biggie smalls
Long Beach Race Week is one of the largest events on the Southern California racing calendar. It has also been the host for the Open 5.70 Pacific Coast Championships for the last two years. For the 3rd Pacific Coast Championship boats travelled from all over California to compete and try to take the title from the two time winner – Team Festa. There were 15 boats on the start line – the largest one-design fleet at Long Beach Race Week which had a total of 140+ boats competing on three race courses. Click through to read more and see some video…
The 3 days of racing took place on San Pedro Bay inside the Long Beach breakwater where the water remains relatively flat and the breeze is typically in the high teens. Conditions for the regatta ranged from light to medium and the sailors only saw wind in the teens on Friday afternoon. In such a large fleet boats were rewarded for consistency – one mistake that put you at the back of the fleet on any race was terminal in terms of winning the regatta – and this was compounded by the fact there were no throw outs.
There were some familiar names at the front of the pack after two days of racing – Peter Drasnin on “D.I.S.C”, Tracey Kenney on “Hat Trick”, David Brown on “KOA” and two time PCC champion Team Festa on “Il Havic”. There were also some new names on the results sheet – Stephen Gonzalez racing on his brand new boat “Delta V” which came out the factory days before the rance, Michael FitzMaurice who was racing with his son on the recently purchased USA 209.
On the last day of racing the point spread was small and one mistake could shuffle the rankings significantly. With a couple of good races from Jerome Sammarcelli on “Semi-Aquatic” and a great display of consistency from Tracey Kenney the top 4 duked it out for the title. The final outcome was determined in the protest room resulting in “Hat Trick” and crew being the overall winners!
It was an intense 3 days of racing at a great venue in a great fleet. The sailing was fun and fiercely competitive and the festivities at the Yacht Club were well organized making it a great weekend for all those involved.
