stemler; 3) 641, Ken Turnbull/Rebecca Beard. (27 boats)