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Scott Piper sailing his Etchells' Pipe Dream with crew Stuart deLisser and Richard Shellow won the 3rd Annual 2009 Coral Reef Cup hosted by the Coral Reef Yacht Club held March 20th to 22nd, 2009 on Biscayne Bay. In fresh North–North East Biscayne Bay conditions that increased each day, the top three boats went into the 7th and final race all within 3 points of each other and each with a chance to win.

In second place going into the final race was Marvin Beckman from Houston, Texas sailing his new Etchells 1378, followed closely by Ante Razmilovich and Swedish Blue from the UK. In the thrashy 18-24 knot final race, Piper pulled off a perfect boat end start and with great upwind speed stayed between his competition and the mark to maintain a 2–5 boat length lead around the course to clinch the series by a 5 point margin.

Placing forth overall with all Doyle sails was Frank Atkinson’s, factory team - Rigging Systems Sailing, with Sally Barkow helming and Jamie Stewart doing jib and bow. In 5th, sailing a consistent series was last year's runner-up, Buddy Cribb's Victory with John Bertrand on main and tactics, and Doyle Miami’s Eamonn deLisser on jib and bow.

When Piper was asked about his winning strategy for the series, he commented "Each day of the series we would get out on the course early to determine the upwind headings. This helped us throughout the series either catch up when we were behind, as we found ourselves early in race one, by sailing on the lifted tack, positioning more in the middle of the course with the top of the fleet, and not get too leveraged out to a side”.

When asked how this regatta strategy compared to the Jaguar Series Piper said, “In the Jag series, with twice as many boats on the line, finding clear lanes to sail in often dictated where we went, which made it harder to sail on the lifted tack. I often chose to just start at the windward end to avoid getting tacked on in the middle of the course, and we would find ourselves too often on the outside of the first shift and pinned out to a side. In the Coral Reef Cup, we would start near the favored end, had the speed to hold our lanes, tacked in the shifts, and we were often able to take advantage of the “key effect”(port lifts) at the top of the beat since the course was closer to the Key than Jag series”.

For sails Scott used his 2008 AP Doyle Main, 2007 Doyle Crosscut Spinnaker, 2008 DCM (Medium) Jib and a new 2009 DCH + (Doyle Flat Heavy) jib and Doyle Full Radial Spinnaker the last windy day. Stuart deLisser said “We figured out our tuning better for this regatta compared to Jag series and tuned more aggressively, especially as the wind speed increased the last day.” Scott added “that we really liked how the new flatter jib went in the heavy stuff, I credited much of our success to the new jib and the great job Stuart and Richard did battling and boat handling in very close quarters throughout the windy series”.

Scott's achievements on the race course and the open ocean are impressive. Scott Piper was recently recognized by the Cruising Club of America with the 2008 Blue Water Medal for 12 years of adventurous voyaging for a total of 180,000 nautical miles. Read more about Scott's 2008 Blue Water Medal.

To learn more about Doyle Etchells Sails, click here.

For 2009 Coral Reef Cup Final Results, click here

Labels: Etchells, One Design, Scott Piper

Rich Wilson knew he needed durable, fast sails when he registered for the 2008-9 Vendée Globe. In the most grueling Vendée Globe in history, which forced 19 of the 30 competitors to retire, Rich Wilson put Doyle Vectran inlaid fiber sails through 28,590 miles of extraordinary hard use with no problems. On March 10, 2009 Rich Wilson crossed the finish line of the Vendée Globe solo non stop round the world race off Vendoff Les Sables d’Olonne in 9th place, having raced for 121 days, 00 hours, 41 minutes and 19 seconds.

Rich Wilson is the second American ever to finish the Vendée Globe. The first American to finish was Bruce Schwab, who finished ninth from 20 starters in the 2004-5 race on Ocean Planet. Doyle Sailmakers is proud to have supplied sails for both American finishers.

When Rich was asked about troubles at sea he recounted a few but none of them involved his sails! Sometimes as a sailmaker, it’s great not to be mentioned! When not finishing is not an option, Doyle is the choice.

Find out more about Rich Wilson's journeys and his continuing educational outreach programs at sitesALIVE.com.

Rich's speech at the award's ceremony:

"For me there are 2 Vendée Globes, the one fought at sea, where there were lots of great skippers, particularly French ones. And then the Vendée Globe on dry land. We have a new president, but if we look back to our third president, Thomas Jefferson, he was an Ambassador to France and was inspired by France. My experience confirms his beliefs. During the preparation for 4 months I was always encouraged by French people. They came and spoke to me on the pontoons or when I was preparing the boat. Their words of encouragement came back to me, when I was in one storm after another. I shall always remember how their words of encouragement helped me through those difficult times. And of all of the adventures, I'll especially remember my arrival back in France.

"I was asked at the start, if I knew how tough it was going to be whether I would have taken part. I said I would reply afterwards. For me, this was not just a race, but something else too. It was all for my schools' program, Sites Alive, so the difficulties were worth it for all the lessons and essays I sent back. This was an incredible race, particularly for Michel Desjoyeaux. We had some amazing e-mails from him during our voyage."

Yachting World: Vendée Globe: Rich Wilson finishes ninth

Boston.com: Marblehead man finishes solo global ocean race

Labels: Rich Wilson, Vendée Globe

Rich Wilson, of Marblehead, finishes Vendee Global solo ocean race - The Boston Globe

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Labels: Rich Wilson, Vendée Globe