Whidbey Island Race Week 2009July 12-17. Oak Harbor, WAWed, 22nd Jul 2009By Chris Winnard  Another great race week has come and gone! This year the event was title sponsored by ‘Ohana Harbor Coffee and despite a cold and wet practice day, turned out to be a perfect week of sailing and fun side events. Ullman Sails Seattle were the official sailmaker for WIRW ’09 and a co sponsor. On hand were Chris Winnard, Jeff Carson and John Leitzinger (Seattle), Kelly Buchan (Ullman Sails International) and Dave Bolyard (Ullman Sails Gulf Coast). Monday turned out to be a bust with no racing to be had. The forecast initially looked glum for the week but improved after Tuesday and most of the nine classes ended up getting twelve races in for the week, which is a lot of sailing in four days!
Wednesday was Ullman Sails trophy night and the custom soft coolers were a big hit! Gertrude’s Hearse was the band for the night topping off a fantastic NW day of racing and partying.
There were nine classes on the line, seven PHRF, one level rating and the J-105’s. Ullman Sails were on several of the trophy winners, once again proving that you don’t need to spend exorbitant amounts of money on sails to win races!
In the P-0 class, Geoff Longenecker’s well tuned Melges 30 ‘Nemesis’ made the trek up from San Diego and took third in what was a very tough class. The was Team Nemesis’s first WIRW and they had a great time and were the winners of the first annual Bacon-Off. A fun side event held on the Tuesday night with a bring your best bacon recipe to be judged. No one was even close!
P-1 was a level ‘Super 30’ class consisting of seven Flying Tigers, a Henderson 30 and a J-90. Ullman FiberPath sails dominated taking 1st, 2nd and 4th. After the regatta, John Anicker had this to say about his new Ullman Sails:
"Hi Chris-
I just wanted to drop you a quick note about the new sails for my FT10. I must say, the change to the boat performance was dramatic – for the first time in a year I felt the speed and height that had kept us out of serious competition. New sails made a huge difference, and the reason why Ullman is dominating the top boats in the fleet became abundantly clear – they’re fast sails!"
John Anicker FT10 #23 “Firecracker”
Ullman Sails continue to dominate the J-105 class with Mike Schlitz’s ‘Money Shot’ and Erik Kristen’s ‘Jubilee’ taking 1st and 3rd respectfully.
The regatta was a great success and Ullman Sails looks forward to our continued support of this event!
For more information on WIRW please go to www.whidbeyislandraceweek.com
We hope to see you next year!
This article was posted on Wed, 22nd Jul 2009 |
