Despite “light to nothing” breezes all weekend, and a mid-afternoon Super Bowl game on Sunday, local sailors turned-out in big numbers to compete in local winter racing series at local clubs. Balboa YC hosted the last races in its annual Sunkist Series, while a little further up the bay Newport Harbor YC hosted the final event in their own Winter Series.
In addition to these two local series, a large contingent of local high school sailors travelled north to Long Beach/Alamitos Bay for a high school invitational event and a one design race in 420-class dinghies.
Sunkist Series #4 –Feb. 4-5, BYC – (Final Overall Series Results)
Sunkist Inside Class Winners: Thistle, Bob Larzelere (BYC); Harbor 20A, Gary and Karen Thorne (BYC); Harbor 20B, Rolly Pullaski (NHYC); Harbor 20C, Jonathan Cheadle (UCISA); Lido 14A, Kelly Cantley (SCCYC); Lido 14B, Porter Killian (BYC); Sabot A, Molly Lynch (BYC).
Sunkist Outside Class Winners: PHRF A, “It’s OK,” Andrews 49, Tres Gordo Racing (BYC); PHRF B, “Doubletime,” Andrews 38, Alan Andrews (BYC); PHRF C, “Legacy,” J105, Brian Doherty (LIYC/NHYC).
NHYC Winter Series #4 February 5 (Final Overall Results)
Harbor 20 A, Gale and Jon Pinckney (NHYC); Harbor 20 B, Rolly Pullaski (NHYC); Harbor 20 C, Michael Volk (ALYC); Finn, Bill Bissell (NHYC); Lehman 12, Dwight Belden (NHYC).
Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Association (PCISA) – “SoCal #4” – Feb. 4, Alamitos Bay YC (High School Invitational, CFJ’s).
All the top local high school sailing programs sent teams to the fourth weekend event in this five regatta series. The final race in this series will be the “Gaucho Regatta” PCISA – SoCal #5 in Santa Barbara March 17-18.
Top local finishers this weekend included Campbell D’eliscu and Kappy Fuller in 2nd overall; and Wills Johnson and Finn Dobkin in 3rd overall (both NHHS).
Perry Series, Feb. 4-5, US Sailing Center, Long Beach (C420, juniors)
Despite light conditions all weekend, thirty 420 racers got in a total of nine races over the weekend in this open junior 420 event. Long Beach sailors Jack Jorgenson/Savannah Brown took top honors with just 16 points, 24 points ahead of second place. Top local finishers included Clare Dahl tied for 15th place, and Keenan Chung in 20th place.
2012 SCYA Calendar is now available!
OK, I know that you’re probably thinking: “Yippee! A new sailing calendar…” (Really?!)”
Over the last couple weeks you may have seen stacks of the 2012 Southern California Yachting Association’s “Race Calendar and Yacht Club Directory 2012.” This free publication is now available at many local sailing centers, yacht clubs and marine hardware stores.
On a good day, our beloved sport of “So Cal Sailing” remains a mish-mash of largely independent events and organizations. The many, many sailing regattas and events that are held every week are (at best) loosely organized and coordinated by a battalion of unpaid/unsung volunteers (and by the way, thank all of you to those who help in this regard!).
For every event that is accessible and has information posted on-line, there is another event that may only be locally publicized. Neverheless, even many of the most obscure regional events manage to get posted in the annual SCYA Calendar.
It is actually relatively challenging to get a broad understanding of the many sailing events that go on throughout our region. The printed SCYA Calendar is the only published source I’ve found that attempts to comprehensively cover every sailing event between San Diego to Santa Barbara. Unfortunately, the SCYA Calendar information is not currently published on-line (there is currently a PDF copy of the 2011 calendar posted at www.SCYA.org ).
In addition to sailing events, the SCYA Calendar also includes a ton of important contact information for the 85 yacht clubs and boating organizations that dot the Southern California Coast. Even cruising sailors will benefit by having a copy of the SCYA calendar available when they visit other harbors and yacht clubs in our region.
So next time you walk by that stack of 2012 SCYA Calendars sitting around the local sailing club, grab yourself a copy to tuck in you briefcase/purse to help keep track of the hundreds of sailing events that go one every month in Southern California. And if you can spend even a few minutes scanning through SCYA’s 2012 calendar, I’ll bet you can identify your own special “Stretch” event that you can make a goal to attend in 2012.
Upcoming Events
Feb. 11-12, BCYC Bogart Series #2 – Avalon and Return (PHRF)
Feb. 11-12, BYC SODA Youth Match Racing Series (Gov Cup 21, invitational)
Feb. 17-18, NHYC/SDYC – Islands Race (125 mile offshore Race around Catalina, San Clemente Islands)
Feb. 18-19, 83rd Annual SCYRA Midwinter Championships (Various classes, locations; for more information go to www.scya.org ).
Feb. 25-26, Golden Bear Regatta, UC Berkley (High School Invitational)
March 3-4 – W.D. Schock Memorial Regatta (one-design “Schock” classes; Harbor 20, Lido 14, Santana 20)
