"Wing It" Wins Redwood Cup

I’m writing to you today as a testimonial to the uncanny ability of your Sailing Anarchy Dry Shirt to actually win sailing regattas. The story unfolds with an underdog Santana 20 Wing It, owned and skippered by my brother, competing in a five race series in the San Francisco Bay for the most prestigious and coveted Sequoia Yacht Club Redwood Cup (see photo above). The level of competition for “The Cup” is extremely high and unlike the other lesser known regattas to the North (St. Francis Yacht Club RONSTAN Bridge to Bridge, St. Francis Big Boat Series presented by Rolex, oddly, this event is not even mentioned at the Rolex web site, but I digress). These North Bay events have all of those distracting views of the golden gate bridge, Alcatraz, and the city front, and other distractions, like 800’ freighters heading for Oakland.

In contrast, the Redwood Cup, sponsored by Sequoia Yacht Club and powered by Coors Lite (oddly, this event is also not mentioned at the Coors web site) has none of the distracting views, is in fact raced from the deep water port of Redwood City, out Redwood creek, past the scrap steel container ships being loaded with old Chevy’s and Ford’s headed to Japan to be made into Honda’s and Toyota’s and then shipped back to the US, the race continues out into the south bay, where getting stuck in the mud is the worst distraction.

In analyzing the facts around a 20’ keel boat winning a 5 race series, I came to one conclusion; it’s has to be the shirt. I came to this conclusion after throwing my gear bag onto the boat before one of the races, missed, and the bag ended up in the water. The only thing I had to wear was the Dry Shirt. We won that race. Since that day I have never questioned what this amazing technology can do in the wrong hands.

Some independent analysis came up with a differing opinion; one that I find impossible to believe, something about NOAA weather during the race and tidal flow, and dumb sheer luck that we didn’t get stuck in the mud or give up the race and motor in because of the lack of wind…I say hogwash, every time I wore the shirt we came in first or second. It’s obviously not our sailing ability or the speed of the Santana 20 (no offense Tom Schock, it’s really a great little boat!), but which costs less than the fenders and dock lines of some of the nice boats we were up against. If you don’t believe me, then just take a look at what some of the other racers were saying about the SA Dry Shirt:

“That shirt is fast”

“He looks dry”

“I have no idea what you are talking about, get away from me”

“I know for a fact their boat sails 20% faster when he wears that shirt”

“What the hell is Sailing Anarchy, I didn’t vote for it?”

Well anyway, I just wanted to thank you again for a wonderful product that previously was unproven at winning regattas. I’m a true believer now and really enjoy your SA web site.

Kindest regards,

Scott Kennedy

4/6/05