2007
Jeff Storck
For somehow managing to wrap his
spinnaker sheet around the windward mark during a mark rounding at the
Leukemia Cup….and for promptly yelling “thanks a lot you guys!” at Pat
(who rounded behind and between Jeff and the mark) thinking that the
snafu must have been Pat’s fault…and all Pat was trying to do was
figure out what a rogue spinnaker sheet was doing lassoed around the
mark and stretched over to Jeff’s boat while it was catching all over
his rig and rudder, and at the same time still being hollered at by
Jeff…until he finally got loose and on with his downwind leg shouting
back to Jeff “do your turns man!”….at which point Jeff figured that
might be a good idea and got us turned around so we could figure out
how to get the wayward sheet undone from the mark without mucking
things up too badly for other boats rounding the mark….and then do our
penalty turns as quickly as possible…so after spending about a week at
the windward mark trying to get our turns done, we managed to finally
get on our way downwind….and had a few hardy laughs (and probably
handed Jeff a beer) as he said “now THAT was a Bungle Bucket
nomination if I ever did see one!”
2002
Drew Hudson and crew.
On the day before the Leukemia/presidents Cup Drew Sousan and
Tony Vernon were practicing spinnaker raisings and takedowns. They were
using the red day mark in the cove.
In rounding the day mark while raising the spinnaker, it snagged
the mark. Since the
spinnaker lines had knots at the end, they couldn’t be released, in
effect hog-tying the boat. This
happened before an audience. Gary
Jobson was presenting a seminar on racing on the lawn looking toward the
cove. He remarked drolly,
“they’re going to need help.”
But Drew had competition.
In front of a limited audience Jeff Storck was sailing above the
starting line last Fall in a PRSA race, with about 2 minutes before the
Lightning start. He made an
agile jibe but came too close to the committee boat snagging its anchor
line. The winds were enough
to push his boat against the committee boat.
“Raise the centerboard and drop the sails.”
But it wasn’t enough. String
Theory’s stern was swinging toward the side of the committee boat. It looked to the stunned race committed (Lightning sailors
trying to fend String Theory off) like another rudder was about to be
splintered. With a few
seconds to spare the rudder was removed and while the crew paddled
furiously, the boat broke free. The
skipper opted for a safe start, and still managed a second place finish
in that race.