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C-15 racing in 2024

Hi everyone, Happy New Year!

I wanted to check in with some updates…  here’s the schedule we know about for C-15 racing in 2024:

DateClubLocationEvent
2/3SMWYCMarina Del ReySuper Bowl Charity Regatta
3/16SCCYCMarina Del ReyShallow Water #1 Ice Breaker
3/23HMBYCHalf Moon BayLonderville Regatta
4/27HMBYCHalf Moon BayCommodore’s Regatta
5/2 – 8/29SCCYCMarina Del ReyThu night Sunstroke Series
5/11LWSCLake Washington, SacramentoOne Design Regatta #1
5/25-26ABYCAlamitos BayMemorial Day / Stan Miller
6/15SCCYCMarina Del ReyShallow Water #2 Getting Dinghy
6/16WYCWestlake VillageWestlake Cup
6/22HMBYCHalf Moon BayRear Commodore’s Regatta
6/22LWSCLake Washington, SacramentoOne Design Regatta #2
7/20HMBYCHalf Moon BayTake the Tiller Regatta (Women)
7/20-21Fresno YCHuntington LakeHigh Sierra Regatta – Jim Holder Cup
8/3LWSCLake Washington, SacramentoDelta Dinghy Ditch Regatta
8/9-11SBYCSanta BarbaraC-15 Nationals
8/17HMBYCHalf Moon BayVice Commodore’s Regatta
8/18SCCYCMarina Del ReyOutlook Trophy (outside)
8/24LWSCLake Washington, SacramentoOne Design Regatta #3
9/7SCCYCMarina Del ReyMDR Dinghy Fleet Championship
9/21LWSWLake Washington, SacramentoOne Design Regatta #4
10/5SCCYCMarina Del ReyShallow Water #3
10/26HMBYCHalf Moon BayPumpkin Regatta
10/26LWSCLake Washington, SacramentoOctoberfest Regatta (replaces Turkey Shoot)
11/2SCCYCMarina Del ReyShallow Water #4 Last Light
11/2HMBYCHalf Moon BayDie Hard Regatta

Please let me know if I missed anything, or if you have corrections.

I apologize to the Beaux Arts Washington Fleet actually don’t know who to contact to get your schedule.  If anyone knows a good contact there, please let me know (ole.eichhorn@gmail.com).

Above I have highlighted the High Sierra Regatta as well as the Nationals.  It would be great to have a nice fleet there, such a great place to sail.  (And this year we don’t have the conflict with the Transpac.)  The Class have decided to deed a new perpetual trophy in honor of Jim Holder to the winner of the C-15 Class at the High Sierra Regatta each year.  High time we did this, we’ve been racing there for 50 years now!  Jim was actually there for the first one and is still sailing, so Wow.

I would love to get as much history as I can so we can engrave the trophy with previous winner’s names.  If you won (!) or know who did, or have any records or suggestions on how to find old winners, please let me know. 

You may have heard, the Santa Barbara YC was again battered by a winter storm at year-end, as it was last year.  Fortunately there was less ongoing damage and the club is fine, no impact on the Nationals this summer.  Nothing new to report but will keep you posted.

If there is interest I’d be happy to try to work a deal with Ullman Sails for a fleet discount again.  Let me know if you would like to do this.  Or we could approach North Sails but being bigger they might not be as amenable.

Finally want to note again, the class does have some money set aside for promotion.  What should we do with it?  Super Bowl ad?

Cheers and thanks, and see you on the water!

C-15 Nationals in Santa Barbara on Aug 9-11, 2024, …

Greetings all, checking in with some updates…

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club have graciously agreed to host the C-15 Nationals on August 9-11, 2024.  SBYC is a high-end club with a beautiful clubhouse right on the beach, and a professional race committee.  They host all kinds of major regattas and we are honored to be among them next year.

At SBYC we race out in the ocean, just off the beach, generally mild Westerlies and wave conditions with lots of sun.  The SBYC bar on the second floor of the clubhouse is a perfect place to watch the racing 🙂

The high-level plan is to have the Corp Series on Friday, a pot-luck-type dinner event Friday night, the Nationals on Sat and Sun, and the annual association dinner and meeting at the Yacht Club on Sat night.  I am hoping we might attract enough junior skippers to have a Junior Nationals, maybe a few races on Sat morning.  Your thoughts on this are eagerly invited.

There are many hotels in the area – Santa Barbara *is* pricy – and also camping nearby.  We’ll share more details as we get closer.

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It already seems a long time ago but we had a wonderful 2023 Nationals at Huntington Lake, July 14-16, 2023!  Thank you to Dave Rumbaugh and everyone who helped make it an amazing experience.  There is a great report from Dave right here.

Along with the memories and reports, many pictures were taken.  A repository of them may be found here.  (If you have others, please share!)

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We would like to compile a schedule of all C-15 activity to post a central calendar.  As your yacht clubs / sailing associations create schedules for 2024, please share them.  We have active fleets in Marina Del Rey, Half Moon Bay, Sacramento, and Lake Washington, and a number of other C-15s sailing elsewhere.  Let’s keep everyone in the loop, nothing is more fun than traveling to a new place and sailing a C-15 with new friends.

11/4/23SCCYC / Marina Del ReyShallow Water regatta
11/4/23HMBYC / Half Moon BayLast Gasp regatta
7/13-14/24FYC / Huntington LakeHigh Sierra regatta weekend #2
8/9-11/24SBYC / Santa BarbaraC-15 Nationals

If you have a C-15 regatta or activity report, please share! 

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As a final note, the C-15 Association is in good shape and we have a few dollars available for class / fleet promotion.  If you have thoughts about how these could be spent, please share.  (Super Bowl ad?)  We all agree we don’t want C-15s to be a secret.  And especially we want to support junior sailing and getting more young people into the class.

Cheers, Ole Eichhorn : ole.eichhorn@gmail.com

NAC 2023 recap – July 14-16

Once again the Coronado 15 NACs traveled to Huntington Lake, one of the most
beautiful and amazing places to race that I can think of. Although the fleet was smaller than we had hoped for, the action was jammed packed with tight racing all over the fleet. 10 boats ended up making the trip to Huntington, and the fleet was greeted with great weather and wind despite the extremely hot temperatures in the valley floor below (which can cause clouds, lighter
winds, and even thunderstorms at times). We had 5 races scheduled on Friday, and racing over the weekend in conjunction with the High Sierra regatta schedule of 3 on Saturday, and 2 more on Sunday. With 10 races in the series, and no throw outs, all of the races were going to be important at this event.

Read the full story from Dave Rumbaugh who held on to his championship title after much drama.

Classic view of the Huntington Lake – the C15 fleet is headed to the boy scout camp
2023-C15-NAC-ReviewDownload

NAC 2022 report

Coronado 15 National American Championship August 12-14 2022 
This years’ Coronado 15 North American Championship (NAC) was dedicated to the designer Frank Butler [photo], who sadly passed away on 15 November 2020. Frank designed the Coronado 15 back in 1968 with the intention of creating a fun, competitive and affordable racing dinghy. 54 years on, the fleet is still active and competitive and though dwindling in numbers is still sailed by enthusiastic and passionate racers who enjoy nothing more than coming together to challenge the trophy.
 
Seven boats gathered at the High Sierra Regatta in July to warm up for the National Championship to be hosted by Half Moon Bay, California just a month later. Being host club, Half Moon Bay was able to invigorate local sailors and enter nine boats. Sacramento fielded two boats, Tahoe one boat and three boats travelled up from SoCal making a total line up of fifteen – comparable to 2021. 

Conditions could not have been better for the Championship. The weeks prior to the weekend of August 12-14th were damp, foggy and very low wind. However, the stars aligned, the weather gods co-operated, the sun came out and breezy conditions made for a very competitive, challenging and all-round fun event. 

Friday was the traditional Syd Corp series – designed to determine the Corinthian and Cabrillo Fleets for the Championship itself. Racers were treated to some erratic conditions with winds in the high teens gusting to nearly 30 knots. A number of boats fell foul to the gusty conditions and kept the volunteer chase boat crew very busy. Many racers were unable to join in Fridays’ events due to work commitments and perhaps were relieved to miss these challenging conditions. However, for those who did, there were lots of stories to tell and some urgent repairs to be made before the serious racing began on Saturday. Ole Eichhorn was running on rocket fuel with a local crew for the day, Tom Hughes, while the rest of the fleet did their best to avoid taking a swim in the frigid waters of Pillar Point Harbor. The combined crew weight of Arman Rezaee and his 8-year-old daughter Simone was not enough to keep the boat upright the entire day but certainly not enough to dampen their spirits. While having to retire from one race on Friday, they participated in every race of the NAC series. Very impressive to say the least.

On Saturday the sailors were split into 8 boats in the Corinthian fleet and 7 in the Cabrillo fleet. The conditions continued through Saturday with breezy but more moderate winds than Friday, which allowed for some very tight racing around the marks with often 4-5 boats fighting for room at the marks. Mark rounding skills were certainly put to the test. That’s racing! 
Sunday was a slightly different story. While still being beautifully sunny, the morning began with very light winds, out of the southwest. This is not the typical wind direction for Half Moon Bay. Two short courses were run and as sailors began the third and final race of the series there was a somewhat anti-climactic feeling in the air. However, a very abrupt 90-degree shift in the wind direction during the third race gave the race committee cause for action. The PRO Beth Richards abandoned the race, the course was re-set in record time and an amended course was started within 10 minutes. Comfortable with its more familiar direction the wind picked up and the regatta ended with another breezy, lively, thrice around long course to cap off 3 fun days of racing, leaving racers fatigued but “wanting more”. 

The Corinthian Fleet was won by skipper Dave Rumbaugh (Sacramento) with crew Steve Fishman [photo], very close behind in second place was skipper Ole Eichhorn (SoCal) and third place went to Travis Wilson from Lake Tahoe.

The Cabrillo Fleet comprised predominantly of Half Moon Bay Yacht Club racers and was won by skipper Bence Gazdag with crew Ian Gallager [photo], followed closely by Marc Arsenault and third place went to Carl Hage. 

There were several memorable and take away observations from the weekend. The Hull “First in Fleet” belonging to veteran C15 racer Charlie Quest was present and despite a fallen mast on Friday causing major deck damage, some overnight repair meant this historical hull was still in the mix on Saturday and in fact was leading the 3rd race on Sunday which sadly (for them) was abandoned due to the wind shift. 
Another observation was the number of familial teams. HMBYC first Commodore John Powell raced on Saturday with his grand-daughter Clara, a regular summer camp attendee over the years. Stanly Martin raced with his daughter Zoe, finishing 6th in the Corinthian Fleet and Arman Razaee raced with his budding 8-year-old daughter Simone. “First in Class” was skippered by Charlie Quest with his son Andrew crewing. New to the NAC’s was Ken Coverdell and his son KC and of course the dynamic duo husband/wife team of Marc Arsenault with Claire Sheehan. It is the next generation of up-and-coming sailors that will keep the fleet alive and blossoming and it was so encouraging and heart-warming to see this happening at a competitive level. 
The other take away was the camaraderie amongst the sailors. While on the water its “all business” and competitive. Off the water there were new friendships being forged and old friendships being rekindled. While many sailors may only see each other once a year, it’s the tradition of hosting out of town racers, dinners where stories can be shared over a glass of wine, and where boat maintenance tips and spare parts can be shared in a crisis that make being a part of the Coronado 15 family so enjoyable, inclusive and fun.

 Lucy Gillies NAC 2022 Organizer