Featured Photos - 1984 SORC

These photographs feature some US and European yachts competing in the St Petersburg to Ft Lauderdale race during the Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) in 1984. At this time most of the yachts had been developed to the limits of the IOR rule with increased displacement and relatively fine ends. Because masthead rigs were still popular they often used shooters (or bloopers in US parlance)  to provide stability when running dead downwind, especially in a breeze as during this race.

The photos have featured in a number of threads by Larry Moran (Chicago) on the Sailing Anarchy forums. Larry was an active semi-professional yachting photographer at the time, and has kindly granted permission to post some of my favourite images from his collection.


Bravura - Frers 46 (Irving Loube), 35.4ft IOR, 8th in Class C, 34th overall (photo Larry Moran, Chicago)

Morningstar, Frers 50 (John Ambrose Jr), 40.0ft IOR, 1st Class B, 4th overall (photo Larry Moran, Chicago)

Dawn Patrol, Soverel 43 (George de Guardiola), 33.7ft IOR, 6th Class C, 33rd overall (photo Larry Moran, Chicago)

Lady Be, Frers 46 (F Chalain), 35.3ft IOR, 3rd Class C, 14th overall (photo Larry Moran, Chicago)

Intuition, Peterson 42 (Patrick Malloy), 32.7ft IOR, 13th in Class D, 68th overall (photo Larry Moran, Chicago)

Pinta, Judel/Vrolijk 42 (W Illbruck), 32.6ft IOR, 8th in Class D, 24th overall (photo Larry Moran, Chicago)

Gauntlet, Kaufman 45 (G Freidrichs), 34.3ft IOR, 9th in Class C, 31st overall (photo Larry Moran, Chicago)

Quest, Rodgers 43 (R Lynds), 31.9ft IOR, 3rd in Class D, 9th overall (photo Larry Moran, Chicago)

Thunderbolt, Nelson-Marek 41 (Rodney Wallace), 32.1ft IOR, 5th in Class D, 22nd overall (photo Larry Moran, Chicago)