Southland Sailing : Lipton Challenge Trophy Races Begin
The Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Trophy will be on the line today as the California Yacht Club opens defense of its title in a three-race series against eight Southern California challengers.
There will be one race each of the next three days on Santa Monica Bay.
The Lipton Trophy was deeded to the San Diego Yacht Club in 1903 when a group of brash young San Diego sailors persuaded the Scottish tea merchant to dedicate a prize in his name for yacht racing in Southern California. SDYC later turned the trophy over to the Southern California Yachting Assn., which conducted a sudden-death race in the home waters of the defender on a boat-for-boat basis.
When interest in the event began to wane a few years ago, SDYC reclaimed control of the competition and turned it into a three-race handicap series among boats with International Ofshore Rule (IOR) ratings.
CYC won the trophy last year at San Diego with Ben Mitchell Jr. at the helm of Len Sheridan’s Nelson-Marek 41 Reliance. The same crew will defend in the same boat this year against eight challengers.
Others in the competition will be Roller (Andrews-42), Balboa Yacht Club; Defiance (Schock-41), Capistrano Bay Yacht Club; Free Enterprise (NM-41), Newport Harbor Yacht Club; White Lightning (Farr-40), Del Rey Yacht Club; Flambuoyant (Peterson-40), Long Beach Yacht Club; Geronimo (Peterson-42), Santa Barbara Yacht Club; Jest (J-35), Los Angeles Yacht Club, and Electra (NM-40), San Diego Yacht Club.
Racing will start at noon each day.
More than 70 Performance Handicap Racing Fleet yachts in five classes will answer the starting signal today off Long Beach for the second annual Sobstad Race Week. Racing will continue through Sunday.
Sobstad Race Week was inaugurated by Sobstad Sails as the answer to Long Beach Yacht Club’s Race Week for International Offshore Rule ratings and was an immediate success last year.
Finalists in the 25th Cal-20 national championships are gearing up at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach for a six-race championship-consolation series today and Saturday. The field of 60 entries was cut to 30 in an elimination series Wednesday.
Several past champions are competing in this year’s regatta, including Hank Schofield (ABYC, 1968); Bud Gardiner (King Harbor Yacht Club, 1970-71); Paul Merrill (ABYC, 1972-73); Jim Sharp (KHYC, 1974), and the defending champion, Kui Lim (Kaneohe Yacht Club, Hawaii).