Port of L.A. Harbor Cup title defended by USC

by Rich Roberts on 10 Feb 2011 Harbor Cup/Cal Maritime Invitational Intercollegiate Regatta is having its fourth anniversary and the Port of Los Angeles is busier than ever, but even the nation's most dynamic shipping operation has time to play as the continuing sponsor March 11-13.

USC will defend the championship it won last year after placing second to Maine Maritime Academy the previous two years. Los Angeles Yacht Club is the organizing authority and California Maritime Academy of Vallejo is host of the West Coast's only intercollegiate big boat regatta.

Nine teams will compete in up to 10 ocean fleet races over three days, as conditions permit. The coed crews will sail Catalina 37s chartered from the Long Beach Sailing Foundation---the same boats to be match-raced by 10 professional world-class teams in the Congressional Cup March 21-26.

Cal Maritime, second last year, returns with Maine, the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, the University of Hawaii, Cal State U. Channel Islands of Camarillo and two new participants: UC Santa Cruz and the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime Academy.

USC trains out of the U.S. Sailing Center in nearby Long Beach under Mike Segerblom, a Trojan alum and the center's executive director. The team will have most of its 2010 crew. Skipper/helmsman Chris Vetter and headsail trimmer Andrew Nunn have graduated, but bowman Alex Brock Kraebel, pitman Erik Samuels, main trimmer Kelsey Rupp and trimmer Danny Kivlovitz are back. Segerblom has not yet picked Vetter's successor.

Most college sailors race dinghies, so a limited number of them, one might say, know the ropes on keelboats. No problem.

'Not everybody is keen on it,' Segerblom said, 'but our team likes it. We're a little lucky that we sail them every summer, but they're pretty simple and straightforward boats.'

On the other hand, training people to sail big boats---really big boats---is the business for Cal Maritime and several other competitors, making the event a perfect fit for the Port of Los Angeles sponsor.

But the Keelhaulers from Vallejo may be on more of a mission than anyone. Last year they shared the lead with USC going into the next-to-last race only to get caught on the wrong side of a major wind shift that left them in ninth place for the race and seven points off USC's pace. They made a gritty comeback to win the last race but couldn't prevent USC from placing second for a five-point win overall.

But it wasn't a bad year. Earlier they had won the U.S. Collegiate Kennedy Cup to earn the right to represent the U.S. in last October's World Student Yachting Championships at La Rochelle, France, where they placed fifth among 14 teams from 12 countries, behind England, Switzerland, Portugal and Italy.

Charlie Arms, the school's director of sailing, said, 'This year it will be a mix of veterans and freshman. We have several good freshmen on our Offshore Team. They were on the boat for the Shields Trophy win and second at [the 2010] Kennedy Cup.'

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