It's just over week away, the 3rd running of the California Offshore Race Week, with the start of the 1st leg, the Spinnaker Cup, an 88 nm sprint from San Francisco to Monterey departing May 26. Then boats will embark on Monday May 28th for the 204nm gear busting Big Sur Tour aka Coastal Cup that takes the fleet to Santa Barbara YC where they will relax for a short stay before gearing up for 245nm SoCal 300 which will lead them through the Channel Islands and down to San Diego, beginning on Thursday May 31. Being that the CORW is comprised of 3 offshore legs with an evening beer can tossed in at SBYC, the majority of the entrants will participate in just one or two of the legs. See entry list here. But there are 10 boats this year that have signed up for all 3 legs.

54 boats, 450 sailors, 5 yacht club hosts, 530+ miles of sailing, and 3 races made up the 2017 California Offshore Race Week. Sailors and families spent Memorial Day weekend and the following week in some of California’s finest locations: San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara and San Diego. Boats ranged from the doublehanded Moore 24 to several Santa Cruz 70s, and everything in between along with two multihulls. And the conditions varied just as much, starting with light conditions heading out of San Francisco Bay, peaking with high 30 knots during the overnight Coastal Cup, and slowing to a crawl in the final day of the SoCal 300 for most. The courses also brought out different challenges, particularly the SoCal 300 scoring of 4 race legs giving navigators additional things to consider when strategizing the race plan.

James Goldberg and the crew of the J/109 Junkyard Dog experienced the full spectrum of fun sailing and challenging conditions during the 2017 CA Offshore Race Week. Read from James about the differences in the three races, and how they supported the boat Snafu while the Coast Guard arrived on scene of their dismasting.

Returning for its second year, the 2017 California Offshore Race Week featured the combined powers of five yacht clubs along the California coast. With efforts from Encinal Yacht Club, San Francisco Yacht Club, Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club, Santa Barbara Yacht Club, and San Diego Yacht Club, a week-long schedule of races occurred covering almost 600 miles of the California coast between May 27 and June 3.

HL Enloe's ORMA 60 Mighty Merloe took down another course record, breaking last year's pace by over an hour with an elapsed time of 22:09:18 in the 240 mile SoCal 300 race. Last year's Mighty Merloe finish time was 23:13:12. 2017 is the third year of racing this course.

For a pair of experience ocean racers in the 2017 Coastal Cup, an overnight race from Monterey to Santa Barbara quickly turned into a challenging night of survival. With excellent support from two fellow competitors boats and the US Coast Guard, both sailors and the Moore 24 sailboat made it safely to shore the by the following day. Article courtesy of Eric Simonson, Pressure-drop.us

Encinal Yacht Club's Commodore Doug Perry's report on the communications with Snafu and Chim Chim during the Coastal Cup: "At 19:26 on Monday the Race Committee received a phone call from Chim Chim that they were about 35nm from Morro Bay with a broken rudder and were dropping out of the race. We were able to connect them with the Coast Guard and after talking with them the crew decided to continue on to Santa Barbara. At about 0830 on Tuesday they texted that they were making fine, but slow, progress. Their tracker showed them off of Point Conception and about 40 NM from Santa Barbara.

A wild ride in many respects for the 16 boats racing in the 2017 Coastal Cup. First off, the Moore 24 Snafu with Karl Robrock and Gilles Combrisson sailing doublehanded broke their mast before midnight just north of Morro Bay. Coast Guard airlifted the two sailors safely to shore, and their primary concern now is recovering the boat before more damage is done. A recovery plan is in the works, so we wish the best to the Snafu crew in their efforts. Fellow competitors Azure and Junkyard Dog were in the vicinity of Snafu and stood by in support until a rescue plan for the crew was in place. More details to come.