YCs of Long Beach Charity Regatta - Local area sailors turn out

by Rick Roberts on 25 Sep 2014 The yacht clubs of Long Beach hosted the 28th annual Charity Regatta benefitting The Children’s Clinic of Long Beach Sunday, September 21, with more than 70 sailboats in 12 different classes.

Long Beach Yacht Club, Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, Seal Beach Yacht Club and Shoreline Yacht Club all hosted courses for the various classes, with ABYC hosting seven classes made up of Lasers, Laser Radials, Lidos, Sabots and Optimists racing in Alamitos Bay.

Radien Mazin of ABYC went undefeated with three wins in the Laser class as did Drea Keswater of King Harbor Yacht Club in the Laser Radial Fleet.

On Long Beach Yacht Club’s course in Long Beach Harbor off of the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier, the father and son team of Ron and Mike Wood, ABYC, took first place honors in the Cal 20 class winning the first two races and getting a third place finish in the last race of the day.

Lisa Meier, LBYC, won all three of her races in the Catalina 37 class and another father and son team of Art and Scott Melendres, LBYC, also won all of their races in the Cal 25 class on the LBYC course.

Seal Beach Yacht Club set up their Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) course in Long Beach Harbor with 10 boats showing up on the start line.

Ray Godwin, LBYC, and his Farr 40 team won both of the races on corrected handicap time with Bob Zellmer, Transpac Yacht Club, finishing in second place.

Shoreline Yacht Club ran their PHRF Cruising Class course in Long Beach Harbor as well and Mark Thompson’s Erickson 38 finished in first place on corrected handicap time with Steve Anderson and his Catalina 30 taking second place.

The Children’s Clinic was started in 1939 by a group of doctors and businessmen who recognized a need for health care in Long Beach, especially in low-income families.

But it wasn’t until 1987 that four local yacht club commodores got together and decided it was time to give back to the community. Pete Ives, Long Beach Yacht Club; Hans Schoedl, Shoreline Yacht Club; Tom Ramsey, Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and Larry Lewis, Seal Beach Yacht Club had several meetings at each other’s homes to set the plan in motion that for 28 years has benefited The Children’s Clinic.

Since that time, four more yacht clubs have joined the team; Long Beach Singles Yacht Club, Navy Yacht Club of Long Beach, Marina Yacht Club and the International Order of the Blue Gavel District 10.

Charity Regatta Treasurer Norma Clapp has been working this regatta since its creation and talked about how it was back in the day.

'I did the PR for the first couple of years for this regatta,' Clapp said.

'Dr. [Milt] Van Dyke started the clinic back in 1939 to help out the Navy families who didn’t have a place to go to for their health care. That first year they treated about 5,000 patients.

'They now have nine clinics and treated more than 106,000 patients in 2013.

'They are fabulous clinics and have fabulous doctors.'

Class winners:

LBYC
Catalina 37, Lisa Meier, LBYC
Cal 25, Art and Scott Melendres, LBYC
Cal 20, Ron and Mike Wood, ABYC

ABYC
Laser Fleet, Radien Mazin, ABYC
Laser Radial Fleet, Drea Keswater, KHYC
Lido 14 Fleet, Gabe Ferramola and Melody Wong, ABYC
Jr. Sabot B Fleet, Roxanne Snyder, ABYC
Jr. Sabot C Fleet, Luke Worsham, Leeway Sailing Center
Sr. Sabot Fleet, Lee Berlinger, ABYC
Optimist Fleet, Chase Dodd, LBYC

SlBYC
PHRF A, Ray Godwin, LBYC

SYC
PHRF Cruising Class, Mark Thompson, Cal Yacht Club

Complete results are available www.lbyc.org, www.abyc.org, www.sealbeachyc.org and racing.shorelineyachtclub.com.