Month: July 2024

The annually awesome High Sierra Regatta took place last weekend and there were six C-15s, who enjoyed the usual awesome wind, great racing, mountain lake vistas, and nice people.  Congrats to Dave Rumbaugh and Steve Fisher for winning all six races and repeating as High Sierra Champions.

I had a little GoPro running and have compressed five races’ worth of video into about 25 min; if you’re interested, here is a link:

C-15s at High Sierra Regatta

I apologize that the videos were all shot from my boat.  Maybe next year we fly a drone 😊

Racing action at the High Sierra regatta

As usual, Huntington Lake is stunning and amazing and a wonderful place to race sailboats

C-15s have sailed in the High Sierra regatta for over 50 years – we think the first year might have been 1971 – but until now there hasn’t been a perpetual trophy awarded to the winners.  Now there is one! – the James Holder Trophy has been created, in keeping with Fresno Yacht Club tradition a beautiful slice of tree, with a Laser engraved line drawing of a C-15 created about 40 years ago by Peter Drasnin. 

To the victors go the spoils – Dave Rumbaugh and Steve Fisher win the new James Holder perpetual for winner of the C-15 Class in the High Sierra regatta.  If you look closely you can see we’ve attempted to record all the previous winners.  The record is incomplete; if you know of someone who won in a particular year, please let me know!

In addition to winning the regatta Dave also demonstrated his awesome BBQing skills at the wonderful pot luck on Saturday night.  Many stories were told and some of them were even true.

Other great competitors included the venerable Charlie Quest, Lucy Gillies, Carl Hage, and Marcus Dyer.  See the video for racing action!

Next, another update on the upcoming C-15 North Americans in Santa Barbara.  Please sign up if you haven’t already:

https://www.sbyc.org/2024-c15-na-championship

I have an important note: North Sails and Ullman Sails have each agreed to help sponsor this regatta (!), and so the personalized mini-duffel bags / tote bags will now be free for all competitors.  If you sign up, please select the bag as an option, and we’ll make sure to get you a refund.  If you’ve already signed up but didn’t select a mini-duffel, please go back to edit your registration to select one.  This way we’ll be able to personalize a bag for you in time for the regatta.

And I’ll repeat my evergreen offer to matchmake between skippers who want boats and people who have boats that aren’t sailing and would be willing to charter.  I’ve already matched three and am happy to do more!

The regatta is shaping up nicely, we should have about 15 competitors including several champions and many ex-champions, not to mention a lot of super nice people.  And we guarantee warm weather, good wind, and a beautiful ocean venue.

Cheers and please stay tuned for more soon!

Hi all –

Hope you are having a great summer and sailing as often as possible.  Remember “time spent on the water is not subtracted from your total.”  Some notes:

• The High Sierra regatta is next weekend!  Please plan to attend – always a great regatta and place to sail.  Registration and info here: https://www.fresnoyachtclub.org/high-sierra-regatta

I raced a Laser at Huntington Lake last weekend (the first weekend of the High Sierra regatta), and it was gorgeous and amazing as always.  If you’d like to see three hours of racing compressed into 15 minutes, here’s a link: 240714 Laser HSR W1 D2 R3,4,5

• Please register for North Americans if you haven’t already:
  https://www.sbyc.org/2024-c15-na-championship

And see my note below regarding the mini-duffel / cooler bags … 

From an informal count it appears we’ll have about 15 participants, including some champions, ex-champions, champions from other classes, an Olympic Champion (!), and many great and friendly people.

• The Marina Del Rey fleet has been active all summer, sailing the “Shallow Water” series in the harbor, and “Sunstroke” races on Thursday evenings.  Averaging about 5 boats for each regatta out of about 9 boats active.  After 50 years we still have the most popular dingy in the harbor 🙂

A great innovation this year has been using “big boats” as the Race Committee.  This has allowed people to go out on the water as guests to watch the racing, entertaining for them and the sailors too.

• Thanks to the Half Moon Bay fleet for the update on the Vice Commodore Regatta below, which featured 7 C-15s.  Yay.

• Please keep your reports and pictures coming, and I’ll be delighted to relay.  We all like to read about and see C-15s racing in other places.  (Seattle fleet?)

Cheers and please stay tuned

Hi all, some C-15 updates…

First, if you haven’t registered for the North Americans yet – information and links below – please do so.  It makes it so much easier for me and the regatta team if we know who-all are coming.  Santa Barbara, August 5-11.

• The qualifier day (Friday), aka the Syd Corp series, in the longtime tradition of the class, will be a separate regatta solely for the purpose of seeding everyone into A and B for the Nationals.  If you can’t make it no worries, we’ll figure out the right Fleet for you.  It will be an excellent practice day and a lot of fun so do join us if you can.
• If you’ve registered you may have noticed an option for a personalized mini-duffel / 12-can cooler bag (pictured above right).  There will be two lines of white writing:
                         2024 C-15 North Americans
                         <your-choice: boat name, motto, etc>
  If you register soon enough we’ll be able to personalize them in time for the regatta, so please do so.
• I am continuing to matchmake people who want to charter a boat with people who have a boat for rent.  Recently two more good boats have become available, yay.  Please keep me updated if you’re looking for a boat or can’t sail and want to rent your boat out.
• Several of you have indicated you’re still looking for housing and I’m working on that too; please stay tuned.

Okay, now to the High Sierra regatta, which is in less than two weeks: July 20-21.  I hope to see you all there!  As previously mentioned, we have commissioned a new perpetual trophy to be awarded to the winner of the C-15 class at the High Sierra Regatta.  See pic above – it’s a gorgeous piece of wood, in the tradition of HSR trophies, lasered with a beautiful illustration of a C-15 made [many years ago!] by Peter Drasnin.  You will want to be there to compete for this trophy!  On top of all the other reasons to go and sail at this wonderful venue.

Next I’d like to relay a Half Moon Bay regatta report from Claire Sheehan (thank you for sharing!), about their recent Vice Commodore’s Regatta:

Hi Fellow sailors!

We had wind and fog, sun and fun!

More young women in crew positions than ever! Out of 7 boats, 5 had female crew and most were under 20!

But this guy, Charlie Quest, aged 80, takes the cake! Here with fellow sailors, John Eurich, Carl Hage and Eric Flynn.

David Rumbaugh and Stevie won 5 races. There were only 6!

Lucy Gillies in second with Natasha as crew.

Marc Arseneault and wife, Claire, came in third.

See you in Huntington!!

Claire

Cheers and see you soon

Hi all, from the SBYC Race Director:

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club is pleased to invite the Cornado 15 class to compete in the North American Championship held in beautiful Santa Barbara, California on August 9-11, 2024.  Competitors can register and find the Notice of Race at https://www.sbyc.org/2024-c15-na-championship. 

The event will consist of a qualification day on Friday, August 9, followed by a championship series on August 10-11. Santa Barbara boasts an average temperature of 77 degrees, while the water temperature is roughly 64 degrees. Winds tend to be from the WSW and range between 10-20 mph in the afternoons. Register early to get early entry discounts and order custom embroidered bags and don’t miss out on this year’s rendition of the C15 North American Championship!

I had previous shared a detailed schedule and maps, please see below.  Further (and more accurate) information is in the NOR at the link above.

I have canvassed the delegation and it appears we will have about 15 competitors.  They are rumored to include our current Champion and three ex Champions, several sailors who have won championships in other classes, and one Olympic Champion.  Please join us for some great sailing! 

I want again to help matchmake between people looking for boats to charter and people who want to rent out their boats.  Right now there is a surplus of people looking for boats; if you won’t be able to attend the regatta and would like to make your boat available, maybe we can make a deal.

Please let me know if you have any questions will be delighted to answer!
Cheers and see you in Santa Barbara