By LEN BOSE
Sunday, July 17 was the start of the 85th Flight of Newport Beach. I am sure there are many readers who remember this race as the Flight of the Lasers, Kites or Snowbirds over the years.
Five years ago, I interviewed Seymour Beek, who referred to the race as “The Flight,” because over the years, the race has been sailed in the Snowbirds from 1948 to 1970, Kites 1972 to 1973 and now Lasers from 1975 to the present. The Laser also happens to be an Olympic-class boat. Over the last four years, the Harbor 20 fleet has joined the Lasers to compete in separate classes for the Flight of Newport Beach.
In 1954, Tom O’Keefe won The Flight and I had a chance to talk to him over the phone. “At that time, The Flight was the largest one-design race in the world. I recall once I got into the lead, there was a newsreel boat filming the race and it later played in the theaters. I also remember all the powerboats in the bay blowing their horns at the finish line when I won the race. It was a big deal at that time,” O’Keefe said.
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| Joysailing .com |
He also recalled a story about a competitor whose boat did not measure into the rules and this person had won several different regattas that summer. There was someone who took offense to this competitor and swam from Balboa Island and tipped the boat over just before the start of the race. O’Keefe remembers the harbor department following the swimmer back to the beach he had come from. “I still have the silver-plated bowl I won as the take-home trophy that year. I will always remember all those boats,” O’Keefe said.
This year, I checked in with Alex Curtiss who had just won his third consecutive Flight. Over the last two years, Curtiss has won the H20 Flight, and the year preceding that, he won the Laser Flight – one of only two people who have won both classes. Curtiss has sailed with Robert Kinney in both of his H20 victories and shared his race with me. “After a slow start, we round the first mark in 8th place, then while sailing up the Lido Channel towards Z mark we made our gains and took the lead. The top three boats round the last mark very close together. It was Jungle Ball all the way to the finish,” Curtiss said. Brian Bissell had rounded the last mark in second followed closely by Jon Pinckney. The term Jungle Ball means throwing the lead around in any direction with the wind shifting to the left. Team Curtiss/Kinney took the checkered flag while Team Pinkney finished in second and team Bissell placed third.
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| Team Curtiss/Kinney |
Five years ago I talked with Jon Pickney, who has won The Flight more than anyone else with seven wins. He is now up to eight Flight wins by winning the first Harbor 20 flight in 2017. Since he only finished in second this year, by a couple of boat lengths, I thought it would interesting to talk to his son, Morgan Pickney, who at the age of 15 had just won his first Flight of Newport, sailing a Laser. Morgan had a difficult start and felt he was in 15th place coming off the starting line. Keeping his composure and reviewing his observations, he continued on a port tack after mark “1” heading toward Bayshores. “I had noticed the marine layer had been burning off and expected the right shift to be coming in sometime soon. As predicted, the shift came at the opportune time for me and I took the lead going to the second mark of the race,” Morgan said.
I enjoyed talking to Morgan because the amount of information he described while sailing the course was intriguing. Another thing that I appreciated was he expressed an interest in all the names on the trophy and truly took in the history of The Flight of Newport. With my awareness decreasing with age, the task of finishing ahead of any of the Pickneys seems to be a difficult task.
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| Buddy Richley |
I also had a chance to talk with Buddy Richley who finished second in this year’s Lasers fleet. “I had a good start that went as planned, maybe too good. I rounded the first mark with a good lead and decided to cover who was in second place and tacked onto starboard shortly after rounding the first mark. As I approached the NHYC moorings and tacked onto port, there was some kid hooked into this huge right shift and was gone. While working my way up towards Z mark there were a couple of left shifts, so I thought I had a chance to regain the lead, yet I still had to fight to keep my second place with the competitor behind me. Downwind the kid sailed away...it’s good to be young,” Richley said. I then told Richley that was a Pickney and he replied, “Pickney, that figures!” I could hear his sigh through the phone, “You mean Morgan Pickney?” Richley has placed 2nd twice in the Flight and 3rd and 5th over the years. He then asked me if I knew of any good H20s for sale.
With the Flight of Newport now completed, it appears we are on the final leg of summer sailing and I am extraordinarily appreciative of our harbor and how we all can still compete and abide by practicing proper social distancing.
Sea ya!
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Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for Stu News Newport.
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