College teams take their talents to The Golden State

Ten of the best collegiate sailing teams from across the USA will descend on the Los Angeles Yacht Club to test their sailing prowess as they battle it out for the prestigious Port of Los Angeles Harbor Cup Trophy. This perpetual trophy, which was deeded to the Los Angeles Yacht Club by the Port of Los Angeles in 2008, is to encourage, “…young men and women to enjoy the benefits of competitive sailing.”

The Harbor Cup on March 7-9 is hosted by the Cal Maritime Academy as their annual Invitational Intercollegiate Regatta, and attracts top level college sailors. “The highlight for me is to get to watch these great collegiate sailors, the future of our sport, sailing boats of the same design. It’s a true test of sailing skill,” observed Regatta Chairman Terry Brow.

The Harbor Cup is raced aboard a fleet of Catalina 37s, which are maintained to identical standards by the Long Beach Sailing Foundation. Every aspect of the boats, from weight, to equipment, to rig tuning, is kept exactly the same, so as to promote the fairest possible racing.

This 7th annual Harbor Cup will be raced outside of the breakwater, just past the iconic Angel’s Gate Lighthouse, and the windward mark is usually set off of the beautiful Point Fermin just to the north of the harbor depending on wind direction. College sailing events are usually run aboard small dinghies in protected waters, so the open ocean conditions and larger keel boats will provide a different set of exciting challenges than these young sailors are used to.

Cal Maritime skipper Dillon Lancaster is excited to defend their three year winning streak. “This team is full of energy and we use that to our advantage,” shared Lancaster. “We sail great together and we love to have fun as a team, but when it comes time there is no problem flipping the switch into race mode.”

2014 Participating Schools
California State University Long Beach
California Maritime Academy
College of Charleston
Maine Maritime Academy
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
New York Maritime Academy
United States Naval Academy
University of California Irvine
University of Hawaii
University of Southern California

This year, the Harbor Cup Keynote speaker is Peter Kinney, who was a member of the USA45 Sailing Team for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup. Kinney will be speaking at the LAYC on Saturday March 8th at 7pm about his extensive competitive sailing career. For our full schedule of events, please see the Los Angeles Yacht Club Harbor Cup web site.

Event website: http://www.layc.org/tp60/page.asp?id=296239
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LAYCHarborCup
Twitter: http://twitter.com/layc1901

Report by Jeremy Leonard. Photo by Joysailing.