Bud Siudara�s Frers 50 CRAZY HORSE scored two huge victories this year, and in the process kept the Santa Cruz 70 COLT 45 from winning the third jewel in the Great Lakes� triple crown of yacht racing.
Siudara and his son Andy are the fourth owners of the Frers-designed 50-footer CRAZY HORSE
For the last 10 years, the 390-mile Trans Superior Race has been won by two Santa Cruz 70s � STRIPES and COLT 45. This year they were both in the race, and Siudara had no intention of beating the two sleds with his much heavier and smaller 1981 IOR 50-footer. He was concentrating beating the other masthead rigged 50-footer in the race named CHEWBACCA.
The race went the length of Lake Superior, from Sault Saint Marie to Duluth, Minnesota in the southwest corner of the lake. For most of the race the old 50-footers were close together trading the lead in the shifting and variable winds. Once the wind freed up enough for CRAZY HORSE to fly her double-head rig consisting of an 1.5 oz asymmetric and genoa stay sail, she was able to go from just behind CHEWBACCA to six miles in front. "We had the right weapons," said Siudara. "Without an asymmetrical spinnaker, they fell off to leeward of the rhumbline while we went several tenths faster toward the finish. We also had a .6 oz. asymmetric which is really fast in light air.
�The boat has a complete inventory of UK-Halsey sails and they all look great.
"While sailing with the double-head rig we sailed right past STRIPES that was in a hole one half mile to leeward. We were the third boat to finish and corrected over Stripes by three-and-a-half hours and over COLT 45 by 37 minutes. What a victory! We had not expectations of pulling something like this off."
Earlier in the summer, CRAZY HORSE won Lake Erie's most prestigious big boat event, the Mills Trophy. Siudara's boat was first to finish and first overall. The boat also was awarded the Budweiser Eagle trophy for the best margin of victory. After sailing the 75-mile course, CRAZY HORSE bested the second place boat by 22 minutes on corrected time.
�The conditions were exactly right for us. We had heavy air and flat water for the first 4-5 hours going upwind and then breezes settled in at 7 to 9 knots for the rest of the race. That's just what we liked. We were either beating or close reaching, so we could take advantage of our long waterline.
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