Santa Barbara’s racing season starts very early in the year. The first race of the Hot Rum Series in January was moderate breeze while the second one was plagued with very thick fog. The starting order is determined by PHRF ratings with the highest rated boats starting first and the lowest starting last. Theoretically all the boats should finish at the same time. The 32 entrants range from Harbor 20s with a 230 rating to a RP 68 at a -69. 
Saturday February 9th was the 3rd and final race of the series. The wind was blowing 20 to 25 knots with some smaller boats electing not to go out. 19 boats finished the race but the most exciting part was the photo finish. Leading the race to the finish line was a J24 Bullet followed by a J105 Repeat Offender. However, the Farr 40 Skian Dhu was closing fast with the RP 68 Taxi Dancer looking to pass all three. The J105 beat the J24 by 1 second and Taxi followed behind by another 4 seconds. The Farr 40, having been rolled by Taxi a couple minutes earlier, finished 21 seconds later. The series went to Taxi Dancer with 9 total points.
*Taxi sails with Redline spinnakers and Grand Prix Carbon upwind sails from Ullman Sails
Repeat Offender J105 has a 100% Ullman Sails Inventory
Larry Harteck
