Tuna 20s and Ullman Sails Dominance
By Chuck Skewes and Bruce Cooper
The 2009 Santana 20 Nationals were held in San Diego by Mission Bay Yacht Club July 31st thru August 2nd. The Santana 20 known playfully as the Tuna 20 is one of the oldest and most active classes built by the Schock Boat company founded by Tom Schock. Several great sailors have won the Nationals in the past from Dave Ullman, Bruce Gollison, Charlie Ogletree, and Tom Schock but only two sailors have won it 5 times.
With his convincing win this year Chris Winnard is one of those. Chris has been sailing the same boat for 22 years and dedicated his win to his father who was in the hospital. Chris Winnard, Andrew Kerr, and Lance Purdy, came back to a 2nd place in the first race of the regatta after being over early at the start and with a second in the second race lead the regatta the entire time, never scoring worse than third in any race. Second place in the 2009 Nationals was the 2008 champion Eric Kownacki and third place was the pro team of Chris Snow, Willam VanWaay.
This event had wind from 5-14 knots in the warm San Diego weather with a small swell running. Mission Bay Yacht Club and Stan Betts were able to run all 7 races and have no protest to deal with in the 24 boat fleet over 3 days of racing. Andrew Kerr gave a chalk talk before the event to help the new comers and to refresh the memory of some of the old timers. This has become a tradition in the class and Andrew has a lot to offer to the sport and the Santana 20 fleet.
Tom and Judy Schock were on hand for the awards ceremony and to congratulate the winners. Tom and Judy have helped promote the class and are regular attendee’s at many of the Santana 20 events. Tom spoke at the awards ceremony and gave thanks to everyone for their continued support of a great fleet and great event.
Ullman Sails Team member Chris Winnard and crew used the latest version of the Ullman Sails Santana 20 Sails. Ullman Sails continues its development of Santana 20 sails.
Chris used the new lighter weight AP Aramid Class Genoa (Contender Aramid Flexx) in the wide range of conditions with great speed and pointing in all conditions. The new 2009 genoa has improved vision windows and a reduced bag weight of over 10% ! The main was the ever popular AP Dacron main (using Dimension Polyant cloth) and the spinnaker was the class minimum weight Bainbridge AirX 650 all purpose runner, both sails showed great speed and were easy to trim downwind!
Call your local Ullman Sails loft or dealer or go visit the web site for more information. With 3 different Santana 20 National Champions part of the Ullman Sails Team Ullman Sails continues to stay on top of the fleet. The 2011 Santana 20 Nationals will be held at Hunington Lake. Ullman Sails Team members will be there to support the sailors in any way possible.
