Malibu and Return race launches new season

by Dmitry Matousov on 15 Dec 2009 Leading ocean and inshore racers in Southern California will start the 2010 sailing season Saturday, Jan. 2, in the first major race of the new year when Del Rey Yacht Club hosts the 34th annual Malibu and Return Regatta.

It's the first event in the annual William Berger Series, the largest and most popular distance point-to-point series of five races in Santa Monica Bay---a roundtrip of 23 nautical miles to Malibu and return.

All ORR, PHRF, One Design and sportboat monohulls, as well as ORCA multihulls, are invited to enter. Concurrently, the race also leads off the unique William Stein Series, the only exclusively Cruising Class series in the Bay. All Cruiser types, including Spinnaker and Non-spinnaker boats, are eligible to race in this series.

Well-known boats such as Magnitude 80, Holua, Pendragon IV and Locomotion have come from all over Southern California to race in this event. It culminates in a grand Mexican Fiesta and trophy presentation ceremony.

Last January’s regatta drew 130 boats, including Bob Lane's Andrews 63, Medicine Man, a regular Transpacific Yacht Race competitor from Long Beach that was first to finish. Frederic Scheer's Farr 40, Far Niente, of Marina del Rey was first overall on corrected handicap time in PHRF AA class, just ahead of David Voss's Farr 40, Piranha, and radio hostess Dr. Laura Schlessinger's J/125, Warrior, from Santa Barbara. First overall in the fleet was Ed Jenkins' B-29, Klexy, of Marina del Rey.

Entries are expected to increase this time. Event chairman Sterling Tallman said, 'It’s the first chance most skippers have had to race their boats since Thanksgiving, and most are anxious to get out on the water again and get tuned up for the 2010 racing schedule.'

Online entry the Notice of Race, the Notice of Series, past results and other pertinent information are available at www.dryc.org

William Berger was staff commodore of DRYC and held membership number 7. He was a pioneer racing skipper in the early days of Marina del Rey, and he favored distance races over buoy racing. He and his son Paul won a First Overall trophy in the prestigious Whitney Series.

When Paul and his uncle Leon Berger wished to honor Bill’s memory, they created a five-race distance point-to-point series of races and donated a beautiful Daum crystal sailboat as the Perpetual Trophy. The series was inaugurated in 1977, and Paul fittingly won the first overall award. The Berger Series has been a Marina del Rey Classic ever since.

William Stein also was a staff commodore of DRYC and one of its founding members. His beautiful ketch Saluda was often seen in cruising destinations on the West Coast. In reality, he was always a racer at heart and often crewed on some of his friends' racing boats. His son Phil, also a DRYC member, felt that there could be no better way to honor his father’s memory than by creating a challenging series of races exclusively for so called 'cruising boats.' The family donated a beautifully displayed model of Saluda as a Perpetual Trophy.