I still can’t get this smile off my face. What a complete and unadulterated blast.
If you’re a west coast sailor, you owe it to yourself to take in a few of the major east coast regattas. Great participation and the Atlantic is a fun ocean.
Landed in Charleston late Thursday, just in time to catch the last of the skippers meeting. The skipper of the boat, Dan Taylor suggested that we go sailing. Kurt, the bowguy, a local college sailor was stoked, so off we went.
My first sail in Charleston harbor was greeted with a pod of Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins off our portside. What a delight !!We went through a series of tacks and jibes, worked on sets and douses and hustled back to the party on the beach at CRW central. Some huge sponsors for this event adds up to some great parties. With 37 Vipers registered for the event, the largest fleet in the regatta, there were many, many opportunities to meet the other sailing teams. Paul Young, the owner of Rondar, the English company that builds the boat, flew in from England to hang out with the fleet, lend his support and do some on-water coaching. He was joined by Rondar USA manager and Viper designer, Brian Bennett. These guys went out of their way to help every single Viper owner to
sail faster, better and safer. They recently introduced the Viper tuning guide. I’ve been sailing a loooong time and I can’t remember such dedication from a class association or builder since the good old Hobie fleet 16 days.The event was hosted by Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina and they couldn’t have found a better spot. Great beach, awesome parties, pool, facilities, you name it. Oh yeah, and the perfect marina location for racing from.
Here’s some GREAT Video of the Friday Racing.
Three days of racing on the uber-fun Viper is JUST what I needed. This boat is immensely fun and easy to go fast on. We sailed hard, crashed hard, partied hard and what can I say…lived large. Check out all the info from Charleston Race Week and more on the Viper Class site.The West Coast Demo Viper, #104 “BoomSlang” will soon arrive. We’ll be posting up a series of demo sails around the West Coast on the Sailing Anarchy Sportboat Forum.
Life’s short…..Sail Fast !!
