Old Man of the sea regatta

[Steve LeMay]

You guys missed PERFECT viper conditions for this regattta. We had 3 boats and fun was had by all. Saturday was 12-16 all day with (3) 7 leg courses about 1 mile each. We woke up Sunday to a building Southerly. 2 races scheduled with the breeze ending up in the mid 20's with some isolated big gusts. Every boat had a lead sometime during the weekend. Special thanks to the Austin guys for driving up to sail! We want your mainsail Felipe...

[Felipe Payet]

> We want your mainsail Felipe...

:-)  And I want your kite!  Getting passed like I was standing still on those downwind legs was getting a little old by the end of the regatta.  And it can't be ALL due to my driving!  ;-)  I think I need to retire all the sails currently on my boat and go with a set of up-to-date rags as soon as possible.

It was great sailing with the Dangerously and Screamer crews @ the Ol'Man Of the Sea Regatta.  Great people, great facilities, and fun, close racing amongst the vipers.  And Steve is right: conditions were fantastic for us, with plenty of screaming downwind rides, and lots of close racing between the three boats.  Hard fought mark roundings, tight starts, and close finishes were all a hoot! 

Oh, and for those of you who might be wondering, I can now absolutely confirm the self-righting capabilities of the viper with the carbon rig and updated keel bulb.  We had a complete yard-sale of a broach on Sunday (skipper error induced), with breeze probably in the low 20's, that had us pinned on our side for a little while.   We pulled the bulb clear out of the water, and even with all three crew still hanging on in the cockpit (probably not helping add righting moment, given that nobody jumped over onto the keel), the boat sat there just fine, with the masthead still out of the water.  At no point did it feel like it was going to roll over.  As soon as we blew the kite halyard, the boat popped right back up.  Good times!

Time to start thinking about the next get-together for the TX Viper "Circuit".

[Steve LeMay]

Yeah, the brits shorted you nylon on that kite. We thought you snaggged it off a laser 2! We were talking that it may be fun to all go to Corpus one time next year. Guaranteed wind and CCYC is always a great host.

[Felipe Payet]

Corpus?  Valiente is IN.