Excitement is building for the 2014 Corsair Nationals! 

Read about one committed sailor from the 2013 Corsair Nationals.
Story by Kimball Livingston from Sail Magazine

Here’s a game I invented at the 2013 Corsair Nationals. Ask the owner of any of Corsair’s folding trailerable trimarans for an opinion of the boat—and take a step back. You’ll need some extra space to absorb the superlatives. These people don’t just like their boats: they bear the passions of the misunderstood.

If we poke Phil Styne for his thoughts about the Nationals—his Speedster was first both overall and in the 750 class over the seven races sailed on San Francisco Bay—the good Dr. Styne might reply…

“Thank you for the question. But first, can I put a question to you? Name me a boat that can be trailered across the United States, have the mast raised by one person and then raced in 25-knot winds. Name a trimaran that can pop a chute and hit speeds to 18 knots with no problem, that can be folded up to fit a berth of ‘normal’ width, or cruised, if you want to go cruising. 

“I’ll tell you, the boat that can do that is the Corsair. You asked about the Nationals? That was fun racing, but the real story is a group of people connected by their boats, wherever the regattas take them and wherever they go in between. It’s like the Corvette Corral at Sebring. We’re a little obsessed, and I’m sorry if I’m getting preachy, but it’s because so many monohull sailors just don’t get it.”

The nationals were sailed June 13-16 out of the Ballena Bay Yacht Club, located on San Francisco Bay on the south shore of Alameda Island. By comparison to the famed “wind slot” near the Golden Gate, this relatively protected East Bay neighborhood offers warm(ish) milder winds, plus warmer and flatter water. With the seabreeze building through the day, afternoon races included conditions in the high teens and the occasional slap of flying spray, but it wasn’t until the longer, concluding “Bay tour” race that the 20 entries received their wind-slot baptism, and locals could tell them, “OK, now you have truly sailed on San Francisco Bay.”

Jim Lawson, down from Klamath Falls, Oregon, with his F-31RS, WaterWings, allowed that during the Bay tour, “Stuffing our ama at 21 knots was somewhat spectacular. Several sailors afterward were asking what we did wrong—were we scared, did we damage anything? I’ve had the boat 12 years. I just thought it was something that happens from time to time.”

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Photo above the F27 Origami shows her true colors!