Over the weekend of October 8 more than 20 sailboats gathered for the 2010 Bob Fisher Cup held at Isleta Marina off the coast of Fajardo in eastern Puerto Rico.
The Bob Fisher Cup is an annual event, now in its fifth year, hosted by Club Nautico de Fajardo, to honor and thank Mr. Bob Fisher for his lifetime commitment and dedication to promote sailboat racing in Puerto Rico.
This year the events started on September 30 with a well-attended pre-registration cocktail at the Casa de España restaurant in Old San Juan. The restaurant, owned by fellow sailor Dr. Bernardo Gonzalez, was the perfect location for sailors to meet and get excited about the upcoming regatta. Sailors shared drinks, food and stories of past regattas until the late hours of the night.
Next on the agenda came final registration and the skippers’ briefing where new courses were discussed, including the Bajo Blake mark made famous by Mr. Fisher himself, who loved sending racers on long and challenging upwind legs.
After that sailors had two great days of racing with varying/unusual southeast to south to southwest winds with north swells, with winds ranging from five to 20 knots throughout the weekend.
For 2010 the Race Committee added two new classes: the Ladies Class and the Beginners Class. Their goal was to continue to promote sailboat racing for everyone and to encourage newcomers to test and improve their skills while having fun on the water. Other classes included Spinnaker Racing and Jib and Main.
This year the racing fleet included some beautiful and fast new sailboats such as Sergio Sagramoso’s Grand Soleil 54 Lazy Dog, Jaime Torres Beneteau 40 Smile and Wave, Paco Bonet’s J/92S Antojo and the winner of the racing class Jonathan Lipuscek’s new J/105 Dark Star.
Willy Olivo with his local knowledge, great instinct at the helm, and experienced crew led Dark Star to a two point Racing Class victory over Smile and Wave whose young and upcoming crew keeps getting better with each regatta. In third place was Felix Cruz Olson 29 Geronimo, the smallest boat in the Racing Class, which proved that sometimes size does not matter!
On the Jib and Main class veterans Edwin Cruz, Polito Fernandez and Frank Inserni battled it out all weekend. Edwin aboard his fast Hunter 43 Nemesis took the class with three bullets, followed by Frank’s J/30 Tinglar and Polito’s Beneteau 38 Rafaga who started early on the first race and was disqualified, costing him the coveted cup.
The new Ladies Class was very competitive, with experienced sisters Mari and Sandra Rodriguez, and her daughters, aboard their Pearson Flyer Poco a Poco taking first place followed by Margarita Ruiz, on her new Henderson-designed Hunter 21 Little Tranquilein with her friends Itziar, Maritere and Zuleika racing together for the first time.
On the Beginners Class newcomers Jose Acosta on Water Lilly and Fernando Buxo aboard Mandra gave ‘experienced beginners’ Carlos Rosario and crew aboard Guatu’ a run for their money.
Last year’s Bob Fisher Cup winner Bonne Chance did not compete so the trophy passed to new hands. On this occasion the Race Committee awarded two cups, one for Racing and another for Jib and Main, and Mr. Fisher flew from the U.S. to hand them out at the awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon.
For complete results and calendar of events, visit: http://clubnauticodefajardo.com/
To view images, go to: www.tonymiro.com
Capt. Tony Miró is a life-long sailor, photographer and web developer who currently lives in Puerto Rico with his family, where they sail aboard their Hunter 376 ¡Nada Mas! He runs sailboatspecs.com, caribesailingadventures.com and tonymiro.com
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