Inaugural event delivers for keelboat class organizations

The Newport Harbor Yacht Club successfully hosted its inaugural One Design Offshore Championship event on June 9-11. Close competition dominated the three-day regatta with Invisible Hand, skippered by Frank Slootman taking first in the Pac52 class, while Chuck Nichols’ CC Rider winning the J/120 class.

“This was a great tune up for Long Beach Race Week with flawless weather and incredibly competitive racing in a beautiful setting,” said Slootman, whose team just completed a trifecta in the first offshore event in the boat’s debut season, the SoCal 300, monohull line honors, 1st in ORR Division A.

“The Pac 52 class was excited to participate in this first annual regatta and look forward to coming next year. Kudos to the entire Newport Harbor Yacht Club staff for putting on a stellar event, especially without a yacht club. No yacht club, no problem.”

The J/120 is one of the few keelboat one design classes racing as a fleet in Southern California, with high quality battles taking place between first place finisher CC Rider and second place Caper.

“It was great to be in such good company, especially as we were against teams with extensive local knowledge,” said Nichols. “We were pushed every day to do our best and will definitely be back.”

“We are very happy with this inaugural regatta and want to thank the competitors who made this a great success,” said Paul Stemler, regatta chairman. “We want this regatta to become ingrained in the early regatta schedule and look forward to hosting this event the same time in 2018.”

Event details – Results – Photos

Source: Chris Goddard