(Santa Barbara, CA)- J/Sailors in Santa Barbara, California know how to
have fun. Period. After all, they do live in what is billed as
America’s Riviera along that sliver of coastline between the famous
Hollywood hangout of Malibu to the east and the US Navy Missile program
off Point Conception to the west. While there are not many places to go
cruising locally, the locals make the most of their amazing sailing
conditions, often punctuated by massive Pacific swells rolling in from
the northwest from even more ginormous storms in the Gulf of Alaska and
their natural sea-breeze that often develops because of the 2,500 ft
mountain range just inshore sucking breeze into the stratosphere over
the dramatic backdrop of the Santa Ynez Mountains. By the way, each day
is sunny, 50s overnight and mid-70s in the day— all year-round! Even
Oprah approves!The Santa Barbara Sailing Club hosted the weekend’s Cinco de Mayo sailing festivities and managed to conduct a ten races series for the J/70s and a nine race series for the J/24s.
Winning
the J/70s was Scott Deardorff’s CAKE with five 1sts in the scoreboard
for a 14 pts net series. That was quite an accomplishment to beat out a
former J/24 North American Champion, Pat Toole’s incredibly talented
crew on his J/70 THREE BIG DOGS, with 22 pts net. Third was Andrew
Nunn’s pretty, shiny black ECLIPSE with 29 pts and three 1st places to
their credit! Fourth and fifth, respectively, were taken by Steve
Hendricks’ MONKEY HOUSE and Mike Wolfe’s SHARK TOOTH.The J/24s were seeing some fresh blood and activity locally. Winning class was Deke Klatt’s JADED with 9 pts net, a virtual blitzkrieg of the fleet. However, behind him it was a pitched battle for the balance of the top five. Ultimately, sailing better than the rest was Tom Tunberg’s BULLET team, taking 2nd with 21 pts. Third was Jim Baurley’s CRITTER with 24 pts, fourth Ches Upham’s YOUNG FOOLS and fifth Susan Taylor’s TAKE FIVE team from California YC (note- Susan has won the SoCal J/24 Champs and West Coasts in the past, a measure of how good these new young teams are!). Sailing photo credits- Sharon Green/ Ultimate Sailing. For more Cinco de Mayo Regatta sailing information
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