Seahorse Magazine cover May/June 1975

By WILLIAM N. WALLACE
February 23, 1975
The New York Times Archives

MIAMI, Feb. 22 — The trouble with Stinger, the yellow‐sided little ocean racing yacht, is that she sails too fast. That goes for others of her ilk, the 36‐foot sloops that fall into the bottom or near bottom of the handicap ratings, which are the heart of the ocean racing sport.

It's like a Vega or a Pinto or a Duster racing cheek by jowl at Daytona or Indianapolis with the big cars. Sheer size, as measured in yacht ing's equivalent of horsepower (meaning sail area and length) no longer seems to be a criterion of speed.

Stinger, owned and sailed by Dennis Conner, a 32‐year‐old yachtsman from San Diego, is the talk—not all of it complimentary — of the Southern Ocean Racing Conference this season.

With the 176‐mile MiamiNassau race beginning on Monday, Stinger leads the point standing for the 83 yachts campaigning on the southern circuit. If she does well, as expected, in the overnight race to the capital of the Bahamas, she will win the S.O.R.C. championship. It is as significant and coveted as any title in ocean racing.

There are six classes in S.O.R.C. competition, divided by size as to the over‐all length and handicap rating. Stinger is in the next to smallest, the One Ton class, racing even with the dozen others in that group, all of which have International Ocean Racing rule ratings of 27.5.

Ted Hood won the S.O.R.C. last year with Robin and the year before with Munequita. Both were One Tonners. Naval architects like 29‐year‐old Doug Peterson, Stinger's designer, have adopted modern yachting technology so successfully to the little One Ton sloops that the common complaint has become strident. "Big boats don't stand a chance any more."

Peterson is unsympathetic. "Designers," he says, "are now turning to larger boats like. the Two Tons. They'll make them go faster, too." Peterson believes the reason is the competition among a new breed of intense young designers to whom speed is primary, ahead of estheticism or luxury.

In the 403‐mile race from St. Petersburg to Fort Lauderdale two weeks ago, the first nine boats in the overall fleet standing, once handicaps had been figured, were 36‐foot One Ton sloops with Stinger in first place.

Stinger, which Conner hopes to sell when the S.O.R.C. series ends with the Nassau Cup race next Friday, was designed and built last fall specifically to do well on the southern circuit. She is of moderate displacement, 14,000 pounds, with plenty of sail area, 627 square feet, and Conner and his crew of six push her hard.

They sail her like a dinghy, or a small one‐design, making constant changes of the 13 sails to try to keep the boat moving at seven knots or better over the body of the race.

Kialoa II, a 79‐foot ketch and the largest in the S.O.R.C. fleet, cannot sail much faster. When the 1.0.R.C. handicaps are figured the little boats are right up there and Kialoa II goes down, down, down. Although first to finish on elapsed time in the St. Pete‐Lauderdale race, Kialoa wound up 73d in fleet on corrected time or near the bottom. Only rough sea conditions in headwinds seem to slow the small boats. Kialoa II, also new, represents a cost of about $600,000 and Stinger about $90,000. As ever, money does not buy yachting trophies.

Stinger is a stripped racing boat and one would hardly charter her for a family cruise to Maine. Yet she is not as Spartan as others. "She is really quite comfortable," said Dave Miller, one of the crew.

There are four bunks below where the off watch sleeps. "You get in the bunk with a couple of Sail bags," said Miller. "It's all right."

With regard to the dominance of ocean racing by the little boats, Hood said recently, "They're going to pull the curtain." It was a cryptic comment suggesting some future penalizing action by makers of yachting's rules.

For generations those in charge of the tables of time allowances have fiddled with handicapping rules in an attempt to achieve the impossible, meaning equitable allowances for different sizes and kinds of yachts racing together for a common prize. This is what a modern small racing yacht looks like. Yacht is Stinger, 36‐foot sloop owned and sailed by Dennis Conner. She leads in S.O.R.C. series.

A version of this archives appears in print on February 23, 1975, on Page S10 of the New York edition with the headline: S.O.R.C. Is Feeling The Little Stinger.