John,

In the years that I sailed those waters, I have never been warmly welcomed by the ORCA when I showed up with a beach cat to one of thier races. We had to fight for years to get them to let us in the Land Rover Island Series. They let us do the Anacapa race but not the other two. Finally on '06 we got to join in on the other 2. In '06 I was settng up my N20 at the boat ramp in Santabarbara the night before the Santabarbara to King Harbor Race and was verbaly assaulted by the ORCA president for even thinking about doing that race (only 80 or 90 miles, BFD). I told him we would stay off the start line but were free to sail where we wanted to. We sailed anyway and had a blast. It was a blast flying around the outside of Anacap Island passing all the F boats with the chute up as the sun was setting.
If their attitude has changed about things that would be great but they have a list of crap they want you to carry on your boat that is unreasonable. The owner of 2 of 10 (Rollands 36) spent a huge amount of $$ to meet thier demands and was later rejected.
Since they opened the Island Series, not too many beach cats seem to want to do it. The Tri-Point is the most fun of the 3 since it's in August and the wind blows like hell after you round Anacapa to starboard and get a nice 20 plus knot sleigh ride back to Ventura. John, let me know if yo ever need crew for those races, I'd love to do one of them again.

Lee Wicklund/Team Chums