Inaugural Series Offering Competition and Camaraderie

A new offshore series has been organized to provide an opportunity to experience the California coast from San Francisco to San Diego. Beginning in 2016, California Offshore Race Week will combine historical races with a modern design, offering competition and camaraderie on May 27-June 4.

Starting on Friday, May 27 in San Francisco Bay, the first race will be the Spinnaker Cup which has the fleet sail out under the Golden Gate Bridge and down the coast 88nm to the beautiful coastal city of Monterey.

After a short layover in Monterey, the racing picks up again with Coastal Cup, starting on Sunday, May 29th in Monterey Bay and sending the fleet down the coast past Point Concepcion and into Santa Barbara. This is a new course layout for Coastal Cup, which fits it into the Race Week and is also a more manageable course length than some of the course layouts in the past.

With two or three days in Santa Barbara for rest and repair, offering a chance to see the beautiful city and surrounding countryside, much of which consists of wineries and other attractions, the Race Week fleet on Wednesday can join the ‘just for fun’ in-port race for the opportunity to meet many of the local racers who will be out for their Wednesday Beercan Race that day.

The final race of the series starts on Friday, June 3rd with the second running of the SoCal 300. The fleet will start in Santa Barbara and head out into the Channel Islands, passing between Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands, heading south inside San Nicholas Island, then out past the Cortez Bank and finally into San Diego for the finish.

The CORW Committee – consisting of Encinal Yacht Club, San Francisco Yacht Club, Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club, Santa Barbara Yacht Club, and San Diego Yacht Club – has been working hard over the past few months to bring this schedule together. The emphasis is being put on having a more traditional type of race week that consists of not just racing, but an opportunity for a week of fun and excitement, both on and off the water.

The race layout gives teams the opportunity to see the best that the California coast has to offer and also sets up a great event for both the grand prix race yachts as well as the casual racer/cruisers sailing with family and friends. Race tracking by YellowBrick will allow spectators to follow along and families can meet their teams as they finish in each city, ready to spend a great couple of days ashore at each stopover.

Additional information to become available soon. The event website is under construction at www.offshoreraceweek.com