J/Teams triumph at Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race

J/Teams triumph at Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race © Santa Barbara Yacht Club

The 90.0nm offshore sprint from Santa Barbara, California south down the coast, leaving Anacapa Island to port, and finish at King Harbor breakwater, was yet another classic adventure for passionate offshore SoCal racers.

Santa Barbara YC and King Harbor YC co-hosted their annual offshore adventure and, as usual, the gorgeous weather conditions did not disappoint the sailors.

The strategy for the race is pretty simple. But, the execution is critical since it involves how to best get around the huge wind hole of Anacapa Island. The wind flows from the north/ northwest down the channel. So, leaving a large, mountainous island to port means you have to escape that nightmare without parking up. Then, the principal strategy is a long port gybe to Point Dume just up the coast from that pretty, glitzy coastal village known as "Malibu". The key there is playing the natural wind acceleration that always forms in the N/NW breeze around a very mountainous bluff.

Thereafter, the main issue is gybing angles in gradually lightening winds as the fleet approaches the finish line around midnight under the glow of the bright lights and the big city of Los Angeles off to port.... it can be a very maddening and frustrating finish since the big thermals shut-off and it's often drifting conditions into the finish at 3-4 its boatspeed!

In the end, many experienced J/Teams know the strategy and the key is to avoid any huge pitfalls rounding Anacapa Island and not overplaying the Point Dume wind acceleration effects. Here is how it all went down on the downhill dash to KH.

PHRF ULDB B Division

In this eight-boat division of hyper-completive custom boats, it was yet again a J/125 that took class honors. Winning was Dan Murphy's J/125 JAVELIN from California Yacht Club.

PHRF ULDB C Division

This was yet another division of high-tech carbon "wedges of cheese". Despite being at a handicap, the J/111s in this class faired quite well. Third was Doug & Jack Jorgensen's PICOSA, followed by Bernie Girod's ROCK & ROLL in fourth place. Sixth went to John Staff's OBSIDIAN.

PHRF A Division

This nine-boat division saw an epic battle for the top of the leaderboard. In the end, it was Dr. Laura Schlessinger's J/122 WARRIOR that took the silver medal.

PHRF B Division

It was tight racing for this nine-boat fleet. Tom Cullen's J/109 FUEGO took the bronze medal, while Stephen McMillan's J/99 MERLIN ended up in fourth place just 15 minutes back on handicap time.

PHRF C Division

It was global domination by J/92s in this nine-boat fleet! Winning was David Newland's DREAMLINE! Just under 2 minutes behind taking the silver medal was Brian Kerr's DOUBLE DOWN!

More information at www.sbyc.org