Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta - Epic West Coast Sailing Center welcomes elite sailing athletes
by LBYC Race Office 12 Jul 10:11 AEST
12-20 July 2025
Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta © Long Beach Yacht Club
Over 200 elite athletes from 42 nations have converged on Long Beach to test their skills on the same waters that will host sailing events during the LA2028 Olympic Games as they compete in the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta July 12-20, the fourth stop of the five series Sailing Grand Slam circuit. Long Beach OCR is the 65th edition of the event; registration and an opening ceremony will be held on Friday July 11, at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club (ABYC), and racing gets under way on Saturday July 12.
Recently confirmed as the LA 2028 venue for board sports, Long Beach is widely known for its consistent breeze and warm summer sailing conditions, as event co-organizer Mike Van Dyke, notes.
"We're thrilled for athletes to experience Southern California's premier sailing venue and to compete at the one of the sailing sites for the 2028 Olympic Games," says Van Dyke. "We proudly welcome sailors from around the world to compete as part of the Sailing Grand Slam Series and look forward to putting on a world-class event in a world-class sailing venue."
For the past few years in preparation for LA2028, race committees from Long Beach and Newport Harbor area yacht clubs as well as Cal Yacht Club have been running Olympic class courses which will be utilized for Long Beach OCR. Additionally, some 200 volunteers from Southern California have collaborated to ensure world-class racing for the sailors.
"We're ready for the show!" says Lisa Meier, Long Beach Yacht Club (LBYC) Commodore and Regatta co-chair. "Athletes, coaches, and support teams are not only here to race, but they're also living in our neighborhoods, shopping local and connecting with our communities. Long Beach has become their home during this crucial phase of Olympic preparation and the City of Long Beach's warm welcome reflects the spirit of the Games."
Racing kicks off on Saturday for Daniela Moroz, from Walnut Creek, California and ABYC member, who will represent US Sailing, ABYC, and the St Francis Yacht Club in Women's Formula Kite Foil. Moroz placed fourth overall in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and is warming up for her second Olympic quad. She's thrilled to be competing this week on home turf.
"Long Beach/Belmont Shore is a great foiling venue, it's generally windy all year-round and the sailing area is behind the breakwater so it's relatively smooth water which facilitates foiling," says Moroz. "It's also in close proximity to the beach which makes it easy to launch and of course for spectating. I'm excited to be getting back on the water after a long break and to reunite with some of the great sailors I raced against during the last quad."
Caleb Armit (20), representing the Murray's Bay Sailing Club (Auckland, NZ), is in Long Beach for his first time, racing in the ILCA 7. Armit is campaigning in his first Olympic quad; this year he has sailed two of the Sailing Grand Slam events; the Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofia (Mallorca, Spain), and Semaine Olympique Francaise (Hyeres, France).
"I've been racing in the full rig for about three years and this is my first run at the Olympics," says Armit. "It's amazing to be here, it looks like an incredible venue to race. I'm mostly looking forward to the great conditions I've heard about here, to try out the venue and get some knowledge of it. It looks like most of the top of the ILCA 7 fleet will be racing this week which will be good training."
Ed Feo, ABYC Commodore, has been involved with the logistics associated with pulling off an international regatta of this level. Feo acknowledges the massive amount of work that has been put in by volunteers over the past few weeks in order to prepare for Long Beach OCR, and the infrastructure required to ensure efficient loading and launching of sailors and boats.
"We reconfigured our yard at ABYC to be able to accommodate many of the boats participating, the ILCAs and the 49ers in particular, and we've doubled our storage capacity by obtaining an off-site storage facility where we have been storing trailers, containers, and accessories," says Feo. "From there it's been flow control in terms of boats coming into the yard. We also rented a long dock to double dock space to deal with the coach boats; this regatta has 50 coach boats on site."
Feo also noted that this year's Long Beach OCR will enable organizers to home in on the coordination around the board sports which will be run out of Long Beach/Belmont Shores in 2028.
"We're excited to be working with the foiling events which is becoming a specialty at ABYC," adds Feo. "This year the club has introduced Foiling Fridays, and in the yard we're constructing racks to handle as many iQFoils as we can in anticipation that discipline will grow along with other foiling craft including Moths and Waszps."
The 2025 Long Beach OCR will be dedicated to the memory of Tom Shadden, a long-time US Sailing member, well-known Long Beach yachtsman, and cofounder the Aquatic Capital of America Foundation and the United States Sailing Center in the Long Beach.
"Tom was instrumental in bringing the Sailing Center alive for the 1984 Olympic Games and we're proud to dedicate this event to everything that he contributed to yachting," says Van Dyke.