Alamitos Bay Yacht Club- 66th annual Turkey Day Regatta

by Rich Roberts on 25 Nov 2013
Pease Glaser, Pete Melvin and the Golisons are longtime Alamitos Bay Yacht Club members whose names are familiar in world sailing, but competitors from beyond Long Beach also have found ABYC to be a launching pad for full-on careers in the sport.

A few upped their eminence in the 66th annual Turkey Day Regatta Saturday and Sunday, one of several nationally geared events staged by the club.

Max Brill and crew Zach Malcolm from San Diego fought off Quinn Wilson and Riley Gibbs from Santa Barbara and ABYC, respectively, to win the 29er skiff competition geared for youthful prospects.

Seven of the 29er teams, tutored by ABYC member Howard Hamlin, a world champion in three high-performance classes, will go on to compete in the Orange Bowl Regatta at Miami after Christmas, followed by the 29er Nationals and potential qualifying for the ISAF Worlds in Portugal next year.

Meanwhile, Matthew Long from Santa Barbara overcame an 11th place in the first Laser race to win four of the next six and edge ABYC's veteran Kevin Taugher by one point.

Matt Struble of San Diego repeated his sweep in the A-Class catamaran North Americans at ABYC last August by winning all seven races, followed closely by Melvin with six seconds and a third.

Now they are working together to boost their chances in next February's A-Cat Worlds in New Zealand that Melvin has won twice.

New Zealand?

Melvin, a partner with Gino Morelli in the Orange County-based multihull design operation, spent much of the last two years Down Under as lead designer for Emirates Team New Zealand's near-miss America's Cup campaign. Now he's back living in Huntington Beach and resuming his personal sailing career.

'Next time I think [the AC] will be run with smaller, less expensive boats to get more teams involved,' he said.

Meanwhile, as for Struble's prospects, Melvin said, 'He's an exceptional and dedicated sailor and a great engineer through his work with Nissan.'

Glaser, an Olympic silver medalist, and her husband Jay (ditto), also are in the sailing business as Glaser Sails, whose product many of the 137 boats wore this weekend. She and crew Damon LaCasella won five of the seven F-18 catamaran races, which were almost as much fun as the Olympics even if the usually reliable Long Beach breeze failed to stir any whitecaps all weekend.

'But the racing was really close,' she said. 'There was a lot of place changing.'

More important, in the face of the massive Basin 5 reconstruction in progress at ABYC was the satisfactory turnout of dedicated competitors, despite the lack of the usual docks, hoists and launching ramps.

'I think the club did a great job in getting everybody sailing off the beach and whatever else they had to do to get their boats in the water,' she said. 'The race committee did a lot of good work out there.'

Also noteworthy, Jay Golison, with fellow ABYC regular Steve Flam and wife Marissa as crew, fought off TV host James Sears, the defending champion, to win the last six of seven races in the fast-developing Viper 640 class.

There were no trophies, but that's standard for Turkey Day. Instead, winners received pies and birds ready to roast. Participants also enjoyed a Thanksgiving theme feast Saturday night, included in the entry fee.

The larger boats, including Vipers, Finns, Lasers and A-Class and Formula 18 catamarans, raced on the outer Long Beach Harbor inside the breakwater; Lido 14s and Naples Sabots raced inside on the bay.

The regatta included two events of the Southern California Youth Yacht Racing Association (SCYYRA) 2013-2014 season for sailors under 19: the Ullman/Frost Series for Lasers and Laser Radials and the Hamlin Series for 29er skiffs. Complete SCYYRA schedules and results.

Class winners

Ocean courses

LASER FULL (18 boats)---Matthew Long, Santa Barbara/Cabrillo Beach YCs, (11)-1-1-6-1-2-1, 12.
LASER RADIAL (37)---Lawson Willard, San Francisco/St. Francis YCs, 1-34-(8)-4-3-1-2, 15.
29ER (13)---Max Brill/Zach Malcolm, Mission Bay/San Diego YCs, (5)-1-3-2-1-3, 15.
VIPER 640 (10)---Jay Golison/Marissa Golison, ABYC, (2)-1-1-1-1-1-1, 6.
FINN (11)---Philip Toth, no club, (4)-1-3-1-1-1-2, 9.
FORMULA 18 (7)---Pease Glaser/Damon LaCasella, ABYC, 1-1-1-(4)-1-2-1, 7.
A-CLASS CATAMARAN (6)---Matt Struble, USACA, (1)-1-1-1-1-1-1, 6.
PORTSMOUTH (3)---Brad Ruetnik, San Diego YC, 1-1-1, 3.

Bay courses
OPEN BIC (10)---Jack Egan, San Diego YC, 2-1-1-(4)-3-1-1-2-1, 12.
LIDO 14 A (7)---Stuart Robertson/ Sammy Elshahawry, ABYC, 1-1-1-1-1-, 4.
CFJ (2)---Brian MacLean/Eric Carpenter, ABYC, (1)-1-1-1-1-1, 5.
LIDO 14 B (6)---Thomas Amarante/Phoebe Staff, California YC, (2)-1-1-1-2-1-2-1-1, 10.
SABOT B (2)---Alex Van Dyke, Long Beach YC/ABYC, (1)-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1, 9.
SABOT C1 (5)---Brett Peoples, ABYC, 1-1-(2)-1-2-1-1-1-1, 9.
SABOT C2 (4)---Christina Van Dyke, ABYC/Long Beach YC, (1)-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1, 8.
SABOT C3 (11)---Emma Peets, Newport Harbor YC, 1-1-3-3-2-1-3-(5)-3, 17.