(Santa Barbara, CA)- This distance race spanning 81 nautical miles has
been a tradition for Santa Barbara and King Harbor for nearly 40 years.
A fixture of SoCal racing that continues to enjoy increasing popularity
in the July SoCal sailing schedule is the combination of sailing in
Santa Barbara YC's Fiesta Cup (coinciding with some great Cal/Mex yummy
food and drinks and Spanish heritage in the region) and the blast around
the islands offshore down to King Harbor. Never an easy race, could be
fast, could be slow. This year 86 boats are sailing, of which they're
20 J's sailing, nearly 25% of the entire fleet!This year, there's a bevy of J's sailing that include a fleet of one-design J/105s looking forward to take a fast slide (hopefully) south including Santa Barbara YC's Mark Noble sailing ESCAPADE, Dan McGanty's AQUABELLA from Cal YC, Tom Bollay's ARMIDA from Santa Barbara YC, Chuck Spear's TWELVE BAR BLUES and Juan Lois's ROCINANTE.
In
the PHRF B Class will be Dr. Laura Schlessinger's beautiful J/100
PERFECT (Transpac wasn't enough for this girl, time for some local buoys
wind-sprint stuff!), Eric McClure on the J/35 MACS from Alamitos Bay
YC, Bill Webster on the J/37 SIDEKICK from Kings Harbor YC and Fred and
Ann Cottrell on the J/33 TIGGER from Kings Harbor YC.In PHRF C Class will be the champion J/29 RUSH STREET sailed by Larry Leveille from Santa Barbara YC. Come hell or high water, it's hard to imagine how Larry and crew will simply "punt" and throw away this pickle dish for their living room shelves!
Sailing the Sprit PHRF Class is the J/122 SUNDAY TICKET sailed by Dan Scouler from Cal YC plus two fast J/124s, Seth Hall's MARISOL and Joe Simpkin's FORGIVENESS from Cal YC. Also sailing are three J/120s, Gary Winton's SHENANIGANS from Coronado Bay YC, Tom Cullen's BLUEBIRD from Santa Barbara YC and Peter Bretschger's ADIOS from Balboa YC. Included in the mix are a tough trio of J/109s that include Tom Brott's ELECTRA from Seal Beach YC, Bryce Benjamin's PERSISTENCE from Cal YC and John Shulze's LINSTAR from Balboa YC. Finally, the J/125 TIMESHAVER sailed by Viggo Torbenson from Dana Point YC will be pushing line honors and overall handicap in Sprit ULDB Class. For more Santa Barbara-King Harbor Race sailing information
