See the action from the Cal 25 Regionals, click Below.
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Select Long Beach Yacht Club and then Cal 25
What a weekend of racing. Great winds between ten and twenty knots (gusting to twenty-two K), sunny skies, warm air, flat water,great food, great camaraderie and oh yes-
Great Racing.Seven boats were entered and six made it to the starting line. The contesting boats consisted of Discovery, Iguana, One Time, Nemesis, ReimanNReason, and Tiburon. Go Big Daddy was entered but couldn't make it to scratch. The owner, Charlie Legeman, was off racing in the Transpac.
PRO Don Warner and his crew did a fabulous job of giving us great courses and keeping things moving. I'm not sure that I can recap every race but I'll do my best.
The racing was as competitive as I have ever seen it and I''ve been racing these boats since Christ was a carpenter. In the two days of racing there were three different boats taking a "bullet." Brad Willingham's "Discovery" was the star of Day 1 with two bullets and a third place finish. Everyone else was stacked up close behind.
The first race on Saturday belonged totally to Discovery. They took the lead off the starting line and never gave it up. Not much to say, they went fast and the rest of us tried to catch up.
Saturday's second race was shaping up to be a historic battle between Discovery and One Time. Discovery won the heat to the windward mark while One Time was only inches behind. It was at that time that One Time imploded on the spinnaker set and by the time they got one problem fixed, another one popped up, and then another, and another, and another, as-infinitum. A great battle turned into a cluster and One Time ended with a fourth place finish. Another bullet for Discovery. You don't make mistakes against those guys without paying the price.
Day one concluded with the "old guys" from Reiman N Reqson catapulting off the starting line line on the day's final race and then go out and eat cake alone while the rest of us were battling for the crumbs. There are times when those guys are so fast that you just sit there and wonder where they get all that speed. One Time wasn't enjoying life very much because they fouled Tiburon and had to do a 360 to clear themselves. They battled back for a second place finish but the race belonged to Reiman N Reason. However, in the final analysis the day belonged to Discovery.
After the day's racing everyone went to the Long Dock where we celebrated, with champagne, the long awaited return of Dennis Diem's " The Iguana." Dennis has been restoring this boat for several years and it came out great. It's also very fast as you will soon read. Saturday ended with a great fleet dinner at the Long Beach Yacht Club. Forty four attendees were present mostly lying about what went wrong. The libations, the food and the camaraderie were truly enjoyable.
Day 2
began with Iguana taking off and leading everyone around the marks. They had position on Discovery and pretty much controlled them all the way. One Time had great position on everyone except they went "OCS" and had to return to do it all over again. Advantage gone. I can't tell you how great it was to see Iguana out there racing again and taking a bullet to boot.
The second race was a three lap behemoth that tired everybody out. One Time finally got the start they were looking for and got ahead of the pack. Problem was that the pack was right behind. No time to relax and enjoy the view. Tiburon was pushing One Time all the way for three laps. The rest of the guys were pushing Tiburon. The vistory went to One time but they certainly had no time to enjoy it while it was going on.
The final race of the day was painful to a lot of people. Historically, the Regionals have always been limited to five races. This year an additional race was added to the mix. Had they remained at five then Discovery would have been a walk away winner. As it turned out Discovery had a main halyard blow during the race and their third place position quickly evaporated before they could fix it. One Time got another great start and drove to the front followed closely by Tiburon. Dicovery was right there in the mix until their unfortunate equipment failure. The rest of the boys were "duking it out" as best they could. One Time took the race and their victory propelled them into a numerical tie with Discovery for the overall championship. The tie was broken in One Time's favor and for the second year in a row One Time is our Regional Champion. Congratulations to Art Scott, Monica and the rest of the crew. Discovery took second place and Reiman N Reason took third. Tiburon showed great speed all weekend and were in every race until the very end. Their program has come a long way in just a few short years. Congratulations to "The Iguana" -nice to see you back. Congratulations to all the competitors who battled hard and raced competitively.
The real winner of the weekend, however, was Cal 25 racing. One member of the race committee commented as to how enjoyable it was seeing the racers battle so hard on the water and then enjoy each other's company so much at the social events. People notice what we have here.
We still have a lot of racing left this summer and don't forget, our Fleet Championship is scheduled for Nov 6th.
Back at the dock all the crews celebrated a great day of racing.
Dennis Diem celebrated the Iguana’s return to racing after a three year restoration. It turns out you can get 14 people on a cal 25 without sinking it (At least while at the dock)
Celia (Left) helped make sure the dinner was decorated perfectly.
