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Kooks Rule. Or Do They? Our good friend and certifiably insane friend Bob "Billy Bob" Boyes, is as kooky as they come. And we mean that in the best way. About the mellowest guy you'd ever hope to know, his ability as a sailor is a thing of wonder. Of all of our thousands of miles of offshore racing, we've never seen a better, smoother, faster and naturally skilled downwind helmsman. Really, I'm certain that he is amongst the best in the world. Oh, did we mention that he'll kick your ass on a mountain bike as well? Tough up hill grinds are just a warm up for his kamikaze descents. If you see him coming please, just get the hell out of the way. Need proof on the kook factor?
How about single-handing his stripped-out Moore 24 (stripping out a Moore is reason enough to be committed) to first in Class in the single-handed Transpac. (This was way before there was anything such as GPS). How about taking an Olson 30 and so turbo-charging it (big giant carbon rig, huge fully roach main, insane kites) that the new owner is afraid to take the boat sailing! Clearly not one for convention, Bob thought a big fast cat would be pretty cool. So he bought this 36' cat, tricked it out, and had Gary Swenson from Ullman Ventura (a world-class sailor in his own right, Gary might be the best sailor you've never heard of, and those who know him know just how true that is) make him some fresh sails.
One of the (usually) best races in SoCal is the Santa Barbara to King Harbor race. It takes you out around Anacapa Island and down into Santa Monica Bay. Just as you leave the island, it usually breezes up quite nicely in a place known as Windy Lane (how cute) making for a fun run into King Harbor (where, btw, it invariably gets light and fluky, reminding you that you are racing in SoCal) Anyway, we nabbed these pictures of Bob and crew, being First to Finish in yesterday's King Harbor race. He beat the 52' catamaran "Afterburner" by seven minutes, and the first monohull, the Andrews 70 turbo sled "Magnitude" finished some ttwenty minutes later, it looked like another ass-whupping, administered by Boyer.
Now here is where all you multi-hull speed freaks will start to yowl (and us too): Bob's entry was declared to be "uncorinthian" by King Harbor Yacht Club for "sailing too fast", (these quotes attributed to somebody from KHYC - we'll find out who very soon) and his entry was denied! We also understand that KHYC denied Bob the right to tie up to their docks after the race, forcing Bob to motor home to Oxnard all that night. added 8/5/01 Here's what we know: The Roland 36 that capsized in last year's race was not this boat, named "2 of 10". They were both unofficial entries last year, and "2 of 10" was again this year. I spoke with Mark Hansen, commodore at KHYC and he explained that since the boats don't meet ORCA regulations, they couldn't accept their entry. He also explained that while he felt bad about denying them docking space at the club (and the host club, Santa Barbara Yacht Club did the same), he told us that do to so would have looked like they were condoning the oat's participation in the race, opening them to a potential legal problem had something happened to the boat or crew. It
all
seems a bit restrictive, but without some sort of open class for boats
like this to race under, clubs and their directors are not going to
put their asses, legally speaking, on the line so that some kooks can
go 20 plus knots. We understand that there will be a new multihull class
organization in place for next year so that some kooks can indeed go
20 plus knots, and hopefully get recognized for their accomplishments.
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