Video by Up Top Media (Felipe Juncadella). Photographs by Sharon Green / Ultimate Sailing.
The Moore 24 was designed and built in Santa Cruz, California. Fifty years later, the boat is back where it started, with around 75 entries on Monterey Bay for the Moore 24 50th Anniversary Nationals.
That is the largest fleet in the class’s history. The biggest Nationals before this week drew 41 boats in the early 1980s.
The championship runs from September 24 to 27 and is hosted by Santa Cruz Yacht Club, with three days of racing, a ceremonial race and a program of social events built around the anniversary.
Ron Moore, who designed and built the boat, was on hand for the opening night. The class held its first national championship in 1977, and the Moore 24 became one of the defining ultralight boats of its era.
Up Top Media (Felipe Juncadella)
Hull No. 00 Leads the Way
The week began on Thursday evening with a warm-up race sailed as a rabbit start, a format in which one boat sails across the line on port tack and the rest of the fleet starts by crossing behind it.
The rabbit was Summertime, hull No. 00 and the very first Moore 24 ever built, helmed by Dave Hodges. Summertime led the fleet throughout the warm-up in a 12-knot westerly on flat water, with Morgan Larson serving as Principal Race Officer for the evening.
The race finished with spinnaker reaches to the Santa Cruz breakwater. The yacht club then hosted the sailors for dinner, and Fleet Captain Sam Corso, Marina Fennell and Ron Moore marked the class’s 50-year history with presentations to the fleet.
A Class Built on Community
The anniversary program started long before the first start. Through the spring and summer, the class ran a seminar series for competitors, with Morgan Larson on regatta preparation, Steve Bourdow on upwind racing, Joel Turmel on communications, and Chris Watts and Sam Corso on Santa Cruz conditions and the Vakaros tracking system. A film about Ron Moore and the boat has also been produced for the anniversary.
The Moore 24 50th Anniversary Nationals is sponsored by Doyle Sails and Ballard, Washington, with support from Adios Racing, Animal Racing, Bob and Carol Simpkins, Erica Siegel, Hilarie DeGroot, Janey and Bobbo Larson, the Moore 24 National Association, Nancy Beekman, S/C John Siegel and Team Painkiller.
The rabbit was Summertime, hull No. 00 and the very first Moore 24 ever built, helmed by Dave Hodges. Summertime led the fleet throughout the warm-up in a 12-knot westerly on flat water, with Morgan Larson serving as Principal Race Officer for the evening.
The race finished with spinnaker reaches to the Santa Cruz breakwater. The yacht club then hosted the sailors for dinner, and Fleet Captain Sam Corso, Marina Fennell and Ron Moore marked the class’s 50-year history with presentations to the fleet.
A Class Built on Community
The anniversary program started long before the first start. Through the spring and summer, the class ran a seminar series for competitors, with Morgan Larson on regatta preparation, Steve Bourdow on upwind racing, Joel Turmel on communications, and Chris Watts and Sam Corso on Santa Cruz conditions and the Vakaros tracking system. A film about Ron Moore and the boat has also been produced for the anniversary.
The Moore 24 50th Anniversary Nationals is sponsored by Doyle Sails and Ballard, Washington, with support from Adios Racing, Animal Racing, Bob and Carol Simpkins, Erica Siegel, Hilarie DeGroot, Janey and Bobbo Larson, the Moore 24 National Association, Nancy Beekman, S/C John Siegel and Team Painkiller.
