Later in 2015 Fruition participated in the St. Pete Yacht Club "Regata Del Sol al Sol" to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. She finished in 4th place. None none of the other competitors in her class were able to finish due to very, very high winds (she almost had to revert to storm sails, a first since 1983!) interspersed with dead calms. Fruition would have finished in second place, as the ashore posted results indicated, but she was caught late in a dead calm: The last 36 miles to the finish line took 25 hours fighting against the Loop Current coming up between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula with no wind to defend herself!
In 2017 Fruition raced in the "St. Pete Yacht Club to Habana Race". This was a race that had been held every year from 1930 to 1959, after which we know why it had to be abandoned. Astonishingly, 75 boats entered the race! Fruition intended to enter in the spinnaker class, but seeing the ultralight racing sleds and their 24 and 32 PHRF ratings, the crew decided to step down to the Cruising A class which had serious competitors with PHRF ratings similar to hers. The race was light wind, not Fruition's forte! Like her owner Fruition is old and overweight! End result: Fruition was one of only 22 boats out of 75 serious competitors to finish the race. Strategy and tactics are more important than speed! Older is smarter. Fruition finished 4th in her class, right behind an 84 foot Frers' designed racing machine, a brand new $5.5 million 75 foot Oyster and a new Tartan 4000 with her sail maker captain, carbon fiber sails and semi-professional crew! Fruition did remarkably well with her 1984 Hood racing mainsail, 2007 Doyle No. 1 genoa and 1982 Hood MPS sail!
Old tired boat, old tired sails, old tired crew (average age 70 years, not counting our 63 year old cabin boy! She dun good!
Bill Gately
Cap't S. V. Fruition
1 comment:
Congratulations on all of those fine performances. Particularly notable are all the long races, but with your seniors as crew, we expect that the experience and race strategies will often prevail over all those whipper-snappers. As to the age of the boat, it is just a testimonial to how well of an all-around boat the Sere 43 is. Even after over 35 years people still can't design and build a better all around boat.
Keep it up,
Fred Roswold, SV Wings, La Cruz, Mexico
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