Things were a little different this year. The Bay was buzzing with Fleet Week activities kicking off and the Red Bull Air Races warming up the downtown portion of the bay all weekend. For our part, 117 entries in 13 classes including a resurrected J-29 class, showed for the 2008 Yachting Cup and brought forward some new ideas and great completion. First, the usual ‘tent’ venue for all the social activities was missing. The Yachting Cup was officially invited inside the main clubhouse, but when you got there, would you believe the Bar was boarded up. The actual ‘bar’ was moved into the Club room west while the old bar is remodeled. And in the end, the awards were held on the front deck and socializing everywhere else.
Three courses were set up with two in the Coronado Roads and one out west of Point Loma.
The West Ocean Course, hosted PHRF Divisions 1, 2 and 3 and the Farr 40s. The eight boat PH 1 fleet was especially tight with just five points between the top six boats with Staghound leading the pack. Jim Madden’s J-125 edition of the Stark Raving Mad’s won the impressive 12 boat PH 2 fleet with a string of firsts and a second in Race 2. Geoff Longenecker (Nemisis, Melges 30) dispatched the PH 3 fleet with the same list of finishes. These three fleets also make up the Ullman Inshore Championship Series. The Yachting Cup represents the second of four events which include NHYC’s Ahmenson, CYC’s Cal Race Week, and LBYC’s Long Beach Race Week. Rounding out the West Ocean Course were the 8 boat Farr 40 fleet with Dave Voss (Piranha) taking the honors there.
The Near Ocean Course hosted the 25 boat J-105 fleet. Dennis Case on Wings was leading at the top of Sunday, but with no throw-outs and a 15 in Race 4, the Wings crew still managed to keep their boat in the ‘silver’ with a 2nd place. Bill Logan (Pholly) also had a hard time in Race 4 with a 7th, but finished strong with a first and the regatta win. For PH 4 – 3 points separated the top four boats with Viggo Torbensen’s IMX 38 Martela edging out second place Bill McKeever (Reliance) and third Mike Luna and Sam Hatch (Showdown). In PH 5, Al Castillon and Richard Parlette’s CF 33 aced the 7 boat fleet with straight bullets. And in a show of solidarity – the J-29 class, typically a few strong within the PH 5 class put together 5 entries and enjoyed one design racing with Larry Leveille (Rush Street) placing first.
The Far Ocean Course hosted five fleets. The Beneteau 36.7 fleet was taken by Chick and Alexis Pyle’s Kea with straight firsts and the Beneteau 40.7 fleet was won by Mike Dorgan and Steve Wright (French Toast) on a tie-breaker with Mark Stratton (Lugano). The Flying Tiger fleet showed up with a fantastic 11 boats. At the end of the day Sunday, Harris Paquin on Elusive won the fleet by four points over Tom Hirsh (Harbor Sailboats). John Laun skippered caper to a four point win over second place Jed Olenick (Doctor No) and third place Chuck Nichols (CC Rider) both tied with 15. The ever-present Schock 35 fleet was 7 boats strong and won by Code Blue co-owned by Bruce Bennett and Bob Marcus.
Many thanks go out to the host of sponsors that support the activities for the weekend. We’d like to recognize North Sails (moving from their long time home adjacent to SDYC to their new loft in Liberty Station), manufacturers J-Boats (did you know…40% of the Yachting Cup entries were J-Boats) and Beneteau (12% of entries), gear supplier Point Loma Outfitting (SLAM, etc.), Firestone Beer and ESPN Radio provided financial support, product or services to help improve your regatta weekend.
Also sponsoring the event, in a way, are the generous volunteers on Race Committee and Protest Committee (who got a workout this year) who laid the courses, recorded the scores and decided the conflicts. We’d also like to thank the following individual who donated their time and boats to serve as Race Committee: Woody Hunt (photo boat), Lanny Cornell (Course B signal), Wayne Coulon (Course A signal), Louie Zimm (Course A W markset), John Downing (Course B W markset), Jim Person (Course C W markset). Also loaning boats were members Matt Smith (Course B L markset) and Schnoor/Pleskus (Course A L markset). This is the only way a three venue event can be set and managed. This is on top of the 32 other volunteers that raised flags, recorded scores, beeped horns or shot guns, etc. to make it all happen.
See you again next year!
