J/105 & J/33 Win Epic Santa Barbara-King Harbor Race(Santa Barbara, CA)- The SB-KH distance race that spans 81 nm has been a tradition for Santa Barbara YC and King Harbor YC for nearly 40 years. The blast around the Channel Islands offshore down to King Harbor is never an easy race, but it's clearly the most fun when the fleet starts off on a blast reach, sets the kites at the first turning point off the Channel Islands and head SSE toward Los Angeles under spinnaker, surfing constantly on the ginormous Pacific swell. This year it was nearly a record run, making for epic rides sledding downhill towards the finish with many boats finishing by midnight!
15 J/Teams (17% of the total fleet) headed south out around the famous Channel Islands off the western coast of Los Angeles along with 71 other teams in what turned out to be one of the fastest ever races on record for the 81nm blast out around the islands. The fastest 70 footers covered the race in 6 hrs, 48 min. The fastest J/Team was the J/145 RADIO FLYER, covering the same distance in 8 hrs, 52 min- a 9 kt average over a race course that sees many highs and lows.
Here was the forecast for the race:
FRI
WINDS VARIABLE 10 KT OR LESS...BECOMING W 10 TO 20 KT IN THE AFTERNOON.
WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 2 TO 3 FT AT 8 SECONDS.
PATCHY FOG IN THE MORNING.
FRI NIGHT
W WINDS 10 TO 20 KT WITH LOCAL GUSTS TO 25 KT IN THE EVENING...BECOMING 5 TO 15 KT.
WIND WAVES 2 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 2 TO 3 FT.
PATCHY FOG AFTER MIDNIGHT.
That's from the USA NOAA weather forecast center! Perfect sailing?! Shirts. Shorts. Shades. Lots of sun-screen. Plenty of wind and sunshine. Yup, pretty damn close to perfect.
It
was a glorious morning for the start and the wind picked up about 30
minutes after the start. It was a phenomenal race, the wind held up in
the 20s until well after dark, and even when it lightened it went south
so the angles were hot and the surfs were long and many. On Larry
Leveille's J/29 RUSH STREET, they reported they had only had four guys,
"so gybing and/or peeling in 25 kts after dark was hearts-in-mouth
stuff, but the boat relished it and the boys made it look easy."From a divisional basis, here's how it all shook out amongst the primary players in this classic "SoCal" offshore race.
In PHRF B, the first boat on handicap was the J/33 TIGGER sailed by Fred & Suzanne Cottrell, plus they were 6th in fleet-- repeat offenders!! They won their class last year, too! This time around lying in 5th was the J/124 MARISOL sailed by Islands Race winner Seth Hall.
In PHRF C, there's no question that local Santa Barbarian Larry Levielle and team have this race pretty much "dialed-in", like their TIGGER friends. While 2nd last year, Larry's added yet more silverware to his trophy cabinet now busting with pickle-dishes, artwork and bowls from races past, garnering a well-deserved 3rd in class and 15th in fleet on his J/29 RUSH STREET!
In what may have been a wise move or a "political move", the race managers decided to create a Sprit PHRF fleet and toss all the fast-moving VMC/VMG flyers into the same group-- quite a broad range of PHRF numbers here! J/92s at 90 to J/122s at 18! Nevertheless, as one might expect, the outcome was that 9 of the top 10 were J/Teams. Starting with the Top 8. So, the J/105 ESCAPADE sailed by Mark Noble wins for the second year in a row (only a two-peat) and can lay claim to be "prodder master of western civilization" (or at least in SoCal). 2nd was the J105 OFF THE PORCH (Scott McDaniel), 3rd the J/120 SHENANIGANS (Gary Winton), 4th the J105 ARMIDA (Tom Bollay), 5th the infamous J120 POLE DANCER (Tom & Terri Manok), 6th the J92 DOUBLE DOWN (Brian Kerr), 7th the J109 LINSTAR (John Shulze), 8th the J111 JATO (Webster/Moorhead) and 10th the luxurious cruiser-racer J/122 SUNDAY TICKET (Daniel Scouler).
While the Sprit PHRF Class was dominated by J/Teams, their compatriots in Sprit ULDB B nearly managed to do the same! 2nd was the J125 TIMESHAVER sailed by Viggo Torbensen and 4th was the gorgeous candy-apple-red J145 RADIO FLYER sailed by Carolyn Parks. For more Santa Barbara-King Harbor Race sailing results
