SantanaRama 2008

30 Years of Tuna Sailing

The
Santana 20 celebrates thirty years of class racing with the ’08
Nationals being held in Eugene Oregon starting tomorrow through Friday.
At last count 37 boats were signed up with several of the perennial
class heavy hitters in attendance.

Over the years many of the West Coast’s finest sailors have cut
their teeth on this class. Bill Herrschaft, Tim Hogan, Bruce Golison,
Harry Pattison, Tom and Jane Schock, Charlie Ogletree among others have
racked up class championship wins and the class continues to be a fun
competitive group and this event is a prime example of that. Eugene
Yacht Club provides a great venue with on site camping, evening social
activities to local Vineyards and brew pubs, and lots of family oriented
things to do.

One of the nice things about the Santana 20 Class is that with a few
exceptions, you don’t have to deal with the P.A.S. (Pone Ass Syndrome).
As you may recall in my ’03 Melges 24 Worlds ‘Frumby’
report, and those who aren’t familiar with the Poners, they are
the guys usually wearing Farr 40 or TP 52 gear making sure everyone
can read the boat name in 300 pt font and talking really loudly on their
cell phone to the last of the lobotomized hip toggles they refer to
as their friends. The ‘pone’ is the penguin-like waddle
with cell phone to ear with the signature hand raised to let everyone
know how important they are. You won’t find those people At the
SantanaRama as they are all on the East Coast this time of year (Espo).

Practice races were run today providing an opportunity to test new
sails and speed test (or sandbag) with the competition. Racing starts
tomorrow. Let the fun begin. -Snapper