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It's the biggest baddest boat on the Bay. 24 feet of fun with tons of them on every start line. The Moore 24. Only 156 of them were built in a long run from 1976 to 1988 but you can still find almost 40 of them racing at any given time.
The Moore 24 is legendary in the Three Bridge Fiasco with the boats that start near them just hoping to not get caught in the chaos. But that's from the other boats' perspectives, Ben Braden (owner of Uff Da) "rather enjoys its simplicity....most of the boats will try and start near the boat end...then the rest of us spread out across the line looking for clear lanes." One anonymous Moore 24 sailor states that "every now and then we pull off a sweet port start and clear the fleet becuase the pack mindset creeps in but it's rare we'll try that more than once in a given regatta." My own boat starts about 5 minutes before them in the Three Bridge Fiasco and I am amazed at the skill it takes to get a boat that accelerates like that through a line that crowded.
And that's actually the key for why so many of these boats are still being raced. The boat's handling is almost indescribable. As the anonymous Moore-er states, "the boat just keeps on coming alive the bigger the breeze and swell." Ben Braden concurs, "the boat itself never leaves you wanting more, never seems to let you down, and always returns you to the marina with a big smile on your face. With space and swell, the boat really shines, taking off effortlessly.
This brings us to the amazing part about the Moore 24 -- it's an ocean going boat. Rowan Fennell sailed Moore Havoc doublehanded with Mark Moore from San Francisco to Hawaii in the 2008 Pacific Cup, one of three Moores to do the race. As he describes it, "the boat performed as beautifully as expected ... blasting at very high speeds through the black night ... planing and surfing for hours on end." Our anonymous Moore 24er talks about the Coastal Cup in '07, "we maintained 12 knots with bursts to 18, straight down 12-15' swell faces, it became a game how hard you would try to stick in ito the trough. I really can't say enough about the boats in the ocean."
A 24 foot long boat, taking on 2 week passages and 15' swells. The boat can obviously do it but who are these people? Everybody I talked to kept coming back to the people. Sure, the fleet is big because the boat is fun and inexpensive to campaign but "the members enjoy hanging out together" and they travel so there is plenty of time to meet each other at the monthly Roadmaster races. Ben Braden even calls them "MooreOns" with more than a touch of pride.
So you have a fun, fast boat capable of handling any conditions. You have large talented fleets that travel all over the West Coast to sail together. You have people who get to know each other more each season. That's the recipe for the biggest baddest fleet on the San Francisco Bay.
Their next race is March 7 and 8th at the Spring Keel Regatta on the City Front. Take a look and see if you might want to become a MooreOn too.
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