Massive Fun @ SCYA Midwinters

(Marina del Rey, CA)- As one of the world’s more unusually large regattas, the Southern California Yacht Racing Association (SCYA) has their annual SCYA Midwinters hosted at multiple sites across the greater SoCal region that spans from the LA Basin to southwest Arizona!  To say the least, that effort encompasses thousands of sailors, hundreds of boats and, certainly, hundreds of volunteers at those sailing clubs that put on this enormously geographical PT Barnum & Bailey’s sailing circus.  It’s an enormous undertaking and the range of SCYA clubs have a lot of fun rolling out the proverbial red carpet at each venue, running some fun races, and throwing on their dancing shoes to twirl-away the evening until the wee-hours.  No one said that SoCal sailors don’t know how to have fun, after all it’s home to the “surfer culture” that generated such iconic brands as the “Beach Boys”, “Hobie Cats” and the “Windsurfer”- world-changing ideas that changed the sailing world, forever.

From one of the venues, Emily Wilthoff at San Diego YC, provided the following report: “SDYC hosted our portion of the SCYA Midwinters in the Coronado Roads off Point Loma. Over the two days, J/70s, J/80s, and J/120s  participated in five races.

The weather was ideal- sunny and mid-70s with above average speeds of 14-15 kts at the start of the first race on Saturday. After that, the winds remained steady at around 8-10 kts on Saturday late afternoon and early Sunday afternoon. On Sunday late afternoon, the winds died down tremendously at the end of the second race causing the race committee to shorten the course.

There were 24 boats in total from 11 different yacht clubs competing throughout the weekend. J/ALMIGHTY, skippered by Mike Hatch from San Diego Yacht Club, won the J/120 class. Skipper Curt Johnson from California Yacht Club led AVET to a first place finish in the J/80 division. Finally, MINOR THREAT won the J/70 division skippered by Jeff Janov from California Yacht Club.

Many people worked hard to make this another unforgettable Midwinters regatta at SDYC. A big thank you goes out to Jeff Johnson, Susie Graff and the rest of the race committee volunteers, along with SCYA’s Cleve Hardaker, Jo Ann Sedgwick, SDYC Commodore Doug Werner and the SDYC Board for your help!”

Other than Hatch’s J-ALMIGHTY winning the J/120s, Peter Zarcades’ MELTEMI took second and “the Commodore’s” on Chuck Nichols’ CC RIDER were third.

In the J/70s, it was an interesting scenario since it involved several top J/24 sailors from the West Coast that are clearly gunning and practicing for the J/70 World Championship in September in San Francisco.  The top players included a number of West Coast Champions as well as USA National Champions and J/24 North American Champions!  John Fuller and Brad Rodi on BL!SS took second just three points back.  Taking third in the ten boat class was Chris Snow on COOL STORY BRO with 19 pts.  Fourth was Pat Toole from Santa Barbara YC on the familiar TRES PERROS GRANDES (e.g “3 Big Dogs”).  Fifth place was Craig Tallman’s JAYA.

Over at California YC in Marina del Rey, they were hosting the J/109s in the 75 Rater class and the J/24s one-design. Top J/109 was Jack Mayer’s ZEPHYR in 3rd place, followed by Peter Nelson’s SPRAY in 4th and Alice Leahey’s GRACE O’MALLEY in 5th position.

Amongst the J/24s at CYC, it was Team TAKE FIVE that won with 10 pts, followed by Tom Tunberg’s BULLET with three bullets but an OCS to drop them into second place.  Third was Jim Bauerley’s CRITTER.

In the PHRF SoCal championships, Southwestern YC in San Diego hosted this eclectic group of boats.  In PHRF 2, it was Mark Surber’s J/125 DERIVATIVE that took second place.  In PHRF 4, David Cattle’s J/27 BLACKADDER took fourth.   For more SCYA Midwinters sailing information


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