Midwinters : Farr 40 and Schock 35 One Design – LBYC

By Mike Price

Long Beach is known for its good breeze and stable water, however, this year’s SCYA MidWinters Regatta provided SoCal’s Farr 40 and Schock 35 one-design fleets with some atypical, challenging conditions. While sailors can usually rely on steady breezes from the west, an unusual southerly wind and swell kept everyone, including the race committee, on their toes.

As to be expected, the competition in the Farr 40 class was very tight and often the difference between the first and last finishers was under 100 yards on a twice-around course. The starting line saw high tenacity in every race with many starting signals followed by the raise of an OCS flag. Like the saying goes: “if you’re not over early every now and then, you’re not starting aggressively enough.” New to the west coast fleet is “Viva La Vida,” owned by Sam Heck and his wife, Merry Cheers. Sam would go on to steer his team to victory, winning the 5 boat class. Ray Godwin on “Temptress” took 2^nd Place and a collegiate team of sailors from Cal Maritime claimed 3^rd Place aboard “Groovaderci”.

Meanwhile, the Schock 35 class had their own challenges on the race course with 20 and 30 degree wind shifts quickly changing the leaders in every leg. It would all come down to the last race, when Bob Marcus, skipper of “Code Blue,” caught the shift he needed on the way to the finish to win his class in the regatta. Co-Owners John Rossbach and Ted Thompson took 2^nd place with their boat “Whiplash,” and Ron Duphily and his team aboard “Impulse,” took 3^rd place to claim the final spot on the podium. These class leaders were powered to the top by Ullman Sails!

Both the Farr 40 and Schock 35 classes are experiencing a period of growth and are fired up to compete in the Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week later this year. The Schock 35’s are working to get together a class of 8 boats and the Farr 40’s have set a goal to have their entries in the double-digits again for the west coast’s largest keelboat regatta.

Photos taken by Bronny Daniels and full albums are available for view at joysailing.com