Sailors all over Southern California are eagerly preparing for one of San Diego Yacht Club’s signature offshore races. The 130nm Islands Race begins on February 24, and is SDYC’s first offshore race of 2017. Following the Islands Race is the SoCal 300, the final event of California Offshore Race Week, in May and the Rum Runner race in October.
The 2017 sailing season continued this past weekend, January 28 & 29, in La Playa for one of SDYC’s signature events - the 6th annual Club Championships. As always, competitors brought their energy, talent, and competitive spirit to the race course (and the race dock). The event featured 60 races over two days that were exciting for both participants and spectators.
The wind was a little shy at the beginning of the regatta on Saturday, starting off light from the south. The Race Committee optimistically started a race, but it was abandoned when the wind shut off completely. When the breeze picked up out of the south again, racing resumed. Once again the southerly died after the second start of the first race, but this time the normal westerly had begun to fill and competitors were able to finish the race. The westerly stayed around for the rest of the day and the Race Committee was able to get 28 races in. Sunday’s racing was postponed until just before noon when the wind picked up out of the west. After that, Sunday was a perfect day, with decent wind between 3-8 knots throughout most of the afternoon and temperatures in the mid-70s.