M Squared

SANTANARAMA 2008: Final Report by Snapper via Sailing Anarchy . It’s in the can! Santanarama ’08, the 30th anniversary of Santana 20 Class racing is in the books. 39 boats participated in one of the best run and most fun events the class has ever seen. Only one race was scheduled today so while it was unlikely that there would be any surprises given the points spread anything was possible on this lake. After an hour long postponement the R/C decided to take advantage of the building West wind and sent the fleet out for the final race. Going into this final race Jim Martinez’s team on ‘Loose Nuts’ held a two point lead over Eric Kownacki’s team on ‘Alexa’. It was apparent that the Alexa team were going to attack Loose Nuts and do a little match racing in an attempt to put a boat between them. Leading up to the start Alexa had Nuts pinned (did I really say ...

SANTANARAMA 2008 : Day 2 Report by Snapper via Sailing Anarchy . With the prospect of a light air day the R/C postponed racing until early afternoon and sent the fleet out around 1230. Once again the conditions were trying with breeze on both sides of the course and lots of holes to deal with. This event has certainly been one of the most challenging Class Championships I can remember and the high scores can attest to that. Going into today, yesterday’s leader Paul Stephens, was comfortably in the lead by six points over Jim Martinez’s ‘Loose Nuts’ team with last year’s runner up Eric Kownacki in third five points back and trying to recover from a deep place (15th) in the first race. Britt Williams from OKC was in fourth place, seven points behind adrift of third. Britt has truly been on of the stalwarts of the class and has hooked up his boat ‘Fayest’ and driven to many of the West Coast events. His enthusiasm and Corinthian spirit is one of the reasons the class ...

SantanaRama 2008: Day 1 Report by Snapper via Sailing Anarchy . The Sailing Anarchy mantra is ‘where the status quo blows’, which was very fitting for day one of the 30th anniversary Santana 20 Class Championships 39 boats were on the line for race one, held in light to medium winds. The ‘status quo’ would have seen pre-regatta favorites Bruce Golison, Eric Kownacki and Chris Winnard (your scribe A.K.A Snapper) duking it out up front but at the first mark they were nowhere to be seen! In fact all three were buried on the wrong side of the course and ended up lucky to get 15, 16 and 17! The race was won by the Sacramento team aboard ‘Fusion’ with locals Ron Fish and two time champ Paul Stephens rounding out the top three. The R/C decided to send everyone in to wait for the afternoon breeze and the keg was tapped. After an hour or so we w...

SantanaRama 2008: 30 Years of Tuna Sailing A preview by Snapper via Sailing Anarchy . 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 n...

It's almost here. SantanaRama 2008 starts next week. This is not some tribute tour to Carlos Santana ... It's the 2008 Santana 20 Class Championships hosted by Fleet 19 and the Eugene Yacht Club . Since the championships in 1996, this is the third attempt to bring the "Nationals" back to Fern Ridge . Early in the season , there was a lot of complaining about the lake level and the dumping of water in February. Well, fortunately the lake filled and we should have a great week of racing and fun! So far there are 30 boats registered and the wind have been great (mostly) all summer. We'll see if we can improve on our fifth place finish at the Cascade Locks on 2005.