Redemption Song?
Longtime Anarchist and all-around cool dude Tim Kernan and the folks at Santa Cruz Yachts took a lot of shit for their decision to sail at Key West and Miami with IRC ratings that were, shall we say, unfriendly. Designed to be a light air and downwind flyer, the SC37s had predictable results under a rating rule that favors heavier 40-footers, with DFLs all over their scoresheets. The boat was called DOA after the poor showing, but we’ve said all along that the boat should do well with a reasonable rating on distance races, and it looks like, once again, we’re right.
Here’s a short report from an SC37 sailor:
“We’re going well on the SC37! We took her down to Vallejo last weekend, spanked everyone! We were first on elapsed, grinding down Thorpe on a J 125, and almost caught them even though we started 5 minutes back. Conditions were puffy and shifty 8-16 knots, and the boat goes well down the breeze. We’ve also got it going much better upwind.”
The SC37 had the best corrected time in their class as well, and Santa Cruz 37 #5 scorched the fleet on elapsed time on the inaugural Border Run from Newport to Diego finishing over an hour ahead of every monohull in the fleet – first-to-finish speed with a full, albeit pretty spartan, interior.
With 2 races in two weeks -same result – is there a trend being set? Whatever it means, we are obviously firm believers that Fast is Fun, and maybe for distance races, the SC37 has found its calling. We’ve always called it like we see it, and we’re watching.
