The Annual Around Catalina Race held on Memorial Day Weekend
saw some great racing and close finishes.
Every year Dana Point Yacht Club and Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club
coordinate the regatta that has been held since 1981. The Around Catalina Island Race is the fourth stop in the Ullman Sails Offshore Series.
2012 wind models were all over the place and that is never a
good sign. The heavy hitters were hoping
for some breeze to try and compete for the elapsed time record of 7hrs 26 min
held by Taxi Dancer in 2006.
The starting sequence was inverted which meant the cruising
classes were all starting early and then the slower rated PHRF boats were given
a jump on the ‘A’ class yachts to promote similar finishing times. This year I was on the J-125 ’Timeshaver’ as
we were using this race to sort out any kinks before we race Coastal Cup. Before the start the wind was blowing around
20kts and we decided to use this time to test our new 5A spinnaker. This happened to be some of the best sailing
we had as the flat water and breeze allowed us to reach around Long Beach at
15kts of boatspeed! Your missing out it
you have never been on a J-125. These
boats are high performing carbon fiber rocket ships.
After watching
all the boats leave Angels Gate we finally got to our start. We had a mix of good boats in the fleet from
the Farr 40 ‘Temptress’ to the SC-50 Horizon.
We started in around 15kts of wind and got out the gate without
incident. We positioned ourselves a
little higher and closer to Point Fermin than Horizon and White Knight. We were hoping for a lift up to Catalina
Island. Unfortunately for us this did
not occur and the opposite happened. We found
ourselves headed into Horizon’s stern and not looking pretty. Sailing Around Catalina is always a beautiful
sight. As we approached the West End of
the Island all the boats were greeted by Bronny Daniels (Joy Sailing) who was
taking pictures from a chase boat. This
was a treat as it is not often an owner get a picture of their boat rounding
the West End.
Horizon and Temptress were the first around the island and
we were in hot pursuit only 10 minutes behind.
We set the 3A and then went to the 2A as the angle went further behind
us. In front of us the two boats were
getting bigger as we plugged along in the fresh breeze. There was one other boat that had a jump on
everyone and they were looking good for an overall win. To my surprise the boat was the Jeanneau 44
‘Sleeper.’ They were looking really fast
with their large symmetrical spinnaker poled way back and heading right towards
the east end of the island.
Our first jibe was towards
China Point and as we approached the island the wind started to build and
really became J-125 conditions. Our
boatspeed was averaging in the low teens and saw a high of 16kts in about 18kts
of wind. This top speed came up with the
1A up a healthy puff as the sun was starting to sink towards the horizon. Both boats in front of us were getting bigger
and we were now in the hunt.
The East End was rapidly approaching and the wind was
rapidly dying. Not an ideal situation as
we still needed to get passed the boats in front. We decided to try and cut in a little closer
to the island and this seemed to be working….. Until we hit the wind
shadow. Unfortunately we cut it a little
to close and were now firmly in the lee of the island watching everyone sail
around us. Not a good decision as it was
only a ¼ mile difference between some and no wind. The Open 40 was fast approaching and used us
as a road map to show them where not to go.
They successfully avoided our hole and so did a lot of other boats.
When we finally got moving again it was to late and we had
given up way to much distance to recover.
Horizon held on for the A class victory and had the honor of First To
Finish. The real story was the Jeanneau
44 Sleeper as they had a really good race and come out corrected overall
winners! Head over to www.dpyc.org and check out the results.
Thanks to Bronny Daniels for the pictures.
Keith Magnussen
