SAILING : Hands-On Experience Leads to Victory

Brack Duker brought a new winning formula to the ULDB 70 Assn. when he bought his sled, Evolution, from Bob Doughty this year: buy a proven boat with a proven crew.

All Duker had to do was learn how to sail it, and his learning curve shot straight up when he won the Los Angeles Yacht Club’s Kenneth Watts Trophy Series with two victories, a second and a fourth.

The winds Sunday built from 4 to 11 knots and swung west steadily over a windward leeward course outside the harbor.

A key rule of the event was that owners or family members had to steer their own boats--no hired hotshots. But there wasn’t anything wrong with getting on-board advice from experts, and Duker--as well as some of the other owners--got plenty.

With the association’s executive director, Tom Leweck, calling tactics, Evolution was tied with another Santa Cruz 70, Davis Pillsbury’s Holua, going into Sunday’s final race. Those two fell into their own match race to the left side of the course, but Evolution broke away first to rejoin the rest of the fleet at the starboard layline, rounded the windward mark in front and sailed on to finish 1 minute 13 seconds ahead of second-place Holua.

Hal Ward’s Nelson/Marek 68 Cheval, with tacticians Kimo Worthington and Roy Cundiff, played all the wind shifts well to win the first race Sunday, then passed Les Crouch’s Maverick on a final jibe near the finish line to beat the red boat by two lengths for sixth place and claim third in the event.

That left Cheval atop the association standings with 46 points, five ahead of Holua. Unofficially, Evolution, winner of the Cal Cup with Doughty last spring, has 49 points, but they don’t count because of the mid-season change in ownership.

That’s the only change Duker plans to make in the boat or the crew.

“I’m not going to change something that works,” he said.

Although Duker is a newcomer, he thinks the owners should have to steer most of their events.

“That’d be great,” he said. “I’m all for it. I just get 17 other people to do all the work.”

But rival Mitch Rouse, with Taxi Dancer, isn’t sure the owners could always get the most out of the high-tech boats.

“Once in a while you’ve got to let the thoroughbreds run,” Rouse said.