Southern California Yachting Association's 81st Midwinter Regatta

by Rich Roberts on 18 Feb 2010 Alamitos Bay Yacht Club will be among 33 clubs from San Diego to Santa Barbara and east to Arizona hosting almost anything that floats---big, little and radio-controlled sailboats; power boats, land sailors, outrigger canoes---in the Southern California Yachting Association's 81st annual Midwinter Regatta Saturday and Sunday.

The ABYC fleets of smaller boats will race on the inside bay and on two courses outside near the breakwater. Racing will start at noon each day, conditions permitting.

Light showers are a possibility Saturday, but over the years the regatta has been beset by the whole range of weather---light wind to strong, sunshine to rain. No problem.

.'We are praying for good weather,' Midwinters chairman Morrie Willkie said. 'Last year the weather was great for a regatta. Rain or shine, the Midwinter races will run.'

The event is such a diverse institution that one never knows who's going to show up. In the past ABYC's turnout has included world champions like Mike Martin, Howard Hamlin, Pete Melvin and Dalton Bergan and Olympic medalists Jay and Pease Glaser, as well as parents racing with their kids.

One of the latter has been Bob Little, a former big boat competitor now sailing a family Lido 14 dinghy with his 7-year-old son. But last October Little found himself back in the big time after a surprise phone call.

'It was a message from Paul Cayard asking if I would be interested in joining him and his RC44 program 'Katusha' as the Helmsman in their next event called the Gold Cup in Dubai,' Little told the e-mail sailing newsletter Scuttlebutt. 'Interested? Dubai? Paul Cayard? Me? Helmsman? Is this for real? I thought.'

He flew to Dubai before Thanksgiving, drove the boat against some of the best sailors in the world and did respectably well.

'Tuesday I was back at work reflecting on what seemed like a dream,' he said.

Then there is Melvin, an ABYC member and A-Cat world champion who added a notch to his resume just last week when BMW Oracle's trimaran blitzed Alinghi's catamaran to bring the America's Cup back to America. Melvin and Gino Morrelli, his partner in a multihull building business in Orange County, helped to develop BOR's trimaran and the winners' powerhouse wing sail that blew the Swiss away.

His A-Cat performance in ABYC's Midwinters last year was similar: six firsts and a second in the seven races he sailed after a late arrival.

'They're not that hard to sail,' he said of the A-Cats, 'but to keep your speed up is a consistent part of the secret. They're very sensitive to being out of the groove, even for a moment, and the sail is so flat that you can lose the wind very easily.'

More recently Melvin has been sailing a smaller Formula 18 catamaran with his son James, 15, which they'll race this weekend. The Midwinters is a family affair.