Breezy Yachting Cup Enjoyed By All!

(San Diego, California)- This year was the 43rd running of the Yachting Cup Regatta, SDYC’s signature event that was spearheaded by Regatta Chair Julie Servais. Blessed with amazing sailing conditions all weekend long, the sailors got in more than their fair share of fun, close, competitive sailing on the three race courses spread across the San Diego sailing basin (offshore, near shore and South Bay).  As usual, with the enthusiastic support of the local sailing community, excellent sponsors and a great group of volunteers both onshore and offshore on the race courses, one would be hard-pressed to find fault with the near flawless execution of the event by SDYC members and their friends.

The regatta featured large one-design classes of J/70s, J/80s, J/105s, J/109s, J/120s, and several teams sailing in the offshore PHRF classes (J/125s and J/35).  To say the SDYC Yachting Cup has become a “de facto” J/Fest regatta due to the enthusiastic participation of hundreds of local J sailors would a reasonably accurate assessment.  More on the “how” and “why” that has happened over the course of time in a moment.

For the first day of racing on Friday, winds were strong for the First National Bullion Bay Race, with average speeds of about 12 kts and puffs up to 16kts. For the typically smooth bay water, the chop was significant at about 1 to 1.5 feet. For Friday’s race, the course was set up as a random leg bay race. With only one racing venue, fleets followed various course lengths per the fleet’s assignment. Courses ranged between 7.5 and 9.5 nm.  The big winner in the J/105 class was Rick Goebel’s SANITY.

On Saturday’s racing, the winds lacked the strength of Friday’s first race, but spirits and competition were stronger than ever. More than just one of the largest regattas in Southern California, Yachting Cup is a great place for sailors of all fleets and competition level to get together for the love of sailing and thrill of competition.

For SDYC Commodore John Laun (and long-time J/120 sailor), the Yachting Cup is an event the club always looks forward to hosting. “Yachting Cup is our signature Spring event each year,” said Laun. “It’s always great fun and competition on both ocean and South Bay courses and lots of fun at the parties ashore.”

Although Rick Goebel won the J/105s on Friday, Dennis Case’s WINGS quickly caught up with him on the second day of racing. Case and Goebel were currently tied at 9 points, with the first spot on the scoreboard going to Case, who has an additional bullet over Goebel. The final Near Roads fleet was the J/70s, the largest fleet of the regatta. Tim Fuller and Vince Brun sailed BLISS to first place, with a grand total of five points at the end of five races.  Not far behind was Bruce Golison’s MIDLIFE CRISIS with a 5-4-2 and Jeff Brown’s J70 team sitting on a 7-2-5.

At the Far Roads venue, competitors completed three races for the day. Eric Axford and the CAPER crew just barely made it out in first for the J-120 division, with one point separating them from Rudolph Hasl on HASL FREE.

Division D, Class J-109 and Class J-80 sailed in South Bay, which offers not only the beautiful downtown backdrop, but also lake sailing conditions. The three South Bay fleets completed four races on the second day.

In Class J-109, Thomas Brott also had a dream day, finishing first in all of the day's races. He currently leads the class at 11 points. Skipper Curt Johnson finished first in the J-80 fleet for every race, leaving a ten point trail behind the next skipper, Debby Platt on JWORLD 3.

For Regatta Chair Julie Servais, this event is unique in that it is equal parts competition and camaraderie. “We have competitors come from all the way up the coast of California, so it’s really fun to get everyone out here.”

Servais was also in charge of post-racing activities, which on Friday included a special skipper’s and tactician’s party in SDYC’s famous Frost Room. “It’s a rare thing for the skippers to be in the same room at the same time,” Servais said on the inspiration behind the party. “These guys always see each other’s names on entry lists or see them compete out on the water, but we wanted to create an intimate space for them to actually get to meet and talk to each other.”

Crews celebrated their first day of racing on the SDYC deck, complete with the musical styling of a local fiddler. Then, Yachting Cup participants and guests took over the SDYC deck and restaurant, with a huge Cinco de Mayo themed bash!

The third and final day of sailing was epic, at least for San Diego. Definitely not boring, nor benign. Sunday's racing saw split headsails, shrimped kites, and a sailor in the water all in one race.  With fast sailing, sunny skies and plenty of action, Sunday was truly a testament to how exciting San Diego sailing can be at times.  In some classes, the windy conditions enabled some fleet leaders to maintain their positions while others either gained or fell by the way side.

In the J/70s, the Fuller/Brun team on BLISS wrapped up a strong series to take first with just 12 pts.  Golison’s MIDLIFE CRISIS team certainly were not having one of those episodes, showing the “kids” how the old guys do it better in the breeze, posting double bullets in the last two races to take 2nd overall with 21 pts.  Third was the Eric Kownacki/ Tom Jenkins team on DFZ, also relishing the breeze on the last day to take a 3-4 into the yacht club and collect some pickle dishes for 3rd overall.  Rounding out the top five were Dave Vieregg’s SOGGY DOLLAR in 4th with 32 pts and Jeff Brown’s “J70” in fifth place (Jeff’s team has improved significantly and showed it with four top five finishes—  as the local J/Dealer, Jeff has spent a lot of time helping develop the J/70 fleet in SoCal).

Taking it right down to the wire were the top three J/120s out on the offshore course in the J/120 class.  What sealed the deal for Chuck Nichols’ happy crew on CC RIDER was a 1-2 in the breezy conditions on Sunday, finishing with 15 pts.  Just one point back was John Snook’s JIM winning the last race and securing a strong 2nd place.  Taking third was Eric Axford on CAPER with 19 pts.  Mike Hatch’s J-ALMIGHTY just edged out Rudolph Hasl’s HASL FREE for 4th place.

For the second year in a row, Rick Goebel’s J/105 SANITY with some guy named “Buddha” on board (we think that’s his lucky charm), managed to walk off with top honors in the very tough J/105 class of veteran SoCal offshore one-design sailors.  Not holding back at all and nearly pulling off a win was Dennis Case’s WINGS, taking second place in the process.  This was Dag Fish’s VIGGEN, fourth Tom Hurlburt’s BLOW BOAT and fifth Stew Cannon’s J-OK.

Perhaps the most electrifying performance in the entire regatta was Tom Brott’s ELECTRA in the J/109 class.  After winning six of seven races, the regatta was clearly a race for second place.  Behind Brott’s class-winning team was Daylen Teren’s GREAT BALLS OF FIRE in second with 17 pts.  Third on the podium was John Shulze’s LINSTAR, narrowly beating Alice Leahey’s GRACE O’MALLEY by one point.  Fifth was Gene Pitkin’s GERONIMO.

Another strong performance was SDYC member Curt Johnson sailing his J/80 AVET to straight bullets to easily win the J/80 class.  However, behind them it was quite a different story.  Having a duel to the very end of the regatta were Wayne Zittell’s JWORLD I and Debby Platt’s JWORLD II.  However, after taking a 2-1 in the last race, Zittell’s crew secured second with 17 pts while Platt’s crew settled for third sitting on 19 pts.

In the realm of offshore random leg PHRF handicap racing, the dueling J/125s had a fantastic match-race within their PHRF Class A handicap division.  After the first four races, both boats were essentially tied; with the upper-hand going to Tim Fuller’s RESOLUTE with a 2-4-2-5 scoreline while Viggo Torbensen’s TIMESHAVER was closing quickly with a 5-6-1-2 tally only one point back.  However, in the bigger breezes o the last day, it appeared that Fuller’s RESOLUTE simply went into another gear and took off, ripping off three bullets in a row to win the class (and J/125 bragging rights) with just 11 pts. Second in class was Torbensen’s TIMESHAVER with 16 pts.

In PHRF Class C, the classic J/35 RIVAL skippered by David Boatner sailed a whale of a series and handily took second overall with just 21 pts in 8 races.

And a big thank you to regatta chairs Julie & Dave Servais, the excellent work of the Race Committee and to all of the sponsors who helped make this Yachting Cup spectacular.  In particular, a big “Thank You” to primary sponsor JK3 Yachts, the J/Boats dealer for San Diego managed by Jeff Brown (he also sailed in the J/70 class).   Sailing photo credits- Bronny Daniels/ JoySailing.com   For more Yachting Cup sailing information