(King Harbor, CA)- In the 81-mile Santa Barbara to King Harbor (Redondo Beach) Race raced last weekend the J/29 RUSH STREET not only won the biggest class in the race- PHRF C, for the fourth straight time, but they finished before a whole bunch of bigger boats that started up to half an hour earlier; this included a Farr 40, a Farr 49, a Santa Cruz 52 and a ULDB 60! Yet another incredible performance by the extraordinary Larry Leveille from Santa Barbara YC.
Only forty-six boats sailed this year's race...it was forecast for light and variable. And, sailing around the first "mark", the chain of Channel Islands 25 miles offshore, it was sure to be light and shifty with huge streaks along the backside. However, the fleet experienced intermittent but reasonably good breeze for most of the race, playing gybing angles all the way southeast to Redondo Beach. A large, competitive fleet of thirteen J's participated (27% of the total sailing!) in this summer offshore classic race off the California coast, including Larry's J/29, Dr. Laura Schlessinger's J/100 PERFECT, two J/33s (Fred Kottrell's TIGGER and Messenger/Colgan's NITRO), Charlie Underwood's J/92s STING, two J/109s (Tom Brott's ELECTRA and Bryce Benjamin's PERSISTENCE, Eric McClure's J/35 MACS, Bill Webster's J/37 SIDEKICK, two J/120s (Gary Winton's SHENANIGANS and Tom Cullen's BLUEBIRD, Charlie Browning's J/130 BEBE and Gil Maguire's J/133 TENACITY.
In PHRF B, Bill Webster's J/37 SIDEKICK sailed a terrific race to beat some other very-well sailed so-called "racing boats", getting second in class and beating Dr. Laura Schlessinger's J/100 PERFECT by just nine minutes. Sixth in class was Fred Cottrell's J/33 TIGGER.
Most of the J's were sailing in the PHRF Sprit Division. The two J/109s out-sailed their sprit stablemates with Brott's ELECTRA winning by 25 minutes over Benjamin's PERSISTENCE in second. Third was Winton's J/120 SHENANIGANS, just eight minutes behind PERSISTENCE on corrected time. For more Santa Barbara- King Harbor Race sailing information.
