(Santa Barbara, CA)- The Santa Barbara Sailing Club Goblin Regatta
hosted 55 boats over the Halloween weekend for their annual fun race for
family and friends in the region. The weather was unbelievable-
"shorts and shades" all weekend with classic Santa Barbara weather on
stage- 70s daytime and sunny. On Saturday the wind started light and
built nicely towards the end of the day, Sunday started with a nice
breeze and built into the teens by the last race. Both PHRF and the
J/24 fleets sailed seven good races. Generally, the fleet starts off the harbor and heads west to a mark more or less off the point and outside of the monster kelp beds. Meanwhile, the temptation to play the lifting shifts on starboard tack that are coming off the shore is often risky business, while offering tactical advantage it also takes you into monster kelp beds. Kelp sticks and kelp cutters are necessary equipment sailing in this part of the world-- ever catch a 30 foot piece of kelp that weights a good 100 lbs or more? You start sailing sideways faster than you can go forward!
Amongst the Halloween revelers this years was the famous "psych" talk-show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger, sailing her J/100 called PERFECT. She named her boat that for a reason, she loves it and of all the sailboats she's ever owned, she considers it "the PERFECT boat"! Imagine that. Plus, she likes having a good time with it. In this year's event, Dr Laura and her fully costumed J/100 crew (putting new meaning to the term "deck ape"- see photo above) ran away with the premiere class in the regatta, winning PHRF with five 1sts a 2nd and 3rd. Just behind them finishing 2nd was another local champion sailor, Larry Leveille racing his J/29 RUSH STREET (blue-striped boat seen just above). Lying third was the J/22 MISS BEHAVIN.
In
the J/24 class, Thomas Tunberg sailing BULLET from Santa Barbara
Sailing Club won by winning the last race over Grant's ELECTRIC PUMPKIN
from Santa Barbara YC. It was a cliff-hanger of a race for the top three
in the last race, whomever beat who would determine the final placings
on the podium. In the end, BULLET's record of 1-1-2-3-1-4-1 for 13 pts
triumphed over ELECTRIC PUMPKIN's 2-2-3-1-2-2-2 for 14 pts. Finishing
third was Susan Taylor from California YC sailing TAKE FIVE, taking in
some bullets for herself, scoring 4-3-1-2-3-1-3 for a total of 17 pts.
For more Santa Barbara Sailing Club sailing photos and Goblin Regatta sailing results.
