(Santa Barbara, CA)- The 2019 Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race is a distance race spanning 81.0nm and has been a tradition for Santa Barbara and King Harbor sailors for 47 years. The race is quite popular with sailors up and down the Southern California coastline, seventy boats are registered, of which 23% (16) are J/Teams.
The SB-KH is a simple race, too, since the tactics are pretty well understood by most teams. From the start line, sailing in a building northwesterly seabreeze, it is a straight shot on starboard tack to the bottom of the Channel Islands, with either Code Zeros or reaching spinnakers. The one and only turning mark is Anacapa Island, left to port. The principal issue is getting around the wind shadow of Anacapa before gybing and dashing off on port tack under spinnakers towards the infamous Point Dume (a.k.a. sometimes Pt Doom!) in the glittery, fashionable village of Malibu, CA. The reason why that strategy works is that late afternoon winds from the NW are significantly accelerated around that point due to the fact the entire Los Angeles Basin is boiling hot (like 100 F deg hot!) and the Santa Rosa/ San Jacinto Mountain range to the east are like giant frying pans sending all that heat skywards! Upon reaching Point Dume, most boats gybe back onto starboard tack and head for the finish line at the opening to King Harbor in Redondo Beach, just north of the gorgeous Palos Verdes peninsula.
The
sixteen J/Teams participating include four J/111s (Bernie Girod’s ROCK
& ROLL, Doug & Jack Jorgensen’s PICOSA, Kenny Kieding & John
Vincent’s ARGO 3, & Mike Drammer’s TITANIUM), Dr Laura
Schlessinger’s J/125 WARRIOR (a multiple race winner), two J/120s (Tom
& Terri Manok’s POLE DANCER & Jack Rose’s PRIVATEER II), Scott
Torrance’s J/124 FORGIVENESS, two J/109s (Tom Cullen’s FUEGO & Jack
Mayer’s ZEPHYR), Doug Steick’s J/100 JIB & TONIC, Tom Hinkle’s J/40
WHITE LIGHT, three J/105s (Chuck Spear’s TWELVE BAR BLUES, Tom Bollay’s
ARMIDA, & Dan Murphy’s CUCHULAINN), and Brian Kerr’s J/92 DOUBLE
DOWN. For more Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race sailing information
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