Tuesday, July 19, 2011

It's been a breezy week of sailing

t's been "breeze on" during the past week.

I have noticed a lot of wide-eyed sailors, race committee members and photographers coming in off the water with looks on their faces as though they had "cheated death one more time."

The Monday night American Legion "Sundowner Series" races have produced a good turnout to start the season. UC Irvine's J-22s are new to the scene and have five new boats racing in class. Could this be the start of a new fleet in town?

Rob "Big Rob" Wallenberg, my good friend from Sailsmile who sails on the Capri 30 "Good Rhythm," told me, "There has been a good turnout and plenty of wind, although we can't catch Violette."

"We need a few more larger boats to show up to slow her down," he said.

Twilights and Beercans take place Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Balboa Yacht Club.

With the big breeze the Laser fleet is coming off the water with large smiles while the Lido 14 fleet is just glad to still have a mast on their boat. The Harbor 20 fleet has 15 entries and is looking forward to another active season.

I posted this on Twitter before Thursday night's Beercans: "You better bring you're A game, because its 'breeze on' for the opening Beercan race." Let's just say that people were walking a little funny after that race.

That first port tack duck always bunches me up, and I always seem to review the "Sea Room" rules with our local umpires, Jeff Keenan or Don Becker, after the season's first windy Beercan.

Our local yacht clubs had it going on last weekend with Newport Harbor Yacht Club hosting the Ahmanson Cup Regatta, Balboa Yacht Club holding the Youth Match Race Clinic & Regatta, and Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club running the Lorin Weiss, Harbor 20, Regatta.

I did not pick up any "on the water" information from Lorin Weiss, but I noticed that Karl Pomeroy won class A and Steve Woodruff won class B. I am still kicking myself for not making this series, and I still miss "the big guy," Lorin Weiss.

Rather than sail in the best Harbor 20 series of the year, I volunteered to do mark set for the Youth Match Race with Steve Kent. With a 5-foot swell and 18 knots of breeze on Sunday, a quote and observation comes to mind.

We had just taken green water over the bow of the Whaler when I said, "Life is so easy when you're simple- minded."

The Ahmanson Cup was the third race in The Newport High Point Series, and because of the big turnout, the leader board has gotten a little tighter for the honor of being Newport Beach's top PHRF boat.

Last year's winner, Pussy Cat, still holds the lead, followed very closely by BYC commodore Peter Bretschger's J 120 Adios," and in third is Amante.

The next race in the series is Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club's Angelman on June 18; it's anyone's series at this point.

I received the High Point Series Burgee from Nikki's Flags the other day, and it looks great. I am also going around town and trying to find other swag to give to the winners of this event.

I think it would be great if the city of Newport Beach gave out parking permits to the winners. If you have any swag ideas for me, let me know. The whole idea is to get more of you to want that burgee!

This weekend we have the BYC 66 Series and on June 10 to 12 we have BCYC's "Around the Islands Race." I heard we are going around the islands the right way this year? Follow me on Twitter at @boseyachts for updated race results and harbor observations.

Sea ya.

LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist.

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