(Newport Beach, CA)- Coming up this weekend will be the second major
offshore event in the Southern California racing calendar, the 5th
Annual Islands Race. The race is co-hosted between Newport Harbor YC
(the start) and the San Diego YC (the finish).The participating teams start at 1100 hrs on Friday, March 7th and hope to sprint the 139nm course as fast as possible. The race is an overnight that goes around the beautiful Channel Islands (including Catalina and San Clemente) and it can be deceptively challenging for many boats. The sailing can have spectacular, epic conditions; be capricious with massive breaking Pacific swell hitting the windward side of the islands; or downright mind-numbing with slatting sails, dashing from zephyr to zephyr in the hopes of finishing in time for the party on Saturday night (a party not to be missed!).
Over
the past few years, many J/Teams have taken up the challenge of this
new offshore event in the SoCAL big boat circuit. In fact, many have
won class and do well overall. In the thirteen boat PHRF 1 division are
a host of TP 52s, SC 52s and various custom racers. John & Myron
Lyon’s J/160 INNOCENT MERRIMENT from San Diego YC will be the top J and
Viggo Torbenson’s J/125 TIMESHAVER from Dana Point YC will be the
smallest boat in class. PHRF 2 division has four J’s amongst the fleet of nine boats, including two J/120’s- Peter Bretschger’s ADIOS and Gary Winton’s SHENANIGANS. Joining them will be Tom Barker’s J/124 GOOD CALL and also Paul Stemler’s J/44 PATRIOT.
The other J/124, Seth Hall’s MARISOL, will be sailing in PHRF 3. You can “watch” the fleet’s progress starting around 1500 hrs New York time with Yellowbrick’s live race tracking app on the event website!
For more Islands Race sailing information
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