YACHTING : Shadden Is a Winner in Climax

John Shadden said he had sailed “only three or four times” since his 1988 Olympic bronze medal campaign.

But the Long Beach stockbroker showed he still has his touch at the helm when he brought Mike Campbell’s Custom 52 Climax from behind with two victories Sunday to win the Fifties class of Ullman Sails-Washington Insurance Race Week at Long Beach.

In light but steady southerly breezes, Climax won Sunday’s first race to move into first place ahead of David Meginnity’s Santa Cruz 50 Deception, which has a lower handicap.

“All we had to do (in the last race) was stay right behind Deception or, of course, beat her,” Shadden said. “She got ahead after the start, but we were able to reel her in at the windward mark.”

With handicap time allowances, Lone Star III won the race, with Deception second and Climax third--good enough to edge Deception by a point. But Shadden said his competitive instincts are now going back into the closet.

“I’ll be doing things like mowing the lawn,” he said. “Maybe in a couple of months.”

Among 67 boats in seven classes, two other well-known sailors won their classes--Dave Ullman in IOR-A with Don Hughes’ R/P 42 Quintessence and Robbie Haines in IOR-B with Irv Loube’s Farr 40 Bravura.

Haines, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, swept all five of his races. The one-design classes sailed six-mile windward-leeward courses off Seal Beach. Rich Matzinger steered David Dale-Johnson’s Paleface to a solid 1-1-3-2-1 performance to win in the J/35s. Steve and Barney Flam’s Flambouyant won one race Sunday to rebound from successive disqualifications for premature starts Friday and Saturday.

John Cazier of the Balboa Yacht Club sailed his own Buttercup to win the Schock 35 class with 2-1-5-3-4 finishes.

Among the Catalina 38s, the Lingle-Wilson-Lingle entry Entourage went into the third and last race with two wins and the title apparently locked up but was a few feet over the line at the gun, failed to return and was disqualified as Mark Noble took Escapade to the trophy.

With 20 of the ocean-going IOR (International Offshore Rule) boats split into two groups, Ullman said he was pleased with the turnout of what had been a fading class in the United States--some sailors preferring to sail under other, broader-based handicap systems.

Ullman, on Quintessence, beat Steve Grillon, sailing Robert Kahn’s Jano, in the last race to win the trophy.