Texas Champ Circuit Begins in May...Come on Down Ya'll

[Phillip Davis]

Our three event Champ circuit begins in Houston May 15&16 at Lakewood Yacht Club.  This easy two-day event guarantees warm weather, good breeze and lots of rum.  What more could you ask for?  In order to entice participation hull #33 will sponsor a perpetual trophy for the end of year winner of our three regatta circuit.  The Texas Champ Trophy "Come and Take It", will feature a nice keel bulb half-model mounted on Texas Teak (Mesquite) with a bronze plaque engraved with the names of each year's winner.  The trophy will travel the circuit to allow your peers to admire and ogle.  Let's see a great turnout to justify the recent Sailing World Cover of Ultra's Viper.

May 15 & 16 - Sea Lake Yacht Sales Shoe Regatta ? Galveston Bay

Lakewood Yacht Club Race Committee Chairman Dwight Bengtson has announced that the Sea Lake Yacht Sales Shoe Regatta will be held over the weekend of May 15 - 16.  In 1982, Lakewood hosted the first Shoe Regatta, and now the club is the organizing authority.  Bay Access, a not for profit organization that supports amateur racing, is the host.

The Regatta, which is open to the public, is a favorite among local racers because each crew member of the winning boat in each class is awarded a pair of Sperry deck shoes.

The Shoe Regatta is for one-design, handicapped, and cruising sailboats over 20 feet in length and with a cabin.  There will be three race courses set on Galveston Bay:  a windward/leeward course for the One Design classes; a windward/leeward course for handicap rated boats; and a third triangular course to provide a long race for handicap rated spinnaker and non-spinnaker boats.       

The Skippers Meeting will be held on Fri., May 14th, 7:30 pm in the ballroom of Lakewood Yacht Club, 2425 NASA Parkway, Seabrook, TX.  ?We urge all skippers to attend this important gathering so that they can take full advantage of all aspects of this weekend regatta,? related Bengtson.

In addition to the title sponsor Sea Lake Yacht Sales, other sponsors this year are Mount Gay Rum as the Silver Sponsor and Bay Access as the Bronze Sponsor.

The Saturday evening party will have live entertainment, food, and free beer.  The awards ceremony will follow the last race on Sun., May 16, and will be held in the ballroom of Lakewood Yacht Club.

Participants can register on line at www.lakewoodregatta.com   For questions, please contact Lakewood Yacht Club at [email protected] or call the office at 281-474-2511.

[Jeff Jones]

NOR will be out on the LYC "Shoe" regatta in the next few days.   

General information on the Texas Championship Series attached to this post.

The series starts @ LYC, moves to the FWBC "Annual" in mid June - then the final regatta at the Austin Yacht Club in October.  There will be viper fleets at various regattas throughout the year but our focus will be on these three.

[David Furna]

I've been looking over the Viper schedule for Texas, trying to schedule one around a Cowboys home game (no luck). Are there any Viper's for charter? It's too damn far to drive out from NC, but I have crew there, just need a boat.

[Jeff Jones]

The answer is - probably.   Email me viper640 at gmail dot com

There's a very good chance we could have 10 boats on the line for this regatta.

[Jeff Jones]

Registration for the first texas stop (Lakewood Yacht Club "Shoe" Regatta) opened yesterday.  Within 24 hours we have 8 vipers registered.  WAY TO GO GUYS!!!!!

Galveston Bay Racing Forum post of the year "where did all the vipers come from"! 

[Drake Borer]

Correction.."where the "heck" did all the Vipers come from?" :)

[Jeff Jones]

Quick, cool news from the Texas viper fleet @ the LYC shoe regatta

KATTACK will be outfitting each viper wtih a live tracking unit..  Pending approval of the RC, the race marks will also be tagged.   

* Tracking will be available via the internet
* Races can (and hopefully will) be re-played at the bar
* KATTACK will be awarding Max Velocity dry shirts for the winner of the "Viper 640 speed challenge" (max speed sustained for 30 seconds)
* An event webpage with live tracking links, post race links and performance reports will be available

An example of this stuff can be found here http://americanregatta.com/regattas/2010/ANOOD/  as they are currently tracking the J109 class this week at the annapolis NOOD

We're currently @ 8 boats, another is expected to register tomorrow.  This is pretty much every active boat in Texas.  It appears that my new boat wont make it in time so i'll either be crewing our out taking pictures / coaching.  We'd LOVE ot have some out of state boats come in and help support our effort.  If anyone is on the fence, contact me and i'll help work out logistics.. i might be able to find a place for you and your crew to crash etc.  I have a good list of excellent sailors who'd like to jump on bo a boat.