.Every year District 13 has the local squadrons host sail races.  There are 13 that participate in these races.  Here is a blow by blow account by one of the skippers of the winning sail boat.  For this race our committee boat as always was P/C Nick Saakvitne, AP beautiful 63 ft. motor yacht make by Hatteres.  For trophy's Redondo decided to do something different.  During the race we took some really nice photos of the boats sailing along and coming past the finish line.  We decided to put them in frames and have the name of the boat and it's place in the race mounted on the frames.  They were well received by the participants.  The following is the account of the race. There are also pictures below.

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES

As to the "Worst": As you scanned the horizon prior to the race, you didn't see hide nor hair of ANGEL WINGS, the dazzling Catalina 36, PRIME TIME, the better then ever Islander 30; CASCADE, the classy Bristol 41.1: ESCAPADE, the ever fast, blue hulled Ericson 38, ZIG-ZAG, the lighting fast Viper nor AQUILA, the gorgeous Island Packet 350. They just weren’t there. I know there were good and valid reasons that people couldn't be there and additionally, the stars and planets were all out of alignment ,but still it undoubtedly was the poorest turn out in a decade. In any event and to paraphrase an old Brooklyn Dodger lament, wait till the next race.

With a good steady wind blowing the Race Committee chose a 9.7 nautical mile course. The count down to the start was flawless and at precisely noon the Starting cannon went off. It was probably heard for miles around, For the start of the race RENEGADE and INSOUCIANT chose the standard close hauled starboard tack while GEMINI started on a port tack. The reasoning for GEMINI’s port tack was that with only three boats the line wasn't crowded and a port tack was the shortest tack towards the first mark. While the tactic was correct the execution suffered and GEMINI crossed the line 20 seconds late. So RENEGADE and INSOUCIANT crossed the start line simultaneously with the sound of the canon, in a brisk breeze toward Mark 30. RENEGADE immediately went over to a port tack with GEMINI bring up the rear, INSOUCIANT continued toward the breakwater on starboard. The sleek RENEGADE reach the mark first, followed by GEMINI and INSOUCIANT. RENEGADE had a problem launching her spinnaker and lost a bit of time while GEMINI had a flawless spinnaker set on their way to Mark 32, a 2.2 mile leg. After rounding Mark 32 it was back to the breakwater close-hauled to Mark 31. Rounding the mark it was RENEGADE, GEMINI and INSOUCIANT. The next leg was a long Spinnaker reach to Mark 39. At 39 we encountered a minor traffic jam when we met some multi hulls that were racing and going in the opposite direction. We were able to duck them as multi-hulls make sort of wide skidding turns. Once again we were close-hauled on the way to the Finish Line. The Committee Boat clocked each of the finishers with a horn and cannon blast. After the handicaps were calculated the standings were, GEMINI, RENEGADE and INSOUCIANT. Those unfortunates who were unable to make the race missed the best racing day this year and they also missed out on some terrific cookies.

Committee boat leaving the docks in Marina del Rey

Going down the channel

D/C Marla Brown, Janet Atkinson and Sharon Saakvitne

Janet, Angie and Carlos

Taking a picture of the picture taker.

Getting food on the table

Oil island where we anchor for the start of the race

Ken Fiske putting out the anchor

Having lunch waiting for the race to start.

How close is too close?

First Place Winner "Gemini"

Second Place "Renegade"

Third Place "Insoucant"