Waukegan and Back:  Excalibur & Vayu are Winners

[Sunday, June 25, 2006. Chicago]   In mostly light but sufficient wind out of the east on Saturday and Sunday, Excalibur and Vayu were the winners on the two 26 mile races to and from Waukegan.  Excalibur, skippered by Dave Tarson, bested the fleet of nine boats on Saturday, beating second place Vayu by 4 min. 8 sec.  Then on Sunday, it was Vayu, Ron Buzil skipper, taking not only 1^st place in the 40.7 section but first place in the entire fleet of 76 boats. 

The participation in this event by nine Beneteau 40.7’s is the largest ever for this section in the history of the fleet.  Besides Vayu and Excalibur, also participating were rookie boats Barracuda, skippered by Steve Pelke who took 2^nd place on Sunday’s race, and Temptation, skippered by Bogdan Stojkowski who earned a respectable 4^th place on Sunday.  Veteran participants included La Tempete skippered by Tom Weber, Finesse skippered by Alan McMillan, Tsunami skippered by Don Hayes, CanCan skippered by Clem Boltz, and Das Boot skippered by Jay Muller.  La Tempete was scored “DNS” on Saturday as she started after the allowed cutoff time for starts. 

Vayu’s first place overall for the fleet is the second time in three years that a 40.7 has done this.  Excalibur did it in 2004.

What the winners used:  Vayu uses an all UK-Halsey sail inventory with Raytheon/Raymarine instruments and running rigging designed and built by local sailor Ben Kramer. 

            These are the first two races in the Area III Port-to-Port series for the Beneteau 40.7’s , the standings thus far, with only six boats registered in the series, are:

            The results of the individual races:

Saturday, Chicago to Waukegan

Sunday, Waukegan to Chicago