June 27, 2004 - For Immediate Release

BOLD FORBES BY A NOSE, SAMBA PA TI PLAYS IT COOL IN CLINCHER
-- North Sails Race Week Crowns New Champions in 20th Anniversary Regatta

LONG BEACH, Calif.---Bold Forbes, the boat, is on track to achieve what Bold Forbes and Smarty Jones, the horses, couldn't manage: win a Triple Crown of sorts.

Jack Franco drove Ed Cummins' J/105, recent winner of Southern California's prestigious Lipton Cup for Balboa Yacht Club, as it ran down Dennis and Sharon Case's Wings in the stretch to claim victory in the largest class of the 20th North Sails Race Week Sunday on a tiebreaker.

The photo finish triumph also brought Bold Forbes the Boat of the Week award as winner of the most competitive class.

Cummins now plans to campaign the boat throughout the country, including the New York Yacht Club's Race Week in July and the J/105 Nationals at Marion, Mass. in September the third jewel of the crown.

Wings, a steady contender from San Diego, sailed into the last of six races with a seven-point lead, but weather conditions---a stark switch from the first two days of breezy southwesterlies---were made to order for shuffling fleets.

In light southeasterly air of 8 to 9 knots oscillating through 30 degrees, Bold Forbes, named for the 1976 Kentucky Derby winner, finished second behind Tom Coates' Charade as Wings struggled to ninth place.

That left them tied at 24 points, and since each had one win it was Bold Forbes' two seconds to Wings' one that nailed the tiebreaker.

Bold Forbes started quietly with an 11th place in the Friday race, then settled into a 3-2-1-5-2 groove. Partway through the last race Sunday when they saw Wings get tangled up in a crowd of boats, Franco said to the crew, "Hey, guys, we can win this thing."

In the marquee Farr 40 class, John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti sailed into the last day with a seemingly insurmountable lead.
Forget seemingly.

Scott Harris and Alexandra Geremia's Crocodile Rock took its best shot by winning the first of two races, with Samba Pa Ti fourth, but even with some aggressive pre-race match racing---Chris Larson calling tactics for Crocodile, Paul Cayard for Samba---the best the Crocodiles could do was to cut the margin in half with a third to Samba's sixth in the last race.

It was Samba Pa Ti's fourth win in as many Farr 40 events in Southern California recently, with the class Worlds at San Francisco in September as the goal.

"I don't feel we're perfect, but we have upward momentum," Kilroy said.

With the hard campaigning, Kilroy said, "I'm lucky to have the most supportive sailing wife in the world. Catherine was captain of the Brown sailing team."

Crocodile rode Samba deep past the pin end before the last start, and Samba issue.

"We just said, 'We're going to be conservative and not take any chances,' "Kilroy said. We knew it was going to be dicey."

Oscar Krinsky's 1D48, Chayah, from Long Beach, with Walter Johnson driving, won out among the event's biggest boats in PHRF 1. But Jay Steinbeck's Margaritaville, a newly modified Andrews 52, found the light wind to its liking. With a minus 60 rating that had it giving 40 seconds per mile to Chayah and the other 1D48, Lew Beery's It's OK, Margaritaville, with Pete Heck driving, continued to finish far ahead in every race but this time won and finished third on corrected handicap time, as well, leaving it second overall.

Given a choice of conditions, Steinbeck said, "Light air is much better for us. It's the weight of the boat relative to the sail area."

Heck said, "We have an overlapping jib we use in light air that nobody else had."

Their closest competition, boat for boat, came from Alec Oberschmidt's Reichel/Pugh 50, Staghound, with North Sails president Gary Weisman as tactician.

Heck said, "The results don't show how well those guys sailed. I told our guys, 'We're racing Staghound. We can't see the other guys back there.' "

John Carroll's Arana, a heavy 24-year-old Dencho 51, suffered in the light air with a ninth and a fifth but held onto first place in PHRF 2 for a two by two points over Paul Kent's Farr 395, Chance, from San Francisco.

Kent's team collected the Lydia Kent Family Trophy for the best family performance. The award is named for his late mother, who lived in Long Beach. The crew included Kent's brother Steve and sons Robert and Peter.

The biggest surprise winner was Gary Mozer, a 44-year-old real estate investor from Long Beach, in the six-boat J/109 class. It was Mozer's first regatta. He started taking sailing lessons three months ago, took delivery of his boat one week before the event and after two days of practice, with some help from an able amateur crew, drove it to three wins, two seconds and a third.

He said he knows "it's not that easy. We worked very hard. It's concentration and teamwork. Just watch the telltales on the jib and listen to what your crew is telling you."

Bruce Ayres' Monsoon team won five consecutive Melges 24 races before stumbling in the last one.

Ayres' brother Don, a crew member, said, "We had a bad start, missed one shift and that was it."

They dropped out, knowing they were already assured of first place.

"It would have been nice to have that other first, though" Don Ayres said.

Some of the one-designs also sailed for class championships. Samba Pa Ti and Dave Voss's Schock 35, Piranha, won their Pacific Coast titles, and Chris Winnard's Disaster Area crew from San Diego won the Santa 20 Western Regionals.

Piranha won four of six races---including the last after returning to the line from an early start.

Dick Velthoen and Paul De Freitas' J/35 Rival was named PHRF Boat of the Week for its victory in PHRF 4, with no finish worse than third among 12 boats.

Long time supporter North Sails is the event's title sponsor and Nautica Watches the official timekeeper and day sponsor. Supporting sponsors Samson Rope Technologies and Raymarine are the official rope and marine electronics companies, respectively. Official supplier, Rigworks, is the official rigging company for race week.

The Seaport Marina Hotel is the official site and hotel (www.SeaportMarinaHotel.com). The Ayers Hotel at Seal Beach is also an official hotel (www.AyresHotels.com).

Complete results: www.premiere-racing.com
Official Photographer: Sue Bodycomb www.YachtShots.com

CONTACT
Golison & Golison
(714) 379-4884
mailto:bruce@golison.com

PHRF 1 Chayah (1D48)- Oscar Krinsky / Walter Johnson (3,1,1,2,2,4 ) 13 pts
PHRF 2 Arana (Dencho 51) - John Carroll / Loren McClanathan (1,1,1,1,9,5 ) 18 pts
PHRF 3 Tabasco (1D35) - John Wylie (1,1,2,1,1,2 ) 8 pts
PHRF 4 Rival (J/35) - Dick Velthoen/Paul De Frietas (2,1,3,2,2,3) 13 pts

J/105 Bold Forbes - Ed Cummins / Jack Franco (11,3,2,1,5,2) 24 pts
J/109 Current Obsession - Gary E. Mozer (1,2,1,1,2,3 ) 10 pts
J/120 Caper - John Laun (3,1,1,2,3,2 ) 12 pts
Melges 24 Monsoon - Bruce Ayres (1,1,1,1,1,11dnf ) 16 pts

Farr 40 Samba Pa Ti - John B. Kilroy, Jr. (2,1,3,1,1,3,4,6 ) 21 pts
Pacific Coast Championship

Schock 35 Piranha - Dave Voss (1,1,1,1,2,1,3) 10 pts
Pacific Coast Championship

Santana 20 Disaster Area - Team Disaster Area (2,2,2,4,3) 13 pts
Western Regionals

June 26, 2004 -- For Immediate Release

SAMBA PA TI AND DR. LAURA 'HOT AND COOKIN' AT NORTH SAILS RACE WEEK
-- Strong Winds Carry Leaders Into Final Day Sunday


LONG BEACH, Calif.---It's still Samba Pa Ti's party at the 20th annual North Sails Race Week, but the relentless march through the Farr 40 fleet hasn't been a cakewalk.

"It probably looks like that," said Justin Smart, the veteran pitman, after John Kilroy drove his Los Angeles-based boat into a runaway lead with two first places and a third Saturday, "but we've been working on this a long time. We even work on the little things that seem insignificant because we're looking for every bit of an edge."

That's left rivals with no room for error and only two races remaining Sunday. Scott Harris and Alexandra Geremia's Crocodile Rock from Santa Barbara is in second place, 12 points behind in a 12-boat fleet.

Chris Larson, Crocodile Rock's tactician, said, "We aren't sailing terrible. Scott is a great helmsman. This is the first time I've sailed [on a Farr 40] with a guy that really drove the boat well. But we're missing opportunities to push [Samba Pa Ti] hard. We got ahead of them in the first race today and couldn't seal the deal. That took some wind out of our sails."

And there was plenty of that. The trademark Long Beach sea breeze, funneling in from the Pacific between Point Fermin and Santa Catalina Island 25 miles offshore, started quietly at 7 knots but built to 17 by day's end---and Samba Pa Ti thrived in it.

"We've always had a tough time in Southern California because we like heavy air," Smart said. "These are more our conditions."

John Carroll of Los Angeles echoes that sentiment. He's won all four races in PHRF 2 class with a 24-year-old boat. Arana is a 27,000-pound Dencho 51 that Carroll modified with six more feet of waterline 10 years ago.

"It's a great heavy air boat," he said. "The conditions here have been advantageous for us. We have a [number] two jib we use from when the wind pipes up to 12 knots all the way to 20, after everybody else has had to change down to a [smaller] three."

It was an enjoyable day even for the small boats, especially those racing on flatter water inside the breakwater. Dr. Laura Schlessinger said she's most happy "in good wind when the boat's moving."

That is the Dr. Laura, the national radio psychologist and Santa Barbara resident who took up sailing a year and a half ago. She owns a J/80 and a J/92 and is sailing the latter in PHRF 4 class. She is currently ninth among 12 boats but didn't sound like she needed a shrink.

"I'm 57 and proud of it," she said. "I'm hot and I'm cookin'."

She drives most of the time until the wind gets too strong, so she alternated with Ken Kieding Saturday.

Also among the smaller boats, Bruce Ayres of Newport Beach is undefeated with four first places in the Melges 24s, and in the J/105s Dennis and Sharon Case of San Diego finished 1-3-2 for a six-point lead.

Long Beach veteran Oscar Krinsky's 1D48 Chayah, with Walter Johnson driving, went 1-1-2 to move into first place among the big boats in PHRF 1. Jay Steinbeck's rebuilt Andrews 52, Margaritaville, continued to finish first---albeit by one mere second over Alec Oberschmidt's Reichel/Pugh 50, Staghound, in Saturday's last race---but shares third place with another 1D48, Lew Beery's It's OK.

Margaritaville's problem is its minus 60 rating against the 1D48s' minus 20.

All classes are scheduled to wind up competition with two races Sunday.

Long time supporter North Sails is the event's title sponsor and Nautica Watches returns as official timekeeper and day sponsor. Supporting sponsors Samson Rope Technologies and Raymarine are the official rope and marine electronics companies, respectively. Official supplier, Rigworks, is the official rigging company for race week.

The Seaport Marina Hotel is the official site and hotel (www.SeaportMarinaHotel.com). The Ayers Hotel at Seal Beach is also an official hotel (www.AyresHotels.com).
Complete results: www.premiere-racing.com


CONTACT
Golison & Golison
(714) 379-4884
emailto:bruce@golison.com

June 25, 2004 --  For Immediate Release

FARR 40S CHASE SAMBA PA TI AT NORTH SAILS RACE WEEK
Kilroy, Cayard & Co. Continue Roll with 2-1-3 Finishes

LONG BEACH, Calif.---The tempo has increased in the 20th annual North Sails Race Week, but the rest of the Farr 40s are still dancing to the tune of Samba Pa Ti. Owner/driver John Kilroy and his crack crew don't win every race but, following the form of their last three events, they are never far behind.

Among 12 boats in one of the toughest one-design fleets in the world, they logged finishes of second, first and third Friday to lead a trio of rivals tied at 11 points, with five races remaining over the next two days.

True, while Kilroy must drive by class rules, the crew includes world-class pros Paul Cayard, Jeff Madrigali, Eric Arndt and Jon Gunderson and a complement of top amateurs, but rival boats aren't sailing with slouches. Cayard's tactical counterparts include Tony Rey on Sled, Chris Larson on Crocodile Rock and George Szabo on Slingshot---the three boats currently sharing second place.

Rey, sailing with Japanese cosmetics maker Takashi Okura, stole the first race from Samba Pa Ti, wire to wire, and said, "We did everything we could to stay ahead of Samba. They have the complete package right now. They're very strong upwind and strong kinetically downwind. You can see they've been sailing their boat a lot."

But, Rey added, "We're very happy," and so were most of the 115 entries that found near-ideal conditions in a southwesterly sea breeze building from 8 to 16 knots through the afternoon.

The main complaint was about the freighters and tankers anchored in an arc around the windward end of the course, waiting their turns to unload cargo in the busy Long Beach Harbor.

"It was critical to get off the line in good shape," said Dave Voss, who sailed Piranha to a pair of wins in the Schock 35s' two races. "We had a current problem in the first race and the first part of the second, and between that and running away from the wind shadows of the freighters the boat that has the best crew work will win. I've had the same 10 guys for three years or more and they all did a great job."

The current fooled everyone, especially at the windward mark where its drift from right to left caused everyone to fall off the starboard layline, then fight to round the yellow inflatable buoy. A few drew protests.

Crocodile Rock helmsman Scott Harris said, "We hit the mark and had to do a 360 [penalty turn]. That put us last and we scrambled back to seventh."

Otherwise, Crocodile Rock scored a third and won the last race handily.

Other classes sailed only one race Friday but will fall into a full schedule the last two days. The Santana 20s will start Saturday.

The PHRF 1 big boats joined the Farr 40s on one of the outside courses for the last race Friday as the wind had peaked at 16 knots. Jay Steinbeck's colorful, modified Margaritaville---a Farr 50 with a new Andrews 52 hull underneath the old superstructure---ran away from everyone but couldn't hide its new minus-60 rating.

Margaritaville owed everyone big time, especially the pair of 1D48s rating minus-20. Steinbeck finished nearly six minutes ahead but owed them nearly seven minutes.

"It's OK," Steinbeck said, smiling.

Indeed it was. It's OK, Lew Beery's 1D48, with Craig Fletcher driving, wound up the winner.

"I think the ratings are fine," Fletcher said. "We don't really feel like we're racing them, anyway. Our competition is [Oscar Krinsky's] Chayah."

Steinbeck added, "I can't worry about [handicaps]. We just try to have a good time."

Erin Johnson is one competitor who hoped to have a better time the next two days. While working at the mast she went overboard from Wes Selby's Tripp 47, T-N-T, moments before the start of the day's last race as the boat jibed to drive for the line. She was recovered by a chase boat

"The jib went out and pulled her right off the boat," Selby said. "We iced down her ankle, and she's fine now."

Long time supporter North Sails is the event's title sponsor and Nautica Watches returns as official timekeeper and day sponsor. Supporting sponsors Samson Rope Technologies and Raymarine are the official rope and marine electronics companies, respectively. Official supplier, Rigworks, is the official rigging company for race week.

The Seaport Marina Hotel is the official site and hotel (www.SeaportMarinaHotel.com). The Ayers Hotel at Seal Beach is also an official hotel (www.AyresHotels.com).

CONTACT
Golison & Golison
(714) 379-4884
emailto:bruce@golison.com

Web site for updates, results and Photos: www.Premiere-Racing.com
 

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2003 Results Reports and Photos 

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