Yet another classic "race within a race" on this year's CYC Oregon Offshore International Yacht Race was the competition in B fleet between the Santa Cruz 27 Blade Runner, and the Cascade 36, Raindrop.
From a design perspective, you really couldn't find two more divergent boats...one built strong and steady for solid performance in NW waters, and the other, an ultra-light "mini sled" designed by one of the greatest "wizards" in the history of modern racing yacht design, Bill Lee.
This isolated competition was interesting from a number of perspectives...the end result - as most now know - is that Raindrop finished ahead of Blade Runner, but Blade Runner saved their time on Raindrop after the time allowances were calculated.
Blade Runner won this year's race - first overall in Class B & First Overall in PHRF; Raindrop was 2nd in Class B & 2nd Overall in PHRF.
It was a great race, so we thought we'd isolate the tracks of these two boats to compare courses.
Note that early in the race Raindrop broke right, and established an early lead....after that, Blade Runner spent much of the next two days following in Raindrop's wake....but just close enough behind to save their time!
Great racing! Here's the Race Tracker:
From a design perspective, you really couldn't find two more divergent boats...one built strong and steady for solid performance in NW waters, and the other, an ultra-light "mini sled" designed by one of the greatest "wizards" in the history of modern racing yacht design, Bill Lee.
This isolated competition was interesting from a number of perspectives...the end result - as most now know - is that Raindrop finished ahead of Blade Runner, but Blade Runner saved their time on Raindrop after the time allowances were calculated.
Blade Runner won this year's race - first overall in Class B & First Overall in PHRF; Raindrop was 2nd in Class B & 2nd Overall in PHRF.
It was a great race, so we thought we'd isolate the tracks of these two boats to compare courses.
Note that early in the race Raindrop broke right, and established an early lead....after that, Blade Runner spent much of the next two days following in Raindrop's wake....but just close enough behind to save their time!
Great racing! Here's the Race Tracker: