Regattas Big, Small Fill Waters In Summer

By Kurt Helin
Editor

Summer in Long Beach means sailing.

Whether it is the biggest name regattas of the summer — the Tahiti Race or the Mayor’s Cup — or the Thursday night “pop top” series out of the Seal Beach Yacht Club, plenty of boats and sailors will take to the waters off Long Beach this summer.

Last summer, the Transpac race to Hawaii filled Rainbow Harbor with boats and people, and that bi-annual event it returns next year. This year, the Transpacific Yacht Club, which puts on that race, is hosting another one of its favorites,

The Tahiti Race will leave off Point Fermin June 22 with five boats — including a couple of the top boats and racing programs in Long Beach. Doug Baker’s 80-foot Magnitude will race, as will Bob Lane’s legendary Medicine Man. This is the 13th edition of the race, which was first run in 1925.

The Tahiti race, wrapped in the Sea Festival blanket in Long Beach, will take at least two weeks to complete. The race is 3,571 nautical miles and likely will last at least 14 days (the standing record), although it could be longer as all the boats have to pass through the doldrums — a stretch of calm, often windless seas along the equator between the two major trade winds.

“Those guys will finish (in Tahiti), then come back and have the trophy presentation at Gladstone’s in Long Beach,” said Drew Satariano, president of the Sea Festival Association board.

The other major summer regatta that is part of the Sea Festival is the Mayor’s Cup — the all-women crews racing on matching boats just off the Belmont Pier. This year, the races take place July 16-19.

“Women’s match racing is now going to be in the Olympics in 2012,” Satariano said. “We’re expecting a good Mayor’s Cup this year and for the event to really grow.”

In a format similar to the recently completed Congressional Cup, the all-women teams sail on matching Catalina 37s in a course inside the breakwater just off the Belmont Pier. These are match races — meaning one-on-one — in a round-robin format so that everyone races against each other at least once.

At the end of the round-robin, the top four teams go into a bracket and in a series of best-of-three races determine a winner.

Some of the world’s best women skippers are expected to compete in the Grade II event on the international sailing calendar, although a final list of competitors isn’t available yet.

While those may be the big names, there are a number of other big events on the water this summer.

For example, Long Beach Race Week, June 27-29, will bring some of the best boats on the West Coast to Long Beach for a weekend. This may be the largest regatta in Long Beach each year and this year will include the Catalina 37 National Championship, the Melges 24 Gold Cup and the J/29 West Coast Championship among a host of important fleet races. To learn more, log on to www.lbrw.org.

Don’t forget about the popular Bay to Breakers sabot regatta for youth, hosted by the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club.

Then the Catalina 37s will be back on the water for the prestigious Ficker Cup. The winner of the Mayor’s Cup gets an automatic invite to the Ficker Cup, and the winner of the Ficker Cup gets an invite to the Congressional Cup. That regatta is hosted by the Long Beach Yacht Club and takes place Aug. 29-31.

Some of the most popular summer sailing events are the Wet Wednesday series out of LBYC and the Pop Top series hosted by the Seal Beach Yacht Club. Both race inside (and sometimes outside) the breakwater and draw a wide variety of boats and sailors.

Those races take place every Wednesday (Wet Wednesdays) and Thursday (Pop Top) throughout the summer. For more information, log on to www.lbyc.org or www.sealbeachyc.org.