Code Blue wins Schock 35 Nationals

by Rick Roberts on 11 Aug 2008 Bob Marcus and Bruce Bennett's, Code Blue held on to win top honors in the Schock 35 National Championship presented by the Schock 35 Class Association and hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

A fleet of eight boats from Southern California yacht clubs dueled in the waters off Long Beach in winds that started around 15 knots Friday, up to 18-20 on Saturday and back down to 8-10 Sunday.

Marcus gives credit for the win to his crew. 'I'm really pleased and satisfied with the crew,' Marcus said. 'They've matured over the year and came through when they had to with clever stuff and great tactics.'

Having a successful year Marcus and Code Blue recently won their class association 'High Point' series which is awarded to the boat that has the best combined finishes of six races in 2008, including events such as Long Beach Race Week, Yachting Cup and Cal Race Week.

'Yeah, we're really on a high right now,' Marcus said, 'which is in good part due to my partner's [Bennett] training program. We had quite a number of practices and attended North Sails trim, tactics and rules seminars which helped a lot.'

Going into Sunday, the last of the three-day event, first through fifth place was up for grabs in the very competitive fleet with Code Blue having only a two-point lead over Steve Murphy's, JoAnn and five points on Don and David Michaelis's, MAKO.

'It's was really spectacularly close between us and JoAnn,' Marcus said. 'But in the last race we got a couple of breaks… and that sewed it up for us.'

Top Finishers
1. Code Blue, Bob Marcus/Bruce Bennett, ABYC, 4-2-1-1-2-3-5-2, 20 points
2. MAKO, Don & David Michaelis, SlBYC, 2-1-3-2-8-5-3-1, 25
3. JoAnn, Steve Murphy, SlBYC, 1-5-2-3-3-1-4-6, 25
4. Perfect Circle, Fred Young, SMWYC, 5-6-7-6-1-2-1-4, 32
5. Power Play, Stephen Arkle, SCCYC, 3-4-5-5-6-4-2-3, 32

Complete Results available at: www.lbyc.org