Approximately 20 years ago (+/- a few), my dad was in the market for a sailboat to race in our small fleet in Ketchikan, Alaska. Through some connections he had made in the Seattle area, he was introduced to a Ross 780 named Blizzard, a small, trailer-sailor built in New Zealand in 1984. Before having the boat delivered to Seattle, Dad, along with his co-owner and a few friends from Seattle, raced the Blakely Rock Race. They somehow managed to survive the heavy air and finish 1st in class and 3rd overall. This lead to an invitation to the Seattle Grand Prix, where they got stuck in the light air and finished dead last (or near enough to count).
The boat then moved to Alaska, where it did quite well in the local fleet including a handful of silver pickle dishes (season trophies) and many a cupboard full of rocks glasses, beer steins, and brandy snifters (3rd, 2nd and 1st place in individual events, respectively). The boat was raced hard and put away wet for years.
As one of only 3 (known?) Ross 780s in the US, ratings were always an issue. In our local fleet we rated PHRF 156, but in Seattle where my dad maintained a PHRF Northwest rating, we rated 188. Our local fleet always cited the lack of other boats to compare us to as a reason for dropping our rating. After continuous frustration over this issue my dad and his co-owner, decided to move to a Santa Cruz 27, as there were already two others in the local fleet. At the time, I was finishing up my last year of school in New Orleans, and my dad asked me if I was interested in buying the boat from him.
Now, here we are, two years later and the boat finally arrived on Tuesday, December 14th. Here she is in all her glory:
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