Southland Boat Racing Resumes With Midwinter Regatta

The bays and ocean from San Diego to Ventura County will be blanketed with Dacron this weekend as the 59th edition of the Southern California Yachting Assn. Midwinter Regatta gets under way.

Nearly 1,000 boats in 100 classes are expected on the starting lines of the 19 SCYA clubs who are conducting the two-day regatta under the banner of SCYA, governing body for 77 yacht clubs in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.

The Midwinters, as they are commonly known to sailors, is the largest winter event in the world.

Lorin Weiss, general chairman, said a larger turnout than usual is expected with Mission Bay Yacht Club in San Diego running races for a large fleet of sailboards, and Seal Beach Yacht Club conducting races for the first time for multihulls, catamarans and trimarans.

Los Angeles Yacht Club is expecting a big turnout of ocean racing yachts in the International Offshore Rule (IOR) and Ultralight Displacement Boats (ULDB) because of the decision to limit their regatta to two days (today and Sunday) instead of extending it over into Monday.

Despite heavy damage during the recent storm at Redondo Beach, King Harbor Yacht Club officials have assured SCYA that their regatta will be held as usual.