(Santa Barbara, CA)- The end of the Santa Barbara YC Summer Series is
the Holiday Regatta held on the first weekend of December. Sailed over
two days, five races are generally planned and there was no question
that fresh on everyone's mind was whether or not the hurricane-force
Santa Ana winds that had been blowing mid-week would prevail. For days,
Santa Barbara (as well as others in the general Los Angeles region)
were fighting to keep electrical power flowing to their cities as all
kinds of debris, including entire trees, were getting ripped out by
their roots and flung hundreds of yards. The forecast for the weekend kept changing rapidly over the last few days of the week. In the end, the weekend's sailing was a bit anti-climactic. In fact, there was so little wind the chastened Santa Barbara YC PRO and RC were fighting tooth and nail to just get enough races off for a series. A series of mistakes (like marks losing anchors and chain) led to having most all racing Saturday called off for most fleets, leaving Sunday to run as many races as possible in the light-medium flukey conditions. Sunday's sailing saw a 7 knot southerly blow in that backed left into an Easterly for some decent racing. Apparently, it was a bit tough sailing downwind in the short, steep westerly chop, but upwind the following seas made it interesting to see what crews/ skippers could dial themselves in to nearly surf upwind.
The J/105 fleet made the most of the difficult conditions and had some good racing against one another. In the end, "Johnny D" appears to be on a roll. First was John Demourkas on ROCKIN & GROOVIN with a 2-1 for 3 pts. Second was Ken Kieding sailing his "new" ADVANCE" to a 1-3 for 4 pts-- Ken is sailing Bernie Girod's old ROCK & ROLL with a new paint job and graphics. Third was ESCAPADE with a 3-2 for 5 pts.
In PHRF B, past J/24 North American Champion Pat Toole and team on their J/24 THREE BIG DOGS took third with a 3-3-5-3.7 for 14.7 pts. Just behind was one of SBYC's champion offshore sailors, Larry Leveille racing his J/29 RUSH STREET to fourth in class with a 5-4-3-4 for 16 pts. The Tunberg's J/24 BULLET rounded out the top five sailing to a 4-5-7-5.3 for 21.3 pts. For more Santa Barbara YC Holiday Regatta sailing information
