2000 – 2001
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Rage” Background
San Francisco
June 28, 2000
The concept for Rage began in 1984 when builder Steve Rander of Schooner Creek Boatworks in Portland, raced his 42′ sloop Magic Carpet in the 1984 Pacific Cup. As 1984 was his first Pacific Cup, Steve carefully followed the progress of the fleet, and noticed that for some reason the 66′ Merlin, 42′ Magic Carpet, and 27′ Lighten Up produced similar day runs in surfing conditions. Turns out, all three boats had similar displacement length and sail area displacement ratios.
Surmising that altering the displacement length and sail area displacement ratios would result in a winning boat, Steve teamed up with designer Tom Wylie in 1992 to create Rage, a 70′ ultralight that indeed became all the rage in the world of 70ft boat design. Weighing in at 21,000 lbs, Rage was made from a wood veneer Klegecell cored composite and fitted with an 85′ carbon rig designed and built by Ted Van Dusen of Composite Engineering. Unlike other carbon rigs of the time, Rage’s rig was designed to withstand a full mast in the water knock down with no shrouds attached – a forerunner of things to come including the freestanding rigs of the Wylie Cats and the Wylie Wocket Open 60 currently being built for Bruce Schwab’s “Made in America” challenge.
The plans for Rage arrived in Portland in mid-January of 1993, leaving only 10 weeks for production, but on March 13, 1993 Rage was launched – just two days before the in-water cut off date of March 15th. While Rage was completed in time for the 1993 Transpac, ruling changes nearly kept her from racing. It was not until the skippers meeting a few days before the race that she was authorized to compete, but allowed to go with only half her intended sail area so as not to overshadow the other 70 raters. Despite her severe sail plan limitations, Rage was first in her PHRF class in her inaugural run.
Rage competed in the 1994 Pacific Cup with a course record run of 8 days, 7 hrs, and in 1996 she again set the course record at 7 days, 6 hrs. Her record would not fall until 1998 when Roy Disney Jr’s. Pyewacket completed the run in 6 days, 14 hrs., 23 min’s. In 1998, Rage had changed her keel – deepening her draft from 10′ to 13′. As a result of the keel change, her righting moment was increased significantly, but her sail inventory was no longer well matched to the new configuration and she was lead into the finish by Pyewacket, Merlin and Magnitude in 1998.
Rage will compete again in the 2000 Pacific Cup, and will be out to regain her record. Her sail inventory has been updated, and for the first time, she will be using a spinnaker pole. The 32′ carbon pole will allow the tack of the asymmetrical spinnakers to be brought to weather and thus support much deeper sailing angles. If recent performances are any indication she should do well, having recently broken the Oregon offshore record of 30 hours with a stunning 19 hour course time.
For further information, contact: Joan Garrett/V.B.S.I. – media liaison for The Made In America Global Challenge