Reports From Rich Roberts
It’s the first weekend of summer, and more than 140 boats in 16 classes can’t wait to sail right into it Friday in the 26th Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week. Racing in the West Coast’s largest keelboat regatta will be on three courses—one inside and two outside the harbor breakwater—starting at 1 p.m. Friday and at noon Saturday and Sunday.
The organizing Long Beach and Alamitos Bay Yacht Clubs plan to squeeze seven races in among nightly outdoor parties at the host clubs, and forecasts of temperatures in the low 70s with moderate breeze indicate that the weather will cooperate on both counts.
Ullman Sails is the title sponsor. The founder and president, Dave Ullman, will offer his usual speed talk for competitors at Long Beach YC Friday at 10 a.m., then jump onto Jeff Janov’s Farr 40, Dark Star, which is one of the contenders in that 11-boat class of heavyweights.
Other sponsors and supporters are DISC Sports and
The turnout includes boats from about 19 feet (Viper 640 and Open 5.70) to ocean racers like Ed McDowell’s Grand Illusion, Dale Williams’ Wasabi, Lorenzo Berho’s Peligroso,
The Viper 640s, now into their West Coast summer tour, show eight entries, including four from Arizona and one from Texas, while the Open 5.70s, with 15 entries, are the largest one-design class. The Open 5.70 (5.7 meters; 18 feet 8 inches) has a lifting keel, a bowsprit and a guarantee on its website that it is “small, safe . . . cannot capsize and is unsinkable.”
The two-time defending champion is Rich Festa of Pacific Palisades, but he may find trouble from Tracey Kenney of Marina del Rey, whose Hat Trick was fourth and third the last two years. The lady is returning with an attitude.
“This year my goal is a first,” she said via e-mail accented with a happy face. “No more second place for this chick. So far I have a first for Cal Race Week in a fleet of 12, but light air. Game’s on this year.”
Also at stake is the Yacht Club Challenge, where designated clubs race chartered Catalina 37s and two other boats for the best combined score. Chuck Clay, the C/37 winner the last two years, will lead the defense for Alamitos Bay YC.
There also is the Golison Family Trophy for the boat with the most family members on board, and almost every class is settling a West Coast or
The regatta also is the third and last stop on the Southern California Ullman Sails Inshore Championship Series, following the Ahmanson Cup at
This year’s leaders are Wasabi and It’s OK, currently sharing first place in the Fast 50+ group; Chris Hemans’ Tripp 41, Entropy, in Fast 40, and John Staff’s Viper 830, Plankton, and Thomas Brott’s J/109, Electra, tied for the lead in Sport/Sprit Boat.
All participants will enjoy free mooring or docking, courtesy of the City of Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine; nightly parties with complimentary hors d’ouevres and free water taxi transportation between the sponsoring clubs.
Online entry and more information
Ullman Sails Inshore Championship