The California Offshore Race Week Organizers - San Diego Yacht Club, Santa Barbara Yacht Club, Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club & Encinal Yacht Club have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 California Offshore Race Week due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As representatives of our Yacht Clubs, we believe in the practice of safety as a way of life offshore. Our position has always been that we can only conduct the race if conditions for competitors and local populations made it safe to do so. After continuing to seek guidance from numerous government and medical advisors, it has become evident there is no longer a timeline allowing our sailors and supporters to prepare for and participate in this offshore race safely.
We know how much you love Catalina Island, but in this challenging time, we are asking anyone who is not a primary resident of Two Harbors or the west end NOT to visit for the time being. The healthcare facilities on Catalina lack the capacity to handle a widespread outbreak of COVID-19. This is even more challenging for the small, remote community of Two Harbors.
Health and government officials are recommending social distancing, and while Catalina might seem like the perfect place for that, the reality is that visiting us right now risks lives. Additionally, services across all of Catalina are extremely limited. Specifically, in the Two Harbors area, Banning House Lodge & Villas, Harbor Reef Restaurant, all campgrounds and other public spaces are temporarily closed due to State and County-mandated orders. Furthermore, Catalina Express will not provide boat service to or from Two Harbors after Sunday, March 22.
Ben Mitchell, co-chair of the Puerto Vallarta Race with wife Karen Busch, joined us on the SDYC Sailcast to talk about the upcoming race.
To begin the conversation, Ben talks about what the race is all about, the amount of boats and different types of boats, and some of the details of the route. He discusses the details of being chair as well as being a competitor in the event, and goes into PV over the years, this year being the largest turnout yet.
2019’s Christmas Orange Bowl Youth Regatta, at the Coral Reef Yacht Club in Florida, was a 3-and-a-half-day event. We both competed in Blue Fleet, after two days of practicing with the local clinic. It was a different experience than what we are generally used to in sailing sabots, yet the water was certainly much warmer! One day at the clinic, under the guise of our wonderful instructor Spencer was a sight to see. A flash flood had hit, and the entire Yacht Club was flooded in a foot of water--up to the bottom of the car doors, but in typical Florida fashion the CRYC had dried everything out by the afternoon. During the regatta, we had a very rough time due to the larger waves and stronger wind you don’t usually encounter as much in sabots in California. The wind would also shift regularly on the course - adding to our troubles. The course was a mile or more offshore, which we were not expecting. Overall, however, we both progressed as time moved on. We were a bit disappointed that we missed a couple of races - we were challenged by different racing conditions - but we did not let that ruin our regatta. It was both of our first times racing optimists - while we didn’t perform to our expectations in the event, we feel it was an incredible experience that completely transformed our view on sailing as a sport and also on competitive racing.
Runabout Fleet hosted its first Seminar on Saturday, February 22, 2020 in the Jessop Room.
After an informative one hour, hands on, outboard motor maintenance tips training seminar, 2 San Diego Flotilla USCGAux Officers gave an overview brief and then inspected 8 boats in the SDYC docks and dry storage area. 7 Boats passed with one boat needing only to show his current, valid CA vessel registration to earn the coveted Vessel Safety Check decal.