Sailing Grand Slam in the USA

The 2025 Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta is set to provide world-class racing for ten Olympic classes representing 42 countries in the fourth stop of the five series Sailing Grand Slam circuit. This is the 65th edition of the event with racing on July 12-20 in Long Beach, CA.

Recently confirmed as the LA 2028 venue for board sports, Long Beach is widely known for its consistent breeze and warm summer sailing conditions.

“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,” said event co-organizer Mike Van Dyke.

Daniela Moroz (Walnut Creek, CA) will be competing again in the Women’s Formula Kite Foil after placing fourth at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. She’s thrilled to be competing on home turf as she prepares for Los Angeles 2028.

“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,” said 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 next quad,” 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, Alamitos Bay Yacht Club Commodore, has been largely involved with the logistics associated with pulling off an international regatta of this level.

“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 and accessories,” said Feo.

“For example, the Chinese team have two 40-foot containers which we’ve been able to move to the offsite facility. 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 boat over-flow – this regatta has some 50 coach boats on site.”

Feo also noted that this year’s Long Beach OCR will enable organizers to home in on the logistics around the board sports which will be run out of Long Beach/Belmont Shores in 2028.

“We’re also excited to be working with the foiling events which is becoming a specialty at ABYC. This year the club has introduced Foiling Fridays and in the yard we’re constructing racks to handle as many iQ Foils as we can in anticipation that discipline will grow along with other foiling activities; by the end of this summer, 50% of boats on the racks will be foilers.”

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,” shared Van Dyke.

Details: https://www.longbeachocr.org/en/default/races/race

Source: Michelle Slade

The Sailing Grand Slam consists of the four most iconic Olympic sailing events in Europe as well as a new regatta to be held in the host city of Los Angeles 2028:

• Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca (Mallorca, Spain): March 28-April 5
• Semaine Olympique Française (Hyères, France): April 19-26
• Kieler Woche (Kiel, Germany): June 21-29
• Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta (Long Beach, USA): July 12-20
• Dutch Water Week (Almere, The Netherlands): September 17-21

Details: https://www.sailinggrandslam.com/

Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Sailing Program:
First Week – July 16-20
Men’s Kiteboard – Formula Kite Class – Long Beach, CA
Women’s Kiteboard – Formula Kite Class – Long Beach, CA
Men’s Windsurfing – iQFOiL – Long Beach, CA
Women’s Windsurfing – iQFOiL – Long Beach, CA

Second Week – July 23-28
Men’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 7 – Los Angeles, CA
Women’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 6 – Los Angeles, CA
Mixed Two Person Dinghy – 470 – Los Angeles, CA
Men’s Skiff – 49er – Los Angeles, CA
Women’s Skiff – 49erFX – Los Angeles, CA
Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17 – Los Angeles, CA

Dates: July 16-28