Dueling Races: The Names Are the Same, and the Site Is, Too

The United States Speedsailing Grand Prix will be run at Long Beach Saturday, to be followed by the United States Speedsailing Grand Prix, also at Long Beach, a week later.

Confused?

They are two separate events with the same name and similar formats--even some of the entries are the same--but they have different promoters, who used to be friends.

Last October, Scott Edlund and Georgs Kolesnikovs teamed up to stage their first speedsailing event. It mixed high-performance monohulls and multihulls in around-the-buoys racing, without handicaps.

But sometime later they had a falling out, and this year, each is determined to run his own event.

Which one is legitimate?

Both, neither or either one, depending on whom one talks to.

Edlund’s event, to be run Saturday on an eight-leg America’s Cup-type course outside the breakwater, features the extremes of Fred Preiss’ 84-foot sloop Christine, with its crew of 20-plus, and Alex Kozloff’s new 35-foot catamaran Invictus, which weighs only 850 pounds.

The Seal Beach Yacht Club was going to manage the event, lending it a measure of credibility, until Kolesnikovs threatened to sue the club if it became involved in the other event.

Kolesnikovs’ event June 20, organized under the banner of his Great America Media Inc. firm in Newport Beach, will be run on a tighter course inside the breakwater to allow spectator viewing from Belmont Pier and Bluff Park.

Christine and Invictus also are scheduled to compete in that, along with Aikane X-5, the Rudy Choy catamaran from Hawaii that won the Ensenada race this year.

There doesn’t seem to be much love lost between the two promoters these days.

Kolesnikovs refers to Edlund’s event as “the bogus speedsailing event on the 13th” in a press release and says that “our event is sanctioned by United States Speedsailing Association Inc., an affiliate of USYRU (United States Yacht Racing Union), as part of the 1987 national speedsailing championship series.”

Kolesnikovs also has a television deal with Prime Ticket, the Forum-based cable company, to air the event June 28.

What complicates matters is that Edlund runs an organization he calls the U.S. Speedsailing Assn.

“I produced the (1986) event, and Kolesnikovs did the publicity,” Edlund said.

But after last year’s race, Kolesnikovs decided to stage his own race and went to Newport, R.I. to seek a sanction for the event from officials of the North American Multihull Racing Assn., headed by Andrew Mele.

Mele’s organization has changed its name to the U.S. Speedsailing Assn., so that it incorporates multihull and monohull boats.

“They liked the idea of my racing multihulls against monohulls,” Edlund said. “But they had to change their name. It’s a big charade.”

Mele says his group sanctioned Kolesnikovs’ event and not Edlund’s because “one applied and the other one didn’t. Also, the one promoter (Kolesnikovs) was known to us as a legitimate operator. They cooperated last year, but it’s our understanding that it was pulled out of oblivion by Kolesnikovs with cash and hard work.”

Mele’s group also has sanctioned similar events in Boston, Newport and San Francisco this year, with accumulative points counting toward what he calls a national speedsailing championship.

As for Kolesnikovs’ claim to being “an affiliate” of the United States Yacht Racing Union, whose credibility is solid, the union’s inshore director, Lee Parks, said: “We do not sanction any events. They have made a lot of claims. They are doing that without our approval.”

Parks said that for $35, anyone can join USYRU and thus qualify as an affiliate.

Kolesnikovs responded: “Our association with USYRU does have some importance. (Executive director) Steve Black might tend to downplay that, but he comes to most of our events and is a multihull fanatic himself. (Ours) isn’t a paper organization. The roster reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of speedsailing. I don’t know whether that other event will even happen.”

Edlund says the crews of 14 boats will be surprised if it doesn’t. That’s how many he has entered. Kolesnikovs hopes to have more than 20.

“Everything I’ve done, he’s copied,” Edlund said.

A story about a lost sailor is making the rounds.

According to the Sou’wester, published by the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, Roscoe O. Butcher of ABYC disappeared while returning from the Newport-to-Ensenada race with Pete and Larry Stelle aboard Pete Gantz’s Ms. Stress, which placed second in PHRF Class F. But it wasn’t until they entered Huntington Harbour that the Stelles realized Butcher wasn’t on board.

The last time they had seen him was when he had came off watch sometime after San Diego and had gone below to sleep.

However, when they later stopped for fuel late at night at Newport Beach, Butcher awakened and disembarked to visit the men’s room, unseen by the Stelles.

When Butcher returned, the boat was gone, and he was left standing on the gas dock without his glasses and his shoes and with only 15 cents in his pockets.

It was several frantic hours before Butcher was able to reach a friend to pick him up, and the Stelles learned what had happened to him.

Sailing Notes

Women’s Event--Skippers and crew will sail in the 14th annual Dana Belles series at the Dana Point Yacht Club this weekend. There will be two races each day, Saturday and Sunday, with spinnaker and non-spinnaker classes.

One-Design--The Olson 30 North American Championships will be sailed out of Channel Islands Harbor at Oxnard June 19-25. Locals campaigning to host the 1991 America’s Cup defense there view it as a chance to show that they can stage an important event.

Transatlantic--An international racing fleet is en route from Nieuwpoort, Belgium, to Cape May, N.J., in the Constitution Race, which commemorates the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution and the 30th anniversary the European Economic Community. One boat represents each EEC member, plus the United States and Europe as a whole. All are sailing First 42s, which were designed by Britton Chance of the Stars & Stripes design team. They are due to finish about June 20.

Upcoming--The Alamitos Bay YC’s Fourth of July regatta July 4-5 is open to all Southern California Yachting Assn. members. There will be several bay and ocean classes, plus PHRF.

Catamarans--The second Pacific 1000 catamaran marathon scheduled July 21-Aug. 1 along the Southern California coast has received approval from the Newport Beach City Council over objections of the city’s Marine Dept. The latter didn’t want that much commotion during the July 26-27 stopover on its beach.