San Francisco Perpetual Challenge Cup at Long Beach Yacht Club
by Rick Roberts 30 Jun 2018 21:59 PDT
30 June 2018
2018 San Francisco Perpetual Challenge Cup © Rick Roberts
Russ Silvestri and his team from St. Francis Yacht Club won the 2018 San Francisco Perpetual Challenge Cup Saturday, in this two-boat match race event hosted by the Long Beach Yacht Club and raced on the Long Beach Sailing Foundation's Catalina 37 race boats.
In 2014, Long Beach Yacht Club's Dustin Durant won the San Francisco Perpetual Challenge Cup in San Francisco Bay, allowing LBYC to bring the 123 year-old San Francisco Perpetual Challenge Trophy---the second oldest perpetual trophy in North America---to their club.
Silvestri sailed against LBYC's Bill Durant, father of Dustin, commodore of the club and a skillful and accomplished skipper on various race boats, including the Catalina 37s.
"I haven't been on these boats in quite a while," said Silvestri, "but we had Paul Cayard coaching us for practice and the full support of two staff commodores. We must have done 20 starts with them, which was a big help to the team. We knew where we wanted to be and the last two days were critical."
The racing conditions were perfect, with mostly sunny skies and solid moderate breezes of 10-15 knots out of the south that made it challenging for those who were expecting the usual southwesterly right shifts common to Long Beach.
StFYC won the first race by about three boat lengths, but LBYC came back in Race 2 with a four boat-length win at the finish.
But in Races 3 and 4, StFYC had solid starts and LBYC wasn't able to beat them.
Silvestri credits his team of Tom Ducharme, Phillips Perkins, Domenic Bove, John Collins and Joe McCoy with keeping him in the game all day.
"We had good starts each race today," said Silvestri", "and we were always looking for the Long Beach right, but it never went past 180 degrees."
Durant talked about their performance today and Silvestri's team.
"Their team was well prepared," said Durant, "the crew work was perfect, and they got us at the starts."
Durant's teammates were Benjamin Wheatley, Dan Gorman, John Busch, Michael Lowe and Steve Flam.
"I hope to have an opportunity to sail for this trophy again," said Durant. "We would be glad to be invited back to race in San Francisco."
Both skippers commented on the race committee's performance today, led by Principal Race Officer, Jerry Leth.
"I want to give a big thank you to the race committee," said Durant, "the organizing authority and our club members for their support."
"The race committee team was awesome," said Silvestri. "This is a Grade A event, and that's exactly the way they ran it.
"This is a historic race, and I hope that when I'm in my 80's I'm watching 22-year old Domenic [pointing to his teammate] race for this trophy."
For more information and results visit www.lbyc.org