Lido 14 National Class Championships in Santa Monica Bay
by Andy Kopetzky on 21 Aug 2013
Start 1 of the Lido 14 Nationals 2013 Andy Kopetzky
August 12-17 featured the 56th running of the Lido 14 Class Championships in Santa Monica Bay. Del Rey Yacht Club hosted the six-day event along with South Coast Corinthian and Santa Monica Windjammers Yacht Clubs.
The Lido 14 design is an offshoot of Barney Lehman’s original design and the culmination of a more family-friendly sail and hull design.
In 1955 W.D. 'Bill' Schock, a builder of wooden boats, bought Lehman’s Plastiglass Company and set up a factory in Newport Beach. Hull #1 was delivered in 1958 to a gentleman who lived on Lido Isle (hence the name), of Newport Beach.
Soon many were sold (over 200 in its first year) and it wasn’t long before owners started racing them with the first class championship occurring less than a year from the start of production.
The 2013 races were held outside off Venice Pier and inside Marina Del Rey under grey skies and winds 8-10 knots.
When all the smoke and fog had cleared on Thursday’s event, Christofe Killian rattled of a couple of bullets to hold off Stephen Klotz in the A (Gold) fleet and Terry Johnson had three firsts to win B (Silver) fleet honors.
On Friday Kathy Reed got four firsts to beat SCCYC Staff Commodore Tracey Kenney racing inside the Marina entrance channel.
Saturday featured the Junior races and Frankie Dair and Gavin Abraham won after the race committee threw out the Sailing Instructions and asked the racers where they would like to race. The juniors raced between G and C Basin inside Marina Del Rey.
The success of the Lido 14 design is clearly evident in that there are over 30 active fleets in the US and the design is essentially unchanged for over fifty years, and there have been over 6000 Lido 14’s built.
For more information on this fun design and complete results go to Lido 14.
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