Beer Can Challenge Supersized

Back in 2012, Roger Ruud and Chuck Hooper conquered Latitude 38’s Beer Can Challenge on Hooper’s Contessa 33 Warwhoop. The duo, with help from additional crew, took the Benicia-based boat around to various Bay clubs for five consecutive beer can races, successfully competing on each weeknight, after which they were crowned the ‘Kings of Beer Can Racing’. This year they threw down the gauntlet, challenging other boats to join them on the week of August 8-12, when it was logistically possible to make the grand tour and complete five evening races in a row. Surprisingly, no one took them up on it. "A lot of sailors are hitting retirement age," said Hooper, a retiree himself, who has been sailing Warwhoop for 27 years. "We ought to have 25-30 boats doing this." 

Chuck and Roger were joined this year by Roger’s son Robert Ruud, a 28-year-old video game designer who took a week’s vacation and came up from Pasadena to join his elders for each race. Robert had only sailed twice previously, both times as a passenger on Warwhoop.

The three of them sleep on the boat every night. "No way you could go back and forth," said Hooper. They brought an inflatable dinghy, which they rowed onto and off the mooring in front of Sausalito Yacht Club, where we caught up with them on Tuesday night.

They had started their week on Sunday the 7th, when they left their slip in Benicia to deliver the boat to San Francisco for Bay View Boat Club’s Monday Night Madness. "We thought we were going to have to reef, then the wind just died. But everyone finished." The SYC race on Tuesday was windy and choppy. They did reef, and sailed in the non-spinnaker division.

On Wednesday they went back upstream to Vallejo YC. "On Thursday we did horrible at our own club in Benicia. Friday we did the Corinthian." Their most challenging delivery day would be Friday, when they had to get the boat from Benicia to Tiburon. "We’ll have to leave at 6 a.m.," Hooper had predicted. "The current is not favorable." Although the wind died on Friday night, they were able to complete the CYC race.

But wait — there’s more: Warwhoop’s week didn’t end on Friday night. "We did seven!" announced Hooper. On Saturday they went back to San Francisco for BVBC’s Round the Rock Race, a pursuit around Alcatraz in the skipper’s choice of directions; then on Sunday they popped over to Berkeley YC for the Tri-Island Race, a pursuit around Angel Island.

"The biggest hassle was lack of local knowledge," said Hooper. "If we get out in the lead we don’t know where to go. So we generally end up following people around the course. We had a great time and met a lot of old and new friends," he concluded. "All the clubs and their members were fantastic." Our congratulations (and Latitude 38 T-shirts) go out to Chuck, Roger and Robert.

Casual evening racing begins winding down in August, though some clubs will carry on as late as October. See our regional Beer Can Calendar at www.latitude38.com/calendar.html#BeerCans.