California Cup : Blondie Moves Up After Fog Sets In, Wins Series

Blondie, the Santa Cruz-70 under charter to Pat Farrah of the Long Beach Yacht Club, groped her way to the finish line in heavy fog Sunday to salvage her win of the California Cup.

Blondie and her sister-ship Kathmandu, skippered by John Landon of the San Diego Yacht Club, were over the starting line early in the fifth and final race of the series and were trailing the other three boats over most of the course.

But after the fog set in on Santa Monica Bay, Farrah and his crew proved better gropers on the final leg of the course and pulled up from last place to third, saving three points to win the series with a low score of 12.75 points.

Winner of the final race was Drumbeat, skippered by Don Ayres of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, and second was Pandemonium, skippered by Bob Moore of the Balboa Yacht Club. Pandemonium finished second, three points behind Blondie, and Drumbeat, the only boat with two wins was 1 points behind Pandemonium because of two bad races.

Kathmandu was fourth overall, of a point behind Drumbeat, and Dick Pennington’s Cheetah was of a point behind Kathmandu. Only 4 points separated the first five boats. Doug Baker’s Saga was last with 25 points.