Yachting Cup: Near Caribbean conditions inside San Diego Bay

San Diego, CA (May 2, 2014) – Record temperatures and the sizzle of Cinco de Mayo celebrations set the stage for the 42nd running of the Yachting Cup Regatta on May 2-4. Hosted by San Diego Yacht Club, 11 fleets will compete in one design and PHRF handicap divisions.

The regatta kicked off this afternoon with a single random leg ‘Beer Can style’ race inside San Diego Bay, with 80 degree temperatures and winds gusting to 13 knots providing near Caribbean conditions.

“By having today’s start at 3:00pm, it gave crews and skippers a chance to get organized, work a half day, or just gradually ease into the regatta,” noted event chair Julie Servais. “The idea was to provide some diversity to the race schedule, and since random leg racing typically requires fewer crew, boats that couldn’t gather their full crew wouldn’t be a disadvantage.”

As there are windward-leeward buoy courses scheduled on two ocean courses for Saturday and Sunday, several of the one design classes opted to use today as their drop race. But for the Fast 50, Fast 40, Fast 45 and PHRF C fleets, they reveled in the shifty winds and varied terrain of the Bay.

Keith Magnussen, crewing on the J/125 Timeshaver which finished second in the Fast 40 class, liked the challenge. “The conditions are moving all the time, and not every leg is square to the wind, but that gave us the ability to try out some of the things we had learned on the offshore and coastal races. Given the changing conditions inside the bay, it forced everyone onboard to pay attention the entire time. Gaining or missing a puff or a shift shuffled the fleet.”

Taking the gun in each fleet was Jay Steinbeck’s TP52 Margaritaville (Fast 50), Rick Schuldt’s 1D35 Meridian (Fast 40), Drew Belk’s Beneteau First 40 Precepts II (Fast 45), and David Boatner’s J/35 Rival (PHRF C).

Racing continues on Saturday and concludes Sunday.

Results: http://sdyc.org/events/yachtingcup/results/
Event website: http://sdyc.org/events/yachtingcup
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdyc/sets/72157644487420524/

Photo courtesy of Bronny Daniels (www.joysailing.com).