While California might not have an excessive number of welcoming harbors for cruising sailors, it’s enviably long, north-to-south waterline makes it ideal for distance racing, especially if you don’t mind sometimes-cold water, sometimes-strong winds, and seas that enjoy a “significant” amount of fetch. But catch the conditions right, and the sailing can involve a lot of fun, fast angles, plenty of Pacific Ocean spray, and the chance to light up the offshore afterburners. For example, the SoCal 300 (May 31-June 1) starts on the waters off of Santa Barbara and takes the fleet of competing boats south to San Diego, passing the islands and the entrance to Los Angeles Harbor before crossing the finishing line between two San Diego channel-entrance buoys (“SD 5” and “SD 6”).

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati Multi 70’s Team will set sail from San Francisco for the first edition of the CA 500 tomorrow at 13.00 local time (20.00 UTC and 22.00 Italian time). The CA 500 is the last event of the California Offshore Race Week, a series of races organized by the Encinal Yacht Club, the Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club, the Santa Barbara Yacht Club and the San Diego Yacht Club. The CA 500 course is approximately 500 miles long, from San Francisco to San Diego: after crossing the starting line, off St. Francis Yacht Club, the fleet will leave Farallon Island Light to port before heading towards the finish line off San Diego.

The 2019 Coastal Cup was the fastest race in the recent 5 year history, with new elapsed time, ORR corrected and ORRez corrected times established by three different boats. In fact, the first 15 finishers all eclipsed the previous record from 2017. But for those that didn't finish by about 11:00 on Tuesday, the wind shut down and the last few boats struggled to reach the line despite the excellent racing over 90% of the course.

40 boats in 7 classes took part in the 2019 Spinnaker Cup race from San Francisco Bay to Monterey. Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club has been hosting the Spinnaker Cup on the finish end for decades, and partnered with Encinal Yacht Club in 2019 as the starting host club. The fleet made its way from all over the bay area to the west side of Angel Island, where the race committee searched for enough wind to offer a clean start. After an hour delay the 7 fleets started the race heading out to the Golden Gate bridge before turning south for the run to Monterey.

The addition of a 500 nm Race from San Francisco Bay to San Diego as part of the California Offshore Race Week was intended to provide some of the larger boats engaging in the Transpac a chance to stretch their legs a little and skip the shallow water marinas involved with other legs of the Race Week. The concept originated with Manouch Moshayedi, owner of RIO 100', seeking way to get some of Sleds and Maxi's and opportunity for a mid range feeder event for the Transpac.

The Monterey Harbor hoist is NOT operational! Due to extensive repairs to the hoist, it will not be possible to use the hoist until mid-June. Spinnaker Cup entrants who planned to take their boats out of the water after the race in Monterey, will have to make alternative arrangements. Options include sailing to Santa Cruz to use the Santa Cruz Yacht Club hoist, or using the ramp at Monterey. For enquiries contact the Monterey Harbor Master (831-646-3950), or MPYC Spinnaker Cup Chair, Jean du Preez (spinnakercup@mpyc.org).

SAVE THE DATES for the 2019 California Offshore Race Week, back by popular demand! Encinal Yacht Club, Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club, Santa Barbara Yacht Club and San Diego Yacht Club are excited to bring back the CA Offshore Race Week, connecting three distances races into a full offshore race week series. Simon Phillips, owner of the Farr 40 Astra: “To me, it’s the perfect series of races to kick off summer. Condensed into a tight window to accommodate our busy schedules - we get the chance to experience all of the challenges of too much and too little wind while racing along the picturesque California coast. We are all looking forward to the exhilarating downwind conditions and finishing in the San Diego sun. We’re packing the sunscreen!” This year, CA Offshore Race Week will be adding a new component for the fastest mono and multihull boats looking to stretch their legs: the CA 500 race from San Francisco to San Diego. The CA 500 will be open to monohulls with an ORR rating of 1.06 and higher and multihulls of 45' LOA and an ORR-MH rating of 1.4 and higher.

Dave MacEwen and team on the Santa Cruz 52 have participated in every California Offshore Race Week since it’s inception 3 years ago and done well in various legs of same and finished 2nd overall last year and 2nd in division in 2016. This year they put the whole package together, winning the Spinnaker Cup, had a very close 2nd in the Coastal Cup and won Division and was 3rd overall in the SoCal 300. The cherry on top was to take the Division AND Overall in the CORW cumulative points spread. A tough, grueling 8 day week that began in San Francisco and ended in San Diego, with stops in Monterey and Santa Barbara. We caught up with Dave and got some insights to the week and how things went down…