SCYA Midwinter Regatta - Sam Heck and Robert Marcus in action

by Rick Roberts on 20 Feb 2017 Sam Heck and Merry Cheers decided that just having bought a new Farr 40 race boat, Viva La Vida, wasn’t quite enough. They wanted to race it, right away. So they entered the 2017 SCYA Midwinter Regatta through Long Beach Yacht Club, which hosted their class, and won in the first racing sailboat that they have ever owned.

This is the 88th year of the Southern California Yachting Association’s annual regatta that has more than 25 host clubs, more than 600 boats and close to 2500 sailors. In this year’s regatta, LBYC hosted two One-Design classes with five Farr 40s and six Schock 35s.

“We were lucky and had good starts,” said Heck. “(Ray Godwin’s) Temptress was our race. They were fast and were always close to us.”

“This was really fun for us,” said Cheers, “to get to race on our own boat… and win!”

Robert “Bob” Marcus and his Schock 35, Code Blue, team took first place in their very competitive class.

“This regatta was a lot closer than the scores indicate,” said Marcus. “We only won by half a boat length in every race.

“In the last race at the leeward gate, (Roland Duphily’s) Impulse was actually winning the regatta. We were tied in points when they went to the west gate and we went to the east gate. We sailed into and out of a hole and ended up winning the race. This fleet, in general, is really tightening up.”

Moving towards the weekend’s racing, Southern California was bracing for, what was being called an, “epic storm,” by the media. Hammering the coast on Friday afternoon with flooding, downed trees and power lines, anxious sailors were wondering if the event organizers would even be able to get the regatta started on Saturday.

Saturday morning dawned with dark skies, moderate breezes of eight - twelve knots and on-and-off showers. The race committee determined that they had acceptable conditions for racing and took the fleet out, completing three of the five scheduled races in good time with no delays for weather.

Sunday the race committee had challenges with post-storm conditions of confused and inconsistent breezes that delayed the start of the first of two races by about an hour. But once the breeze settled in at about seven - eight knots they were able to get both races done, completing the regatta.

“Everyone on the race committee did a really good job,” said Heck.

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Final Results

Farr 40 Class

1. Sam Heck, Long Beach YC, Viva La Vida, 1-1-2-1-1, 6 points
2. Raymond Godwin, LBYC, Temptress, 2-3-1-3-2, 11
3. Corey Lynch, Balboa YC, Groovederci-Cal Maritime, 3-2-3-4-3, 15
4. Gary Ezor, Del Rey YC, Coquille, 4-4-4-2-4, 18
5. Gordon Leon, Cabrillo Beach YC, Foil, 5-7DNF-5-5-5, 27

Schock 35 Class

1. Robert Marcus, ABYC, Code Blue, 1-2-2-3-1, 9
2. Ted Thompson/John Rossach, LBYC, Whiplash, 4-4-3-1-2, 14
3. Roland Duphily, Alamitos Bay YC, Impulse, 3-1-4-2-5, 15
4. Mark Hinrichs, ABYC, Strategem, 2-5-1-5-3. 16
5. Barrington Darcy, Buccaneer YC, Bully, 5-3-5-4-4, 21
6. Joe Braun, Oceanside YC, Shaman, 6-6-7RET-6-6, 31