ABYC Fourth of July Pursuit Race and BBQ

Today, Saturday July 7th we entered Pacific High in the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club 4th of July Regatta pursuit race--- followed by a BBQ get together on the club lawn with good conversation among friends.

The Westerly filled in very early and it promised to be another of those famous Long Beach consistent 15 -17 knot afternoons -- which it was.

Joining me were long time friends and talented sailors, Bruce and Margo Golison and (ABYC PRO Extraordinaire) Mark Townsend. Mark had a rare free weekend day so jumped at the chance to actually go sailing! It was lucky we snagged him as the breeze really filled in and he knows his way around a boat.

In the monohull fleet Pac High was the scratch boat and had to cool her heels as the rest of the 25+ boat fleet took off on their respective start times . (Cal 20's, Etchell 22's, Tempests, Finns, Lasers, Laser Radials, Snipes, Coronado 15's, Capri 25, Schock 35 among others). There was a fleet of A Class Cats entered but inexplicably they started only three minutes behind us--- so scoring them in our fleet was an obvious error as they passed everyone within 25 minutes (us in 8 minutes) into a 1 1/2 hour to 2 1/2 hour race depending on the boat you were on. The A Class Machines that did not capsize finished the race in 1 hour or less. But who cares (and know one did) as the point of the day was to have a great day on the water and enjoy each others company ashore.

By the time we started the fleet was gone!----- We had no idea what was to transpire but patience, conservative and good sailhandling along with going the right way up both beats on the 10 mile 2 lap W/L course paid off. We passed the last 2 boats (a Cal 20 and a Laser Radial) with about 3/4's of a mile to go to take the race, finishing in front of the club after sailing down the Long Beach Jetty Channel.

Bruce, Margo and Mark really hustled and we all had a great time. I am most pleased with our little pocket rocket. We hit 14 knots in a solid knot puff on on the last downwind leg and grins were all around.

Nest Saturday is the Seal Beach to Dana Point Race-- Good times.