Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week brings a high quality event to the West Coast every year and 2015 was no exception. If you have not sailed in this area then you are missing out. More often than not the wind blows a consistent 12-18kts in an area of the USA that has a history of light wind venues. Long Beach California (LBC) is a haven for the wind seekers and we show up every year by the bunch hoping for the big breeze to come through.
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| Team Minor Threat is a family affair and came second in the J70 fleet |
LBRW has been the center of attention every June and this year ABYC and LBYC both rolled out the welcome mats. The ultra competitive J-70 fleet stacked up well and they led the entry list with 20 boats. Racing the J70 in breeze is not only fun but physical as well. Friday was all breeze and chop which makes driving a bit more challenging. Bruce Gollison's "Midlife Crisis" was constantly in the lead throughout the regatta and sailed away from the fleet as the racing progressed. Jeff Janov's "Minor Threat" (which he sails with his two sons) battled with team Catapult for the honor of runner up and came out victorious in that effort. The big news was Ullman mainsails powered the top three boats!
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| J-109 Team Linstar with Carbon GPL Ullman Sails |
The J-109 fleet were on the southern course and once again Electra proved to be just a step ahead. The resurgence of the 109 fleet is good to see as eight boats turned up to fight it out. Some close racing between Sugar and Spray kept things interesting at the top of the fleet. Steve Crooke's "Sugar" came second with a partial Ullman inventory while team Spray came third with a full load of sails from Ullman.
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| J-120 with Ullman FiberPath Race Sails |
If LBRW 2015 suited one type of boat it was a J-120. This popular Southern California one design class keeps its numbers up with tight racing and good spirit. The beautiful boats power up well in the LBC conditions and it was a pleasure to see them charging around the racecourse. It was the San Diego boats though that took full advantage by sweeping the podium. SDYC Commodore John Laun and his "Caper" team edged out Chuck Nichols "CC Rider" for top spot. The racing looked tight and the starts were filled with close encounters. J-Almighty came in third to make it a top three day for Ullman Sails customers.
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| Off The Porch cruising to victory in PHRF 4 |
PHRF 4 was a large fleet with 9 boats entered. It would be an interesting match up between the new Tartan 101 and the tried and tested J-105. It was good 105 weather and Scott McDaneil's "Off The Porch" confirmed their status as champions with a fine regatta.
Scott sent us a nice report: "It is a good weekend on a J/105 when you don’t have to adjust the rig below base. We were on the inside course with the "Con Cup" Cat-37’s and the random leg fleets. We were in the PHRF-4 fleet.
Friday, race 1 was 12 to 14 knots TWS . The course we got was pretty narrow with the windward mark off to the right of the wind. We didn’t get a good start and were playing catch-up. By the end of the second lap we were in front of everyone except Geoff Roth on the dark hulled Tartan 101 "Ceann Saile" . For race 2 the wind was up to 15+ TWS. We went up on our rig to +6 (Ronstan turn buckles). We got a good start and stayed in front of everyone with Ceann Saile taking up a spot right behind us. So we were tied at 3 pts after the first day. Boat handling was great all day.
Saturday morning, had a lot of cloud cover. Not good... By race time, it had filled in to about 9K. The RC got the random leg fleets started but then some storm cells started rolling through. Wind when from 9->20->2->9 on the first cell with almost 90 degrees of shift. The RC waited for a while but finally started us. There was still some storm cells rolling through and we saw big shifts.. The course was narrow again. Second leg we got a course change that put the barges right in the middle of the course. Ceann Saile when left of the barges we went right. I think that helped us a bit. Anyway, we wound up finishing 4th in the race. Syndicate got first and Mistral got 2nd. Fortunately the clouds cleared a little and we started to see some west wind again. Second and third races were in 12 to 14K. Both were really close races. Both races we chased Geoff. Strategy was to not let him get leverage on us and to trust that we were fast enough. Both races could have gone either way, but OTP got the nod in both races.
For Sunday, my brother “sacrificed a few goats” to the wind gods. The clouds were thin and the wind filled in nicely. We used our base rig setting in the first race that started at about 10K but built to 14K. Finished right on Geoff’s stern. Last race the wind built to 16 to 20 knots TWS . Our +6 setting again. For the last race we got to lead the way. Two bullets for the day.
It is all about the crew... We had great boat handling all weekend. Speed. And good wind karma. The weekend really goes to my great crew. Pat, my brother, on main. He is the communicator on the crew. Keeps us all talking about the right things. Kevin on Jib was great! Jenny on Pit kept the sails out of the water... Spencer on Spin. Way to Go! And Lee on Bow, keeping us all honest"
Dave Well on his Choate 40 "Hurrah" showed that the classics are still relevant with a strong third place finish. The top three boats all carried Ullman Sails in PHRF 4.
What would the LBC be like without the Schock 35? Before the Farr 40 came to town the Schock 35 was the place to be for one design racing. The fleet is having a resurgence and some of the best boats in the history of the class were on display! Whiplash is one everyone around here knows! Cole Price now owns her and he moved the team into a second overall with good clean sailing. Bob Marcus and Code Blue took top honors with his new 100% Ullman Schock 35 inventory! Congratulations to a great class!
What can you say about Multi Hulls? Nothing, just look at the pictures! Pete Melvin, multi-hull guru, showed us how to do it on his 8.5meter rocket ship! Jeff Cohen's "Mental Floss" shows that the F-seres is still a force to be reckoned with as he placed third in the tight fleet. His Carbon GPL sails stood the test as he powers through the waves in the picture above.
One of the favorite classes at LBRW is the Catalina 37 fleet. The Congressional Cup boats are charted out to teams from all over the world and it represents one design racing at the purest form. One of the standout teams is Dave Hood's DH3 Racing which is led by local guru Randy Smith. They utilize the opportunity to flex their muscles as the top dogs in a tough fleet. Team DH3 Racing practices and races together regularly and it shows on the course. It also helps that tactician Randy Smith knows this area fairly well.
Dave Hood is Vice Commodore of LBYC and had the distance please of edging out Team ABYC (rivals) who placed second in the regatta. Fun local rivalries make competition so much more fun! Wouldn't you agree?
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| Staghound looking sharp! |
Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week is a team effort and we would like to thank everyone involved. Bronny Daniels must take full credit for all the amazing pictures on here. Please visit www.JoySailing.com to see more of her work (more pictures below!).
We would also like to give a special thanks to all of our Ullman Customers who support us and fly the U/S logo.
2015 U/S LBRW Results - Podium Finishers with U/S Inventory
CATALINA 37 (U/S Spinnakers)
1. DH3 Racing - Dave Hood
2. Team ABYC - Chuck Clay
3. Bruce Ayres
J/109
2. Sugar - Steve Crooke (Partial Inventory)
3. Spray - Peter Nelson (100% U/S Inventory)
J/120
1. Caper - John Laun (100% Inventory)
2. CC Rider - Chuck Nichols (Partial Inventory)
3. J Almighty - Mike Hatch (100% U/S Inventory)
J/70
1. Midlife Crisis - Bruce Golison (Partial Inventory)
2. Minor Threat - Jay Janov (Partial Inventory)
3. Catapult - Joel Ronning (Partial Inventory)
PHRF - 4
1. Off The Porch - Scott McDaniel (100% Inventory)
2. Ceann Saile - Jeff Roth (Partial Inventory)
3. Hurrah - Dave Weil (Partial Inventory)
PHRF RL-1
2. Velos - Kjeld Hestehave (100% Inventory)
PHRF RL-2
2. Green Dragon 2 - Gary Green (Partial Inventory)
3. Tigris - George Kovacs (Unknown Inventory - Dana Pt. Boat)
PHRF RL-Multihull
3. Mental Floss - Jeff Cohen (100% U/S Inventory)
Schock 35
1. Code Blue - Bob Marcus (100% U/S Inventory)
2. Whiplash - Cole Price (Partial Inventory)
3. Uncle Bob - Larry LeVille (Partial Inventory)
Viper 640
3. Last Call - Alex Steele (100% U/S Inventory)
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