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The BAY RUNNER Sailing Team:

Every Wednesday evening from April until October, professional and amateur sailors get together for a friendly sailboat race on the waters of Clear Lake, twenty minutes south of Houston and home of NASA's Johnson Space Center.

These races, one of the largest of its kind in the nation, were created with the public in mind as the course has been set so the race can be enjoyed by spectators from many of the waterfront restaurants along the north shore of the lake.

The Bay Runner and Bay Area Media Services (BAMS) has been proud to sponsor both the event as a whole and one of the most dominate boats and sailing teams in recent years. 

The Bay Runner sailing team has captured the season titles in the largest class, J/24, in both 2002 and 2003 and the team is favored to win again in 2004.

- John Ennis, Bay Runner publisher.

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To follow is an account and explanation (published Aug. 2003) of the races from Bay Runner Sailing Team member David Bethancourt:

My name is David and I race a J/24 sailboat on Clear Lake every Wednesday night with 4 other nutballs that make up the Bay Runner Sailing Team. Stuart is the driver, Jim does foredeck, Eric does the middle of the boat and Javier is the utility man. I trim jib and usually the spinnaker.

Jim, Stuart, and I are the core of a group that has been sailing the Wednesday Night Races for the past 3 years. We just have to finish out the season to win the J/24 class for the second year in a row. For those of you who don't know much about Wednesday night sailing on Clear Lake, here's the recipe: You take a classic race format - weeknight beer-can racing. Add an incredible organizer – Buddy Brown. Blend in a venue for spectators – the Seabrook Beach Club. Mix well with about 150 amateur sailors in 70 boats. Sprinkle some local hotshot sailors on top along with the occasional Olympic hopeful or America's Cup sailor. Bake for about two hours on Clear Lake every Wednesday Night during the summer.

The J/24 class is one of the largest classes and is sometimes frighteningly competitive. Bumper boats is sometime unavoidable. The start lines are almost always very close to shore for the benefit of the spectators. Maneuvering is restricted on the lake due to shoals, coastlines and lots of boats on the water. And most of the other boats in class are happy to take advantage when they get us in a tight spot. Of course, we deserve this treatment, as we are often not polite to other boats on the course.

Before we get on the water we rig the boat, pump any rainwater out, duct tape anything that looks like it might break, and try to keep the beer consumption to a minimum. Stuart's boat lacks some of the high tech rigging of the newer J/24s. There is a bottle cap under the tiller to keep the tiller from sweeping across the deck too low and hanging up in the cockpit. The outhaul has no cleat. A loop and a double half hitch suffice here. There are certain places on deck where we are not allowed to step. If the traveler fails during the race, one of my jobs is to hold the traveler in place after tacking. All the winches squeal like a stuck pig when spun. We think that all this gives the boat character. It's also nice when we get in a tacking duel with another boat. We can usually intimidate them with our winch squealing. Would you want to have a tacking duel with a boat that is killing a pig on board?

I think not.

- David Bethancourt

Bay Runner is published by Bay Area Media Services (BAMS)  - Copyright 2004