Dial up the wind - Acura presents Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week

by Rich Roberts on 20 Jun 2009
If Chris Hemans and his friendly rivals run true to form, intense competition will not be a problem when Acura presents Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week next weekend, June 26-28. Seven races are scheduled on three courses over three days, starting Friday.

It's the climactic event of the Ullman Sails Inshore Championship Series, following Ahmanson Cup at Newport Beach, Yachting Cup at San Diego and Cal Race Week at Marina del Rey. Hemans leads the Inshore Championship in the Fast 40 group after finishing second last year.

Last year, sailing his Tripp 40, Entropy, from Balboa Yacht Club, he won handily at Long Beach, but three other of the 19 classes were resolved by tiebreakers and three more by one point. That's the way it usually is in the event co-hosted by the neighboring Long Beach and Alamitos Bay Yacht Clubs as the largest inshore keelboat regatta in the West.

There were 138 boats, and with 118 entries for 2009 at this report that number seemed attainable again despite a downturn in sailboat racing participation attributed to the recession. The regatta offers One Design, PHRF handicap, a Random Leg class for distance racers and Catalina 37s for charter.

Hemans wouldn't miss it.

'You can dial up the breeze for us,' he said.

He admits that since his boat thrives in big breeze 'we were blessed to come out of Cal Race Week with a good result when it blew 14-16 knots. It seldom blows hard there.'

No worries at Long Beach. Usually. Last year the southwest sea breeze was as reliable as a pizza delivery.

Hemans' two favorite rivals, although they race different types of boats, are Geoff Longenecker with a Melges 30, Nemesis, from Southwestern YC in San Diego, and Mark Surber, with a J/125, Derivative, from Coronado YC. Derivative is second in the Fast 40s in the Inshore Championship series; Longenecker leads the Sport/Sprit group, although he and the others often meet in the same races.

'My kudos go to Geoff,' Hemans said. 'He came over to us after our win at Cal Race Week to congratulate us … a class guy.'

Hemans has been sailing with his core crew for 15 years, but not as skipper until he acquired Entropy a couple of years ago. The name has several exotic scientific definitions, plus another one more down to earth: 'a doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration.'

Whatever, Hemans used to work bow for his tactician, Brad Wheeler.

'He's the reason I'm doing as well as I am,' Hemans said. 'The only way I could drive it myself was to buy my own boat.'

Now they sail with a mostly Balboa YC crew of 11.

Online entry, entry list and more information click here

Ullman Sails is the title sponsor, ACURA the presenting sponsor. Other supporters are West Marine, the 5.70 Open class in association with Nauteek Tactical Electronics, Mount Gray Rum, J/Boats, and DISC Spine & Sports Center.