Southland Sailing : America’s Cup Hopefuls in Congressional Fleet

Long Beach Yacht Club’s Congressional Cup races March 10-16 could be a preview of the America’s Cup competition, judging from the tentative list of entries announced by Brian Donaldson, general chairman.

America’s Cup hopefuls expected to compete are Rod Davis, skipper of Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s Eagle syndicate; John Kolius, skipper of New York Yacht Club’s America II syndicate; Harold Cudmore, helmsman for the British challenge; Colin Beashall, Australia; Chris Dixon, New Zealand; Ives Pajot, France, and Flavio Scalla, Italy.

Completing the lineup will be Dave Perry, a former two-time Congressional Cup winner; Steve Flam, representing the host club, and John Gobbell, Huntington Harbour Club, who qualified by winning the Ficker Bowl earlier this year.

Donaldson said the latest attempt to equalize the Catalina 38s used for the Congressional Cup competition will be the use of new mainsails and genoa jibs to be bought by the host club.

The exchanging of boats each day of the series will be continued, as will the use of spinnakers from the club’s sail loft.

The first offshore racing event in the Southland in 1986 will be Del Rey Yacht Club’s William Berger series, starting Jan. 4. with the 23-mile Malibu-and-return race. The four-race series will continue through June and has both International Offshore Rule (IOR) and Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) ratings.

Alamitos Bay Yacht Club has come up with a new yachting feature for 1986--a two-day One Design Keel Boat Regatta Jan. 11-12. The event is an invitational for Southern California Yachting Assn. and United States Yacht Racing Union members. It will include such popular keel boats as Cal-20, Cal-25, Coronado-25, Soling, Star, Etchells-22, Holder-20 and J-24.