WOODIES & ONE DESIGNS
WBRA Knarr — Fifty/Fifty Brent Crawford Regular crew: John Bobincheck (coowner), Tim Wadleigh, Dan Ahern, Steve Wegner & Scott Sullivan B r e n t Crawford and John Bobincock purchased Fifty/Fifty in January and quickly won the GGYC Midwinter Series. "Having a group of guys who were willing to dedicate Brent Crawford a lot of personal time to work on the boat and get it ready to race played a big part in getting to the top quickly," said Crawford. "We replaced the old wood mast with the new aluminum mast, installed all new rigging systems, relocated the winches, installed new beer holders,
WBRA IOD (Internat'l One Design) Rich & Mark Pearce Brothers Rich and Mark Pearce have campaigned Fjaer for four years and claim that their acumen on the water this year is thanks to consistency and a committed crew: Paul Zupan, Scott Lynch and a host of future rock stars
LATITUDE ARCHIVES
you Kurt) helped us." A pivotal moment for Kaiser was winning the fleet’s annual Woodies Regatta. "Somehow that regatta win gave the team a great deal of confidence, Kaiser said. "On the first day we broke the whisker pole on a badly timed jibe — totally my fault — and we used the spare pole my dad made out of wood some 25 years ago. I mostly carry it on board for sentimental reasons, but that day it kept us in the hunt. "Right after we hit the dock, we raced over to Svendsen's and went to work building a new pole. It was a team effort, and in the end proved to be a differencemaker not only because we worked together to make it happen, but also because we increased the length of the pole 6 inches, something we had talked about earlier in the season as a difference between us and the other boats." The cast of characters in the fleet keeps Kaiser racing, and he’s not sure he’d be racing if that weren’t the case. "We really love to beat each other out on the race course, but we're also good
friends off the water."
LATITUDE / CHRIS
Smokin'! The venerable Bird boat 'Curlew' flies across the Central Bay during the recent Jessica Cup Regatta. "Nothing sails like a Bird."
and did lots of sanding and varnishing." It also helped that every Fifty/ Fifty crew member committed to every San Francisco Bay race on the calendar. "Our original goal for the year was to qualify for the International Knarr Championship in Copenhagen," Crawford explained. "The IKC regattas are absolutely incredible with 12 days of world class parties and some fun sailing too. Mission accomplished." He considers the team ritual of drinking premium tequila before the start of every race, and cold beers at the finish line was key to their tenacity after ten long months of racing. "Our defining moment for 2012 was when our team won the SFYC Fall Classic. After 50 races on SF Bay and 15 races in Denmark, my crew was still excited to get out on the water and give their best effort. That level of commitment and enthusiasm for ten straight months was just incredible. Consistency wins championships." In 2013 the International Knarr Championship (IKCs) will be held at the San Francisco YC and Crawford expects every U.S. team will be giving a 100% effort to qualify in the first half of the season (April to June). "Regardless of how we finish, Team Fifty/Fifty will have fun."
Mark and Rich Pearce
from the SFYC youth sailing program. And if there’s one thing that they learned this year, it’s "Don’t be OCS," as December, 2012 •
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