YACHTING : Evolution Is Winner in California Cup

Bob Doughty’s Evolution, second in the California Cup the past two years, outsailed Mitch Rouse’s Taxi Dancer in a light-wind final race to claim the title in the 28th running of the event off Marina del Rey Sunday.

Evolution placed second in the 12-boat fleet behind Hal Ward’s Cheval, steered by Robbie Haines, to finish with 13 1/2 points, with Taxi Dancer sixth in the race and second overall with 19 points.

The California Yacht Club has staged the last six Cal Cups as fleet races for sleds, the ultralight 70-foot sloops built primarily for long-distance downwind races to Hawaii or Mexico.

However, they also have generated tight competition in windward-leeward buoy races.

Evolution, a Santa Cruz 70, used closed-course tactics to defeat Taxi Dancer, a Reichell-Pugh 68 that prefers stronger winds than it found through the three-day, five-race series.

Despite light and shifty winds of four to six knots that delayed the start for 1 1/2 hours, Taxi Dancer was second at the first windward mark of the three-lap, 12-mile course.

But Doughty slipped Evolution past on the first downwind leg and was able to drive Taxi Dancer farther back by tacking on her wind on the upwind legs. Evolution won two of the five races, Taxi Dancer none.

Former Cal Cup winners struggled. Kathmandu, the 1985 winner, was last in every race. Blondie (1986 and ‘88) was seventh with new owner Peter Tong, and Citius (‘87, as Citius) was ninth.

The final standings: 1. Evolution, 13 1/2 points; 2. Taxi Dancer, 19; 3. Holua, 19 1/2; 4. Chance, 21; 5. Grand Illusion, 22; 6. Cheval, 25; 7. Blondie, 30; 8. Pyewacket; 9. Ole, 46; 10. Drumbeat, 47; 11. Cheetah, 48; 12. Kathmandu, 60.