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The Summer Race to Oxford is a classic Chesapeake event and I sailed yesterday on a fully restored Tripp 41 owned by Jim Hayes of Annapolis. The boat was built on Naraganset Bay by Barret Holby in 1996. Since Jim's point of purchase about four years back he has morphed the boat from an IMS purpose built racer to add some cruising comforts. The outcome is a high performance cruising boat that can go racing if enough of Jims friends are available....
This was the first outing and it was special due to the cast of characters assembled from Jim's sailing buddies over the years. Charlie Scott (J-24 World Champion and overall SORC winner) came out of semi-retirement to skipper the boat. Anyone who has sailed with Charlie knows that he has a remarkable imbedded talent for helming a race boat. Former North Sail Designer John Danley trimmed the mainsail and ducked below occaisionally to check the plotter for skinny water. Richard Robinson from Wye Mills ably ran the pit.Rob Pennington (North Sails Chesapeake) trimmed headsails and kites and the builder Barret Holby ran the front of the boat. Three of these guys are veterans of the S&S 60 "Running Tide" so we are talking lots of experience! I would say that the cumulative racing experience of our crew would be in the range of 300 years! To balance our maturity we had Barrets lovely girlfriend Raquel, Charlie Stewart a recent grad of Colorado College and somewhere in the middle of the mix my spouse Susan Dierdorff Taylor and myself.
The race was a typical light air event in which we placed second in Class A-0. We were pleased to find that the boat offered a good turn of speed both up and downwind. We now have a punch list to tune the rig, install some new battens in the mainsail, repack a winch and so forth. On the otherhand the boat could comfortably sail to the Coast of Maine tomorrow in cruising mode with a Dacron Full-Batten Main on a Dutchman system.The boat now has a comfortable and handsome interior with fore and aft private cabins.
Picture of Tripp 41 @ Tred Avon Yacht Club last Fall
This was the first outing and it was special due to the cast of characters assembled from Jim's sailing buddies over the years. Charlie Scott (J-24 World Champion and overall SORC winner) came out of semi-retirement to skipper the boat. Anyone who has sailed with Charlie knows that he has a remarkable imbedded talent for helming a race boat. Former North Sail Designer John Danley trimmed the mainsail and ducked below occaisionally to check the plotter for skinny water. Richard Robinson from Wye Mills ably ran the pit.Rob Pennington (North Sails Chesapeake) trimmed headsails and kites and the builder Barret Holby ran the front of the boat. Three of these guys are veterans of the S&S 60 "Running Tide" so we are talking lots of experience! I would say that the cumulative racing experience of our crew would be in the range of 300 years! To balance our maturity we had Barrets lovely girlfriend Raquel, Charlie Stewart a recent grad of Colorado College and somewhere in the middle of the mix my spouse Susan Dierdorff Taylor and myself.
The race was a typical light air event in which we placed second in Class A-0. We were pleased to find that the boat offered a good turn of speed both up and downwind. We now have a punch list to tune the rig, install some new battens in the mainsail, repack a winch and so forth. On the otherhand the boat could comfortably sail to the Coast of Maine tomorrow in cruising mode with a Dacron Full-Batten Main on a Dutchman system.The boat now has a comfortable and handsome interior with fore and aft private cabins.
