J/24 BULLET Wins Class C(Santa Barbara, CA)- Every year, the Santa Barbara YC hosts the first of their two really fun regattas of the year, first the Hot Rum Series (the latter being the Fiesta Cup Regatta that serves as the pre-feeder event for the Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race). Taking after their friends down in San Diego that may have pioneered the "hot rum" pursuit series concept, the event is composed of three individual pursuit-styled races scheduled to be held one each on January 12th, January 26th, and February 9th. Pursuit-style races can be a lot of fun as the slowest boats start first and the fastest last, making for quite a spectacle as all the faster boats give chase and often past the slower boats in front (thought not always!).
This year's Hot Rum Series saw lots of action with a steady 20+ knots in the final race on what many saw as a "classic Santa Barbara" day. Starting off with a light fog that burns off by noon and with a rapidly building offshore breeze howling out of the NNW creating 20-30 kts at the offshore Santa Barbara sea-buoy in the western parts of the Channel.
On the last day, Larry Harteck's J/105 REPEAT OFFENDER literally won the race by a nose over the J/24 Bullet (seen here in the photo), but it was not enough for the J/105 to take over the J/24 in the overall standings. So, BULLET takes the "Top Dog" award for the J/Teams! Overall, in fact, the J/Teams did well with the J/24 BULLET taking 5th overall and 1st in Class C, the J/105 REPEAT OFFENDER taking 6th overall and 1st in Class B, the J/145 RADIO FLYER taking 7th overall and 4th in class A, the J/105 ESCAPADE taking 8th overall and 2nd in class B and, finally, the J/22 BLUES CREWS taking 10th overall and plummeting to 9th in Class B (due to their disasters 18th in the last race). For more Santa Barbara YC Hot Rum Series sailing information
