Hobie Cat Competition : Long Beach’s Christensen Gets First Major Win

Racing against many of Southern California’s leading catamaran sailors, Keith Christensen of Long Beach placed second and first in two races Sunday to win the A Division of the San Diego Classic’s Hobie 16 competition on San Diego Bay.

The victory was Christensen’s first in a major regatta this year. He finished second May 31 in the Los Angeles-to-Long Beach Hurricane Gulch regatta.

“I was very optimistic,” said Christensen, who skippers his Hobie 16 with his brother, Curt, as his crew. “I raced a lot of the same guys two weeks ago and I placed second, so it was definitely a goal for me to finish first.”

After placing second, fifth and eighth in the three races held Saturday, Christensen finished with 9 3/4 points, two fewer than Mike Shearer of Salt Lake City, the 1978 Hobie 16 world champion. Under the regatta’s scoring system, the winner of a race received three-quarters of a point, with the remaining sailors assessed points corresponding with their order of finish. Each sailor was allowed to drop his worst score.

This year’s San Diego Classic featured catamarans in four classes, ranging in size from the lightweight Hobie 14 to the Hobie 18. Of the 260 entrants, 153 sailed the Hobie 16, the oldest and--many sailors would say--most competitive class. Because of its size, the Hobie 16 field was broken into four divisions, from novice to “A,” for the most experienced.

The second most popular class was the Hobie 18, which featured 40 entrants in two divisions. The A Division champion was Stretch Kimball of San Diego, who finished second in each of the first three races and won the final Sunday, edging Steve Timm of Long Beach, Southern California’s top-ranked Hobie 18 sailor.

The most dominant sailor in any class was San Diego’s Fred Fogerty in the one-man Hobie 17, who won all four races in which he competed.