Verve Cup 2010 - End of Day 1 Race Report

August 20, 2010 (CHICAGO) -- The 2010 Verve Cup Offshore Regatta kicked off on a beautiful sunny day in Chicago, with decent winds and all three circles getting at least three races in for the day. Racers did have some challenges with shifty wind conditions, navigating between the lake breeze and the winds from the shore.

“The challenge today for the sailors was an offshore southwesterly about 12 knots was battling a lake breeze of about 8-10 knots,” explained Chris Bedford, meteorologist for Sailing Weather Service. “Shifts of 20-30 degrees between the two breezes were common. Depending on if you were on the correct side of the shift, you were a winner or a loser.”

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Among the big boats on Circle A, Helmut Jahn’s Flash Gordon leads the Farr 40s with three bullets. In PHRF 1, it is newcomer Bretwalda 3, a Rogers 46 owned by Bob Pethick at the top spot.

“We won the first race because the biggest boat didn’t start on time,” Pethick said modestly. “In the third race we were able to hang in there with the big boats.” On his goal for tomorrow’s race, he added “to hang in there with the big boats. This boat really likes the breeze so if we get to 15 or 20 knots we’ll have fun. In light breeze we have to work harder.”

In PHRF 3, Eagle leads with 3 bullets and the current leader in PHRF 2 is Scout.

Circle B is dominated by the 17-boat J105 Fleet, led by Striking, owned by Blane Shea. Close behind are Sealark and Vytis who are all within 1 point of each other. The J105s are tuning up for their North Americans which will be held at Chicago Yacht Club in September. Also on Circle B are the Beneteaus – in the 36.7s it’s an extremely tight competition, with Peter Wright’s Maggie Mae in the lead. Maggie Mae won the 2010 Chicago NOOD in this one design section. In the 40.7s Ron Buzil’s Vayu dominated with two bullets of three races. After two bullets and a second place, Momentus leads the J109s also with a great first day.

You can’t miss Circle C on the lake today with 32 Tartan-10s racing along the Chicago skyline. American Flyer, owned by Steve Knoop leads the fleet, followed close by Tango owned by Martin Plonus. The T-10s got four races in today. In PHRF 5 Stars and Stripes is leading, PHRF 6 Whisper, and PHRF 7 Awesome. Scores are still coming in at this time, so things may change.

Conditions look light for tomorrow’s distance race, so it will be interesting to see if the Race Committee will decide to shorten the 28 mile course. We will continue to bring you race updates, photos and more, so stay tuned. Chicago Yacht Club is proud to host this prestigious sailing event, and welcomes you to be a part of all of the action this weekend. The race would not be possible without the support of Audi of America, SLAM, as well as Supporters and Suppliers Karma Yacht Sales, UK Halsey Sails, West Marine, Modelo Especial and Mount Gay Rum. For more of the Verve, see www.vervecup.com.