Racing for a Cause!

2007 Windy City Match Race

I was fortunate enough to be asked to sail on board Heartbreaker for the WCMR. I was to replace Wally Cross, not an easy feat for me at all. Wally has been one of the best in the Farr 40 class since its inception, proof by the reason why I replaced him.......he is in Copenhagen trimming mainsail on Warpath for the Farr 40 Wold Championships.

The regatta was put together by a great group of people from Chicago including a customer of mine Rick West and he awesome wife Liz Ware. They along a group of sailors came up with the idea to hold a match racing regatta in Farr 40's and also couple the event with a great cause to raise both money and awareness for the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation.

On Friday night there was a reception held that featured two pretty cool events. First there was a silent auction with some really incredible items that were donated and raffled off. As I told Liz, I kept looking for the "poor sailmakers" Auction table with items starting at $1.50! The one I really wanted was the Porsche driving school experience. But it went for more then I can handle.

The second thing that was pretty cool for the people at the event was that Tucker Thompson came and gave a little video show of the high lights from the 32nd America's Cup. He did a nice job with it and the public quite liked it.

One touching moment happened in the opening minutes of the night when a young lady, IIRC, of 13 got up and gave a moving speech about what it is like to be a child living with HIV/AIDS. It really showed why it was important to to be involved with this regatta.

The weekend was great for sailing, not enough wind maybe, but the skies were clear and the competition was tough. The team that won was a full professional match racing team which feature a pile of BMW/Oracle sailors and Cameron Dunn from Mascalzone Latino.

It was great to sail against such talent and also to have a little of that on our boat as well. Our Tactician was none other then Dave Dellenbaugh! Dave was the tactician for the German AC team in AC 32 this year.

We finished 3rd out of the 4 teams and we are also the only team to beat EWM and that was a satisfying race as we led the whole way around and extended to a real big margin on the final run.

I really wish that we could more of this format of racing. Match Racing is so much fun and so intense that more people should try it.

I look forward to seeing what Rick and Liz do for next year, they say they are going to keep going and build it for the next several years. I look forward to racing in it again next season.

Check out the website and please feel free to donate to the worthy cause!
Cheers

Tac