RIPPLE WINS 2004 FLEET CHAMPIONSHIP

PIRANHA REPEATS AS FLEET CHAMPION FOR SIXTH TIME

JIM LONG PERPETUAL

DRYC SUNDAY SKIPPERS

SCCYC OD

MARINA DEL REY FLEET NEWS

RIPPLE WINS 2004 FLEET CHAMPIONSHIP

PIRANHA REPEATS AS FLEET CHAMPION FOR SIXTH TIME

JIM LONG PERPETUAL

DRYC SUNDAY SKIPPERS

SCCYC OD

2006 FLEET SCHEDULE

2005 FLEET SCHEDULE

Last Updated February 20, 2006

Booyaa Perfect Circle Power Play Ripple Twister

After a hard fought year Ripple finally wins the Fleet Championship.

CalYC's Fall One Design was unusually blessed with solid 12 knot breezes on the first day and more typical 6-10 on Sunday. Coming into the regatta, the 2003 MdR Fleet Championship was still on the line with Ripple close enough to beat Piranha by winning the regatta. Unfortunately, Ripple was missing a few regulars and starts were everything as Piranha defended its Fleet Championship by scoring a picket fence five straight bullets to close out the sailing season for 2003.

Ripple is the king of the S-35's on Wednesday nights! With consistently excellent crew work and commitment to the Wednesday night schedule from the whole team they represented the S-35's in the King of the Hill Regatta at CYC and took second overall, just missing becoming champion of champions. Well done!

5 boats showed up for very close racing with only 2 points separating first from third. Piranha won with Ripple second and Limerick, the winner of race 1, third. Piranha was awarded the overall trophy for winning the most competitive class.

Ripple and Piranha went for five races of match racing with Ripple winning three of the five to take home the trophy.

CHAMPAGNE SERIES 2003

Ripple took three bullets to win the victory on tiebreaker with Piranha.

Boat Name	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	Series
Ripple	1	1	DNC	5	1	3	11
Piranha	3	2	DNC	1	4	1	11
Outlier	2	4	DNC	2	3	5	16
Twister	5	2	DNC	3	6	7	23
Limerick	4	3	DNC	7	7	4	25
White Fang	DNC	DNC	DNC	4	5	2	29
Power Play	DNC	DNC	DNC	6	2	6	32
Perfect Circle	DNC	DNC	DNC	8	8	8	42

PIRANHA CLINCHES FIFTH FLEET CHAMPIONSHIP

By winning both the Fall One-Design and the Harris Series to close out the year, Piranha defends its title as Fleet Champion for 2002. Outlier again takes second with Ripple close behind Outlier for third.

After starting the Fall OD with a last place finish after being over early, three straight bullets sealed both the regatta and fleet titles for Piranha. In a race that saw enormous changes in the fleet chasing, Limerick led wire to wire in the final race to break the logjam in scoring for second place for the regatta.

These last two regattas brought nice warm winds that were generally consistent; however, offshore breezes caused lighter shifty winds on the last day.

See you in 2003 - time to go skiing in only 5 weeks!

RESULTS:

2002 Fall O/D Regatta

2002 Harris Series

Sunset Series "12 Pack"

BOAT	RACE RESULTS														TOTAL w/2TOs
Piranha	2	1	1	4	2	1	1	X	2	1	1	1	1	4	14
Outlier	1	3	2	1	3	2	3	X	3	5	5	3	5	5	31
Ripple	5	2	5	5	5	3	2	X	1	3	3	2	3	3	32
Power Play	6	4	3	3	4	4	4	X	4	2	2	4	4	1	35
Twister	6	7	6	2	1	6	6	X	5	4	5	5	2	2	44
Limerick	4	7	4	8	6	6	6	X	5	6	5	6	5	6	59
Perfect Circle	6	5	7	6	6	6	6	X	5	7	4	6	5	6	62
White Fang	6	6	7	7	6	5	6	X	5	8	5	6	5	6	64
Team XM	6	7	7	8	6	6	6	X	5	8	5	6	5	6	66
Intruder	3	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X

(Best 12 of 14 races, 2 throwouts - 7 races complete, results shown with both TO's)

Summer at last. The sun sets late and we break up the week by sailing on Wednesday nights. Racing for the Jim Long Perpetual Trophy has begun and results will be updated in the table below. Week 1 (April 17) saw 25+ knots of wind and a wild downwind leg with Piranha chasing but never catching Outlier. Week 2 was a nice solid 10-12 with Piranha leading wire to wire. Notable was the full on luffing battle between Outlier (leeward) and Ripple (windward). From our view, there was a pretty big vertical rip in Ripple's chute, but they hung on to take second. Week 3 saw the wind go left, but light in the left corner. Piranha nailed the start, tacked on the shift off the favored left end and was gone. Meanwhile a big battle for second developed with Outlier staving off challenges by Limerick and Ripple. For week 4 I have no report as I was off racing cars in Sonoma. Week 5 saw 8-11kts. working toward the South rapidly. Ripple, Outlier and Piranha were all over early and made it back in that order to restart. Downwind, Piranha made it back to second at the breakwater with Power Play two boatlengths in front, but Twister picked the correct side of the channel to pass them both and take the win in a very crowded channel. Week 6 - Outlier swung in underneath Piranha and nailed the start - but Ripple and Outlier picked #3's when the wind was blowing 13-14 and Piranha used a heavy 1 on the favored right side to take the victory. Week 7 - Piranha nailed the favored leeward end while Ripple and Outlier had to dip down to clear after being barely over early. Piranha got rolled by both Pendragon and Black Knight - both of whom were over early and was forced right sooner than desired. White Fang stayed in phase, caught the big lefty and led at the weather mark, but Ripple and Piranha correctly forecast the continuing South shift in the dying breeze and were miles ahead at the breakwater. Two lead changes between them left Piranha with the win. See you out there. Week 8 - Not enough wind to even get back to the breakwater. Week 9 - Solid breeze from 220 with a huge right shift approaching the weather mark saw Ripple and Piranha overstand, but Ripple pull two boatlengths reaching back. Downwind, Piranha kept the heat on Ripple with luffing battles between the marks on the home stretch, but Ripple held on for the win by a boatlength. Week 10 - Fog rolled in at 4:30 and the course ended up right side favored for velocity. Plenty of holes. Power Play led Piranha by a boatlength and the weather mark and the breakwater although at times on the downwind leg it looked like any one of five boats could have won. Piranha passed Power Play in the channel for the win. Week 11 - Piranha nailed the favored leeward end for the start and crossed the other three on port to extend out to the right side where there was better velocity on a light air flat water night. Piranha won by over 7 minutes at the finish. Week 12 - Being mixed into the bigger boats hurt all of us. Piranha had the start over Ripple and Twister to leeward, but got rolled by Cincos off the line. Like wise further up the line, Outlier was also rolled by big boats. Outlier, Piranha and Ripple all tacked and were pretty even, but the wind faded to the right and Outlier crossed back ahead. Piranha extended to the starboard layline while Ripple overstood on their hip with Twister severely overstanding. By the time Outlier came back they were 4 boatlengths behind. Outlier initiated a luffing war with Ripple complete with multiple collapsed chutes and Power Play slid into second in about 10 knots of wind. But in the channel the wind died and went South allowing Outlier to move into third while Ripple took second. Piranha won for the seventh time in 11 races. Week 13 - The race that will be remembered for the fog! Ripple won the start while Piranha fended of first the Schock 40 and then got sat on by Margaritaville. By the time both tacked, Ripple was able to loose cover with about a 3 boatlength lead. Meanwhile, Twister then Piranha slipped off to the left with Twister coming from behind to pass Piranha by three. Big shift worked for Piranha though as they sailed a 260+ lift on starboard and tacked over onto a 230- lift on port to lead at the weather mark. Twister's better crew work ground down on Piranha, but they could never quite get by finishing close behind in second.

Midwinters 2002

In a broad test of sailing conditions ranging from light shifty and flat to wind and waves, Outlier proved to be the best all around team on the water. Winning three of the five races to Piranha's two, Outlier won by three points after five races. Ripple was third.

A great turnout of nine boats could have been even bigger! Twister was delayed in the yard, Whiplash was a last minute scratch and Minnesota Fast and Last Tango have just been sold and will be actively raced this year. The fleet looks very strong for 2002!

The stories of day one included Alice Leahey's Limerick showing their promise as they posted two second place finishes - only narrowly missing winning the third race by less than a second. Ripple showed its speed as it took second in race #2 even after being shut out at the committee boat. And after the first two regattas of the year, Power Play looks stronger than ever, tying for second at the Champagne Series and nearly taking third here.

After Outlier won the first race on Sunday, Piranha had to put several places on Outlier to beat them for the regatta. In 13-17 knots of wind and not 50 yards off the line the two boats went into a down speed tacking duel just about killing the trimmers grinding in the heavy #1's. As one other skipper said later, "we saw it happening and just stayed out of the way." Piranha had the advantage and wanted to drive Outlier to the back of the fleet so that it could get boats between them. By the first weather mark, Notorious led the fleet, Outlier was in fact last and Piranha was in 6th. By the first leeward mark, Power Play had taken the lead, White Fang was second and Piranha and Outlier were third and fourth. By the next mark, Piranha was in first and Outlier second. Fighting for third for the regatta, Power Play covered Outlier on the downwind leg and got by them, but it wasn't enough for Piranha even though they took the gun well ahead of the fleet.

With about half the races scheduled for 2002 in local racing actually now complete, it's nearly a dead heat for the fleet championship between Piranha, Outlier and Ripple with Power Play lurking in striking distance. Now it's out onto the Class circuit where the local racing should really help the MdR boats have an edge.

2002 MIDWINTERS
#	BOAT	RACE SCORES					TOTAL
1	Outlier	1	4	1	1	3	10
2	Piranha	3	1	4	4	1	13
3	Ripple	7	2	6	2	4	21
4	Power Play	4	7	3	6	2	22
5	Limerick	2	6	2	7	7	24
6	Stratagem	6	3	9	3	5	26
7	Notorious	5	5	5	9	10	34
8	White Fang	8	9	7	5	6	35
9	Team XM	9	8	8	8	8	41

2002 Champagne Series

Ripple is the 2002 Champagne Series Champ. With three bullets to start and a third in the last race, the Ripples are showing the benefits of off season practice!

The first day of racing was in a word, ugly. There were periods where there was total glass off and winning the start or being first at the weather mark meant nothing. In the first race, Piranha nailed the start and led at the first weather mark with Ripple a hundred yards behind only to finish last and Ripple first. CMG for the race was under 2 knots. The second race saw more of the same, with Twister leading at the first mark and Ripple again staging an enormous comeback on the downwind leg.

Races 3 saw the wind build to 11 knots! Ripple nailed the start, and led wire to wire. Race 4 got a little odd. Outlier was launched off the start only to lose the lead on the second upwind leg when the left side paid and they were farthest right and fall further back on the 3d upwind leg when they went left and now right paid off. Piranha took the lead on the second leg and held off a charge by Ripple and White Fang to win.

Three boats competed in this year's Champagne that did not last year -- boding well for our local fleet which is rumored to have a new owner joining it shortly. With 9 boats active locally and two coming around the bend - look for 11 boats in class at our local Midwinters!

2002 CHAMPAGNE SERIES
#	BOAT	RACE SCORES				TOTAL
1	Ripple	1	1	1	3	6
2	Piranha	5	4	3	1	13
3	Power Play	2	5	2	4	13
4	Outlier	3	3	4	5	15
5	Twister	4	2	5	6	17
6	White Fang	DNC	DNC	6	2	20

Champagne Series 2006

RACE RESULTS

Ripple

Perfect Circle

Power Play