Get this girl some gold

by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
Among the annual offshore races in Southern California is the Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race. Spanning nearly 80 nautical miles, the only mark of the course is Anacapa Island, about 26 nm offshore from the start. It’s a fairly uneventful downwinder along the coast.

I was maybe 17 years old when I did the race on a Moore 24, which was among the new ‘fast is fun” boats emerging in the 1970s. We weren’t yet at the island when a shark, about our length, was following us. Suddenly our boat seemed really small.

Remarkably, the Pacific Cup Race – 2100 nm from California to Hawaii – typically has Moore 24s, but not in 2026. I suspect that’s because everyone’s focus is on the 50th Anniversary Nationals being held September 25-27 in Santa Cruz, CA.

The Class returns to its spiritual home at Santa Cruz Yacht Club to celebrate one of California’s most beloved one-design keelboat classes. Of the roughly 150 boats built in the 70s and 80s, 75 of them have registered for this event. Still cool with genoa, symmetrical spinnaker, and no lifelines. Get this girl some gold!