Different Drummer article

[Kurt Hoehne]

This story got a comment from Boomer Depp on Facebook – and I thought I’d share it here so the non FB crowd – growing all the time – could see it as well.

Boomer Depp’s comment on Facebook

Kinda whitewashing it with an article like that, especially when you’ve seen what’s going on in that class since the Sierra 26 was put in this class. Then another head scratcher, when the Waiquiez 40′ joined in a class of boats 34′ average. We know this class has also been controversial since the Sierra 26 was grouped in with this class, which was spoken of in the local NW sailing rags, when they first joined.

As for the Wauquiez 45, they rarely get out to play with it last racing in last years CCS. So obviously they’re not quite in the same league as the Wauquiez 40 which comes out to play in most all the bigger regattas and races..

Some of the regattas like the CCS add a few 37.75′ C&C 115s & J35s into the mix in this class. Not hard for Wauquiez 40 to consistently do well in a class, when your boat can waterline the rest of the class and rate slower then a J-35, when they’re rating should be closer to the J35.

DOS is usually the Wauquiez 40’s main competition in most of the regattas, with good boat and sail handling skills, excellent course management by Brad Butler & crew and an extremely fast designs in DOS and UNO’s Sierra 26 carbon hulls – which require very competent boat and sail handling skills when it gets breezy or suffer taking a swim; followed by the well sailed Quest 30 Charlotte usually taking third in class – though Charlotte isn’t having a successful Center Sound Series this year with six 72 raters thrown in the class.

The 72 raters should have their own class including the 75 rater Shock 35, like the fast 30 class back in the late 90s – and the Wauquiez 40 should be sailing with them.

My response

First off, the piece was merely a peek into the skipper-crew communications on DD, not an article on the sailors, the boat etc., so it wasn’t meant to whitewash anything. And it certainly wasn’t about PHRF, to be honest I wasn’t thinking about that at all. I am highlighting the cruiser-racer vs Sierra rivalry because one of the big things to come out of last fall’s survey was the almost universal feeling that racing those disparate types of boats against each other was hurting participation. Both DD and Dos are extremely well sailed as far as I can tell. Regarding the ratings, that rating band, like so many others, has some serious issues and anomalies. If everyone agrees to sail level, great. (I think the J/35 guys would really like a 1D class) If not, and if ratings are going to be an issue, I again suggest looking at ORC as the arbiter to take 90 percent of discussion, and the human factor, out of the equation.

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