A J/125, J/105, J/120, J/80, J/24 Enjoy Long Beach (Long Beach, CA)- As the West Coast's largest keelboat regatta, Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week on June 24-26 hosted 148 boats in 15 classes. Two J fleets were resolved on tie-breaker count-backs: Gary Mozer's CURRENT OBSESSION 2 over David Gould's AIR BOSS in J/105s and John Laun's CAPER over Chuck Nichols' CC RIDER in J/120s. And, Jim Madden's J/125 STARK RAVING MAD walked off with their class.
Long Beach has long had the reputation of being the home of the notorious summer sea breeze that roars down the San Pedro Channel like an express train. So what was with the wimpy six to seven knots that greeted 150 boats in 15 classes for the first day of competition in Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week? Michael Johnson towed his J/24 HOT PURSUIT down from Seattle expecting something more than the wimpy six to seven knots he saw Friday. Johnson (1-3), despite sharing the J/24 lead with David Klatt's JADED (2-2) from Ventura, said, 'We were hoping to have more wind---and more sun, too, actually. That's why we came down from Seattle.' After winning the J/24 Western Regionals, he had hoped to use the event to prepare for the class worlds at Buenos Aries in November.
On
Day two it didn't look much different. When Jim Madden and his Newport
Harbor Yacht Club crew on the J/125 STARK RAVING MAD arrived at their
boat Saturday morning for the second day of racing they ditched the
dismal forecast for continuing light wind and proceeded to pack heavier
sails. 'We saw the sun was out,' Madden said, knowing that in Southern
California rising inland desert temperatures tend to suck in offshore
sea breeze for sailing like a vacuum cleaner. True to form, after
fourth and third place finishes Friday, their J/125 sprang to life to
sweep its three races Saturday and jump into a tie for the lead in the
PHRF-2 class. Most impressive was that as the scratch boat in the class,
STARK RAVING MAD, with a plus-3 rating, owes from 12 to 33 seconds per
mile to its six rivals but finished far enough ahead in all three races
to correct out on handicap time. Of the wonderful wind, Madden said,
'We were reading 15 and 16 knots and a couple of puffs to 17' - about
double the forecasts which, incidentally, call for 9 knots from the
west-southwest Sunday after the sun breaks through for the two races
remaining starting at noon.The final days racing saw many scores settled amongst the fleet leaders in all classes. In PHRF 2, Jim's SRM crew on the J/125 simply dominated their class, garnering a 4-3-1-1-1-2-1 for 13 points to win their class with ease.
In the J/120s, it was clear that the top three boats were going to have a closely fought competition for the lead between John Laun's CAPER, Charles Nichols' CC RIDER and John Snook's JIM. After the dust settled on the last day, CAPER's record of 1-5-1-4-1 for 30 pts won the tie-break over CC RIDER's tally of 3-1-2-3-3 for 30 pts. Just 4 pts back was JIM snagging a 4-2-7-1-2 for 34 pts. Fourth was Peter Zarcades on MELTEMI with a 6-4-4-2-5 for 39 pts and fifth was Mike Hatch on J ALMIGHTY with a 2-8-3-5-4 for 40 pts.
Like
the 120s, the highly competitive J/105 class also needed a tie-breaker
to determine the ultimate winner. Sailing a strong last day was the
eventual winner, Gary Mozer on CURRENT OBSESSION 2 counting a
4-2-10-2-4-1-2 for 25 points. Second was David Gould on AIR BOSS with a
3-6-3-4-3-5-1 for 25 points. Third only one point back was Ed Sanford
on CREATIVE with a 5-3-4-5-2-2-5 for 26 points. And just 2 points back
from them in 5th were past LBRW winners Steve and Lucy Howell on BLINK!
with a strong start, but slow finish, collecting a 1-4-5-3-7-8-7 for 35
points.PHRF 4 Division was dominated by a "classic" J, Dick Velthoen's J/35 RIVAL. Their 3-1-2.5-5-1-1-2 for 15.5 points simply smoked their class, winning by 7.5 points. Second was a J/33, John Messenger's NITRO getting a 1-3-5-2-3-6-3 for 23 points. Just behind in 4th and 5th place, respectively, were two well-sailed J/109s, Alice Leahy's GRACE O'MALLEY and Tom Brott's ELECTRA.
For the J/80s, it was Curt Johnson yet again taking their class with all firsts and seconds on board his well-sailed machine AVET. 8 points back was Steve Wyman sailing NUHUNU to get second and in third was Dan Gribble skippering MONKEY SHOULDER.
The J/24s had a strong showing with a dozen entries for this year's LBRW. Leading the pack home over some big dogs was Mike Johnson's HOT PURSUIT from Seattle with a 1-3-1-3-1-1-3 for 13 points. Second was Pat Toole's team from Santa Barbara, past J/24 North American Champion, sailing their renowned 3 BIG DOGS to a 8-1-2-1-2-3-1 finishes for 18 pts. Dave Klatt's team on JADED finished third with a scoreline of 2-2-3-2-4-4-2 for 19 points, losing his second place position on the last day of the regatta. For more Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week sailing information.
