Catalina 30 Racing--Fast, Leisurely Cruising

David Dillehay, last year’s national Catalina 30 sailing champion, dropped by the other day to clue me in on this weekend’s national regatta in Los Angeles Harbor.

Dillehay, who lives in Lake Forest, said there will be about 20 Catalina 30s from all over the country in the regatta.

There are possibly a few hard-core racers who sneer at the idea of this popular family cruising boat racing in a regatta, but I like the idea. I’m a cruising sailor at heart, and have long held to the theory that if yachting was restricted to the use of Spartan, stripped-down racing machines, with suits of sails and coffee-grinder winches costing the average man a year’s wages, there wouldn’t be much sailing going on.

To hazard an educated guess, probably one in 10 of the 14,000 yachts in our county’s three harbors are racing machines. The rest are cruising and/or sport fishing vessels containing, if more than 20 feet in length, most of the comforts and amenities of a home-away-from-home aboard.

Catalina 30s fall within this class, and those racing this weekend are weighted down with their galley stoves, ice boxes, bunk cushions, anchors, water tanks and all of the usual paraphernalia that accompanies comfortable cruising to, say, Catalina Island. And when they round the windward mark and head downwind, instead of breaking out the huge multicolored spinnakers that most racing boats fly, they probably will haul out their whisker poles and fly their 150% genoas wing-and-wing.

But the Catalina 30 sailors are just as serious about their racing as skippers of the lean machines. Among them at last year’s regatta on Seattle’s Lake Washington were several veterans of Transpac, Clipper Cup and Admiral’s Cup races, and even a Californian who was a member of the U.S. Olympic team.

Dillehay stresses that the Catalina 30, designed by Frank Butler, and formerly produced in great numbers in Newport Beach, is a performance cruiser. William (Bear) Meyers of Westminster, the fleet’s national commodore, says that, although in some parts of the country--especially in California--some owners have added spinnakers, Mylar headsails and even Kevlar mainsails, there are still strict limitations on what extra gear can be added according to national class rules.

The overriding racing philosophy is to keep the sport affordable for the average family sailor who cannot afford the latest go-fast gear. The fleet started holding national championships in 1978.

Three years ago in San Pedro, a crew made up of three Washingtonians won the national trophy. In 1984, the national champion was Jan Schaffer of Tustin. Schaffer, Dillehay, Meyers and two other locals, Chuck Graff of Westminster and George Ramberg of Costa Mesa, are expected to compete this weekend.

The Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club is hosting the races, which will begin Friday, Saturday and Sunday at about 11 a.m.

Incidentally, the fact that there are 60 Catalina 30s in the Shoreline Yacht Club, Newport Beach, of which Dillehay is a member, attests to the vessel’s popularity.

Sailing Notes

The Capistrano Bay Yacht Club’s Anniversary Regatta will be Aug. 17, with Ben Thompson as chairman and Committee Boat. Winners of this race, and others in Dana Point Harbor, are eligible, upon invitation, to compete in the Dana Point Harbor Championship Regatta in late October. Those invited must win a race, first in class, sponsored by one of Dana Point Harbor’s yacht clubs, between Oct. 25, 1985, and Oct. 22, 1986. Beer Cans, Thirsty Thursdays and No Spinnaker races are not included.

The Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Trophy is again displayed in the trophy case of its original home--the San Diego Yacht Club. Allan Simon’s yacht, Electra, brought home the trophy in a win on Santa Monica Bay last month against eight contenders. The defender was Len Sheridan’s Reliance of the California Yacht Club.

U.S. Customs Service will install a four-member anti-drug smuggling unit in Newport Harbor this month in an attempt to stem the flow of illegal drugs into Orange County on private boats. Los Angeles and San Diego counties have similar units. According to a 1984 Customs estimate, more than 11% of the cocaine brought into this country was aboard privately owned boats.