Region 8 Travel Trophy # 1
Saturday, December 28, 2024, Alamitos Bay, Long Beach Yacht Club “Holiday Regatta”. This is the start of the DF 95 2024/25 Reg. 8 Travel Trophy Series along with the beginning of a new sailing season. I started the day at 7:00 Am by sending, the organizing authority, Keith Ives a text with a couple of items that came to me in the early morning. Ives must have been on the same wavelength as me because of his quick response, and I am quite certain he had a couple of other concerns about getting the day started.
I had a quick chuckle when being one of the first to arrive, the San Diego crew was already in the parking lot with their boats rigged and game day faces on. Jon & Dennis Rodgers, and Jess Atkinson, Larry Grant was the first to arrive for the home team. Tina & Keith Ives were next to arrive by boat and hit the dock like a U.S. Marine beach landing both headed toward their objectives and completed them ahead of schedule. Chris Raab arrived laughing and said, “Oh man, everyone is here, this is going to be a rather bit challenging today.”
This is the third year for the “Holiday Regatta” which started with fifteen competitors attending and now pushing over thirty entries. This round we had Rod Sturgess driving in from Arizona, Gary Roszyk from Lake Arrowhead, Henry Johnson from Crestline both driving down from the San Bernardino Mountains, Austin Artis came in from Ventura, along with five skippers from the San Diego area all traveling close to two hours plus. This time of year, has proven to be an attractive time to schedule a regatta, and again it’s rather simple to make the trip when you are located in Southern California. I can’t imagine how the folks in Newport Rhode Island who had the saying “Neither Snow, nor rain, nor slush or freezing conditions will keep us from sailing on this weekend. At the Sandusky Sailing Club in Ohio, I noticed photos in hard dinghies breaking ice in the harbor to sail this weekend.
Back to the Long Beach Yacht Club with 5-7 knots of breeze out of the southwest with a cool 63-degree air tempter. Our biggest problem was how to stuff enough sailing in three hours with 29 skippers on the dock ready to sail. The Ives and I looked down the dock and went with Keith’s idea of stretching out the course and going with one division rather than splitting the fleet in an HMS system. We understood the risk of such a large fleet and went for it, yes it had its challenges, yet the cream always seems to rise to the top. Look at the results and my guess you could have picked the top ten at the start of the race. The Ives and their team got in 10 long races. After the skippers meeting, we had our awards presentation of the 2023/24 Travel Trophy with Chris Davidson taking 3rd, Mark Golison in 2nd and Larry Grant being awarded the first Yellow Chair for the victory.
The breeze filled in right on time with most of the competitors looking for the best angle to view the 29-boat starting line. The breeze did shift back and forth a couple of times changing which side of the starting line was favored. The interesting variable was that if you did find yourself on the wrong side of the line you could still make it to the weather mark in good order as long as you kept your bow out in front of the crowd. The following day after racing I checked in with five of the competitors who all said they had a great time, and it all worked out. I wanted to give a Bravo/Zulu for a job well done to Tina Ives, she made it look easy.
The Long Beach Yacht Club is the first yacht club with the insight that Remote Control sailing will continue to grow attracting more members and can be spectated from the Yacht Club itself. LBYC is very fortunate to have a perfect venue that can support a world-class event and be viewed from their club’s balcony. It goes without saying the LBYC recognizes the potential of promoting this class along with an increase in food and beverage sales!
Thank you Jennifer Golison for the photos!
Next TT February 16 Helmsmen Model Yacht Club at El Dorado Park.
Let’s go sailing!
- Short Video
Len Bose
