Season Champions, Part I — One Designs Galore
One-design racing is alive and well on San Francisco Bay. Our evidence: When we were planning this feature, we had to keep bugging our publisher for more pages. And this is only Part 1 — we’ll feature more one-design classes in an upcoming issue. The classes here aren’t in any particular order; let’s just dig right into our annual celebration of the year’s season champions.
Mercury Travel Trophy — Fast Break, Randy Smith, SFYC
Last year, the winner of the Paxton Davis Travel Trophy came from the L.A. area; this year it’s a Bay Area sailor. Aficionados trailer their 18-ft Mercury keelboats up and down California in pursuit of the Travel Trophy.
“The fleet sails in some wonderful venues, including San Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay, Stillwater Cove, Huntington Lake and Long Beach,” explains this year’s champion, Randy Smith. He started sailing Mercurys about 15 years ago at the suggestion of Pax Davis. “It is a great fleet with wonderful people and good competition. The main reason for me purchasing a Mercury was to sail with my two daughters.”
The Pax Davis Travel Trophy is awarded based on the total results from several regattas in each fleet area. Based on the results, each skipper receives points for their performance in the regattas. The skipper with the highest total points wins the trophy. Randy had several crew members this year: Junette Kushner, John Verdoia and Randy’s daughter, Kathryn Smith. “She crews for me when I am racing in SoCal. Sailing with my daughter is always a highlight.”
Mercury Paxton Davis Travel Trophy (6 regattas)
1) Fast Break, 18; 2) Space Invader, David West, RYC, 10; 3) Carbon Offset, Chris Raab/Kenny Dair, CBYC, 10. (30 boats)
Nordic Folkboat — Freja, Tom Reed, StFYC
Tom Reed’s Freja is a mega-repeat winner in the Folkboat class.
“This is our 12th season championship in the Folkboat class and the fifth win in the last five seasons,” says Tom. “My son Tommy and Dave Kresge crewed on all of the races, as well as the Wednesday night series at StFYC. I think our favorite series was the Wednesday night series, which we won as well, and winning the Degnan trophy at StFYC.”
First launched in 1942 in Sweden, the Folkboat design is 25 feet long. The lapstrake hull gives it a distinctive appearance among Bay Area racing boats.
Nordic Folkboat (40 races, 8 throwouts)
1) Freja, 47 points; 2) Polperro, Peter Jeal, BVBC, 61; 3) Sabrina, Chandler Grenier, S.F. Folkboat Assn., 120. (12 boats)
See Latitude 38‘s December issue for the full list of Season Champions, Part 1.