2011 Yachting Cup

This years Yachting Cup was my first since I was about 16 and I raced on a NY 36.  A lot has changed since then, boats are faster, sails are different, I have some grey hair and Yachting Cup was windy!  The typical light wind venue was nothing of the sort as Saturday saw puffs in the 20kt range.  85 boats competed over 3 courses in their respective classes.  The ocean hosted two courses and the south bay made held the third.

Saturday saw heavy winds, big seas, and lots of carnage.  The ocean conjured up some great racing and wild mark roundings.  Between shrimped, blown out, and twisted sails we actually got some racing in.  Pendragon received the award for most unlucky when they caught an underwater cable after rounding the leeward mark.  The TP 52's were strutting their stuff in the big wind and consistency paid off as Mayhem was quickly becoming the boat to beat.  It's OK. Blue Blazes and Staghound were all closely situated for the final day.

The Farr 40 fleet was extremely close.  Dark Star won the day and led Piranha going into Sunday's final two races.  Flying Tiger's saw two Ullman boats leading the was as Niuhi and Mile High Klub were well ahead of the pace.

Sunday was slightly lighter and a little more friendly to the Southern California crowd.  The exciting Flying Tiger Fleet came down to the last race as Mile High Klub finished the stronger of the two Ullman boats and beat Niuhi to the top of the podium.  A bad start on Niuhi opened the door for Payson Infelise's MHK.   He took full advantage of the mistake to sail into the lead and never looked back.  Both Tigers use 100% Ullman inventory and are sporting the latest spinnaker design.

PHRF I was ever so tight as we came into the final two races.  It's OK managed to hang on for the victory as Staghound finished second and Blue Blazes third.

J-120 fleet was dominated by the Ullman powered Caper as they cruised to an easy victory.

In the J-105 fleet Wings lost out in a nail biter to place second in the highly competitive fleet. Wings uses 100% Ullman inventory.

Schock 35 fleet was dominated by Ullman customers with Code Blue coming out on top of the classic fleet.





Great weekend, good weather and a fun party made this a memorable event for all who participated.

Thanks to Bronny Daniels for the pictures.

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Little Ensenada on the Anarchy

This past weekend Southwestern Yacht Club hosted their showcase event The Little Ensenada. The weather forecast was looking grim and I was not expecting to get into my hotel room at an early hour.

Sailing on the Anarchy is always a good time and regardless of the wind predictions I was looking forward to racing with friends. We drifted around the start line for an hour or so in postponement waiting for any sign of wind. We finally got off and started down the coast to Mexico with the two other spotrboats Mile high Klub and the Cheetah 30 Super Fly. Every time I do a point-to-point race on a Fyling Tiger 10M I ask myself the same question, “Why don’t more people race these boats??”

We had tight racing with MHK until the quit off Rosarito Beach. Unfortunately for them this is where the race got good! The FT is such a good boat in light air downwind that it is hard to imagine what boat this size will challenge it in the conditions we see in S. California. As the wind picked up to about 8kts we wereable to keep the boatspeed at almost the same velocity as the wind!!

We kept ourselves about 2 miles offshore and avoided the temptation to go further out. We thought that boats offshore would have trouble soaking down to the finish line (and I think we were spot on with that prediction).

As we approached Ensenada we saw some tall masts coming across on the opposite jibe. It was this point that we knew we were in the running for the overall. We had sailed the boat really hard and now we could see the rewards. With the finish line about ¼ mile from us the wind shut off!! This is so typical of Ensenada and its bias towards the larger boats. The Santa Cruz 50 Horizon motored past us and let us know that they just finished and we were probably going to win. I just laughed because I knew we were at the point of drifting for the next 45 minutes as we tried to cover 300 yards. So frustrating

When we finally finished it was 1:24am and the last push was not enough for the overall. 1^st in class and 5^th overall was not to shabby on a 30ft boat made in China and probably an 1/8^th of the cost of the boats that barely beat us (I think it was like 25 minutes of corrected time). It was a pleasure to wake up in the morning and watch, from my hotel balcony, boats the same size and bigger finish more than 8 hours after us.

Once again I came away from a weekend of Flying Tiger sailing with a smile on my face and a huge amount of satisfaction. Hopefully people will start to realize the potential of the boat and start buying and racing them in more events like this.

I have to say thank you to Scott Tempesta for another fantastic race and a great time in Ensenada. The crew Todd McGuire, Eva Rummel and Ed McCoy made the trip that much faster with the hard work and relaxed attitudes.

Keith Magnussen

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2008 Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race

Post#10
August 4, 2008
Redondo Beach, California

After a slow start getting away from the Santa Barbara coastline, racers found fresh Westerly winds in the Santa Barbara Channel and set spinnakers for the West end of Anacapa Island. The fleet was met with ideal sailing conditions for a pure speed race from Anacapa to Point Dume and the jibe for the finish at King Harbor.

Winds were perfect 16-20 knots with gusts late in the day up to 25 knots with smooth wind waves to get maximum speed! Ullman Sails customers took advantage of the fast race track and collected the majority of the silver at the prize giving.

Congratulations to Dr. Laura Schlessinger and her crew on the new Flying Tiger 10m "Tigress" for taking 1st Place in Sprit/ULDB class and 1st Monohull on corrected time flying all Ullman Sails.
Congratulations also to Kurt and Erik Mayol and crew on their home built F9K "Exit" for taking 1st place in ORCA and 1st overall on corrected time for the entire fleet sporting all Ullman Sails!
Other class winners and trophy winners with Ullman Sails on board are:

ULDB A: 1st Place "Locomotion" Andrews 45, Ed Feo
ULDB A: 2nd Place "OEX" SC-70T, Peter Tong
ULDB B: 1st Place "Fifty-one Fifty" SC-50, Mike Warns
ULDB B: 2nd Place "Horizon" SC-50, Jack Taylor
Sprit/ULDB: 2nd Place "Comanche" Kernan/Columbia 30, Tim Kernan/Brent Carey
PHRF A: 1st Place "Cool Man Cool2" Sydney 38, Harrel Jones
J-105: 1st Place "Off the Porch" J-105, Scott McDaniel
J-105: 3rd Place "Pendragon" J-105, John Blair
PHRF B: 1st Place "Tigger" J-33, Fred Cottrell
PHRF D: 2nd Place "Elan" Tartan 3500, Doug Mills
for full results go to:http://www.khyc.org/racing/2008/santa_barbara/2008_final_finish_results_080208_1645.pdf

Join the list of winners and race with the Ullman Sails speed advantage on your next downwind race. If you need a new sail or sail repair after the Santa Barbara-King Harbor Race, give Ullman Sails Newport Beach a call to get you taken care of!

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