This past Saturday proved to be another sterling day for catamaran racing off the coast of Ventura as we ran the 8th annual Tri-Point Ocean Race… hosted by the Pierpont Bay Yacht Club. The race has been going on for a lot longer, but has only allowed “dinghy sized” catamarans since 2006. With 12 boats entered this made the beachcats the largest class.... Again, this race put a smile on the faces for those traveled the distance from Arizona, Texas, San Diego, and the California High Desert….
This year we did something a little different and split the beachcats class into two fleets: Fleet A which were cats with a less than 65 DP-N and Fleet B greater than 65 DP-N… more trophies for all!
The day started out with a good breeze and saw the beachcats class pretty well compacted to the first mark;Oil Platform Gina, with some first timers showing us that they came with their game faces on. From the oil platform to the east end of Anacapa saw a great double trap breeze and I would say the average time to go the 8 miles was about an hour. On the back side we had pretty good breeze that allowed us to get the upwind ladder out of the way quickly for the screaming beam reach back to Ventura…
Screaming back to Ventura saw a few racers flying their spinnakers as the wind was just right for a little downhill run from Platform Gail to the power station, and all enjoyed the screaming reach and a chance to surf their boats.
Rankings
A Fleet:
1st Brett Johnson - Cathatka
2nd Lee Wicklund – Team Chums
3rd John Schwartz – Wingo Wango
B Fleet:
1st Bob Martinez – Sailbad the Sinner
2nd Pete Begal - Whisper
3rd Carl Oliver – No Name
Overall a big congrats to Bob Martinez who had the best corrected time for the day and can maintain bragging rights for another year.
At the end of the day back while at dock; we were greeted by Man-O-War, a WW II P-51 dressed in D-Day colors that is part of the Camrillo CAF Wing do a low level flyby. For you motor heads out there, there is nothing like hearing a supercharged Packard V-1650 at full throttle…
For 2015 we’re looking to have three races off the coast of Ventura; Frenchy’s Rum Run, Milt Ingram, and the Tri-Point… hope to see you some of you again, and some new faces...