2007 Stone Cup

After nearly eight months of sitting on her cradle in Point Richmond, Scorpio was finally launch on May 15th.  With assistance from Doug Frolich, the boat was put into race mode and was delivered to the StFYC in time for our Friday night scheduled practice.  We were slightly short-handed for the practice and the wind was blowing 20-30 knots when we pushed off the dock.  Other than re-familiarizing ourselves with the boat, the practice wasn't terribly useful.  It was too windy to look at any sails so we sailed back to the harbor after than hour or so.

The Stone Cup is the first big boat regatta of the year for the StFYC.  This year 30 boats competed in the four-race, two-day event.  1D35s, J120s, and Sydney 38s all raced in separated one design classes and nine boats raced in the IRC class with Scorpio.  Regulars John Buchanan and Malcolm Brown were unable to participate, but Ellen Bucci and Jim Margeson filled in both days while Gary Sadamori raced Saturday and Erik Menzel raced Sunday.  It turned out to be a challenging weekend for Scorpio due to lack of recent time on the boat and the necessary crew shuffling.  We definitely needed more practice than we had.

We started out with a dismal sixth - 7:25 out of first.  We then improved with a 5-5-2, but never really threatened first place winner White Dove, the Beneteau 40.7 who strung together finishes of 2-1-3-1 to win the event easily.  It turns out we owed White Dove .046 under IRC and they beat us boat for boat in one race and corrected on us in the other three.  Very impressive sailing for owner Mike Garl and Tactician John Stuart.

It was great to see two new boat participating.  Michael Diepenbrock showed off his new Swan 45 and took third with Seadon Wijsen calling the shots, and Lou Pambianco brought his venerable Wylie 46 from Santa Cruz to participate for the first time under IRC and finished fourth.  Last year's winner, Hank Easom, broke the headstay on the beautiful 8 Meter, Yucca, in race 1 and was forced to withdraw.

The weather and race committee work was excellent.  While racing in the Stone Cup was fun, we were never in it.  That's a bit disconcerting given our history of strong performance.  Hopefully, we will continue to improve in the Aldo Alessio and Big Boat Series.

Race Results