Cal Race Week preview
by J-Boat 31 May 2019 03:27 PDT
1-2 June 2019
Racecourse action at Cal Race Week © Joysailing
Cal Race Week is California Yacht Club's signature racing event to start off their summer sailing season in the Los Angeles basin. The event is two days of well-organized competitive racing. In fact, while many one-design classes have been invited, the Cal Race Week regatta has become a "de facto" J/Fest for the many passionate, enthusiastic, J/sailors participating in the J/24, J/70, and J/109 one-design classes.
The largest class by far is the fourteen-boat J/70 fleet. One of the reasons the entry has grown over the last few years is that the 2020 J/70 World Championship will be help on the west coast in Long Beach, CA, just a stone's throw south of Marina del Rey in the L.A. area. Top teams include Bruce Golison's Midlife Crisis (as past J/70 West Coast Champion), Jim Cunningham's Lifted, Patrick Toole's 3 Big Dog, Kurt Johnson's Avet 2.01, Craig Tallman's JAYA, Jim Murrell's Huckleberry, and Jeff Janov's Minor Threat. All of these teams are capable of finishing at the top of the leaderboard based on their past performances in the J/70 class at regional, North American, and Worlds events.
The J/24 class will see the return of Susan Taylor's Take Five, one of the top woman sailors on the west coast. She will be challenged by another top woman skipper from Ventura Yacht Club up the coast, Claudia Gottstein's Within Reach; she's an emerging talent that is developing quickly.
The J/109 class will have a three-way match race for the top of the podium as all teams are pretty evenly matched. The protagonists include Jack Mayer's Zephyr from Del Rey YC, Peter Nelson's Spray from host California YC, and Heinz Butner's Raptor from Long Beach YC.
Doing battle in the PHRF handicap world are three J fanatics. Those teams are Jon Haney's J/105 Joyride, Lenny Gordon's J/92 Sunshine, and David Boatner's J/35 Rival (a past overall winner of the event!).
Find out more about Cal Race Week here.