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| 2014 Harbor 20 Championships at the NHYC |
By Len Bose
October 10, 2014 | 5:21 p.m.
Over this last week, we wrapped up the 2014 Newport Beach High Point Series. We have a new Harbor 20 Class champion and Harbor 20 High Point winners.
Every year, our local sailboats race under the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) in an event sponsored by the Assn. of Orange Coast Yacht Clubs (AOCYC).
This series of races is called the Newport Beach High Point Series and determines our harbor's PHRF champion. The Newport Beach High Point started in February with the American Legion running the Midwinter Regatta and wrapped up with the Newport Ocean Sailing Assn. (NOSA) 14 Mile bank race.
The other regattas that make up this series are the Balboa Yacht Club's 1st 66 series race, race eight of the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club's ocean racing series and the Newport Harbor Yacht Club's Ahmanson Cup.
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| Amante taking this years Ahmanson |
By the time we completed three of five races, Roy Jones' J 133 Tango and Brian Dougherty's J 105 Legacy were tied for first and the Richley family's Amante was in a very close third.
Then came the Ahmanson Cup, which was sailed in September. At this point, the Richley family decided to put the hammer down and won their class and took home enough points to take the lead in the High Point Series. With one more race left in the Newport Beach High Point Series, any one of these three boats could have taken home the coveted champion's light blue burgee.
With little to no wind last weekend, the 14 Mile bank race was abandoned and a round of Coors Light was passed around Amante as the race committee notified the participants.
This makes the second year in a row that Amante has won the light blue burgee, with 29 boats entered in this year's series. Be sure to give Amante a "well done" at the start of the BYC Sunkist series on Nov. 2 when you see it on the starting line.
While the 14 Mile bank race was being abandoned, another race had opted to keep going. The Harbor 20 fleet had 41 boats waiting around for wind after completing one race in the Saturday class championships.
With the weather as hot as it was, along with the light wind, this was one of the most difficult regattas I sailed in this year. Shannon Heausler was my crew, and we found some breeze on the far left of the course and sailed into a fifth-place finish on Saturday.
While waiting for the wind to fill in on Saturday, the eventual winners in A fleet, Gale and Jon Pinckney, sailed by, and Jon commented, "So, Len, I guess you sailed all the way over to the left and kissed the pig?" My reply was: "Not only did I kiss the pig, Jon, I dressed it."
Sunday, we got in five races in more light air, and the Pinckneys sailed a very consistent regatta, digging their way through the fleet when they needed to have all top-four finishes. If you are wondering how the Pinckneys did it, Jon wrote a detailed account of the race, and I posted it on my blog site at lenboseyachts.blogspot.com.
Mark Conzelman had a tight battle with five other boats to win B fleet. The difference between first and seventh place was only nine points. In C fleet, Kathryn Reed won on a tiebreaker over Roxanne Chan.
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| Gale & Jon Pinckney |
The Harbor 20 High Points Series results are in for 2014. In C fleet, Michael Volk was third; in second place was Andy Everson; and this year's winner is Jan Houghton. In B fleet, Len Connelly was third; Tom Corkett was second, while Conzelman sailed away with the trophy. In A fleet, Helen Duncan was second, and Peter Haynes took home the trophy.
Before we call it a year and prepare for our winter series, Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club has one more big regatta coming up Oct. 25 and 26. The Corinthian Cup is a junior event sailed in Sabots, Lasers and CFJs.
This is a huge event with approximately 70 to 80 juniors sailors representing themselves and their yacht clubs in an effort to win the Corinthian Cup. NHYC will be defending its title this year.
Sea ya.
LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist.
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