Memorial Regatta for Small Boats Planned

The Westlake Yacht Club will host its eighth annual William Vrooman Memorial Regatta for small boats on July 28 at Westlake Lake.

The regatta was established in 1989 by yacht club members Diette and Clyde Vrooman in honor of their son Bill, a sailing aficionado who died at age 20 in a traffic accident in Virginia.

Bill Vrooman, who was in the Navy, was in a car with four shipmates when the driver swerved to avoid an oncoming car traveling on the wrong side of the road and slammed into a semitrailer and tractor.

He had learned to sail a sabot through the yacht club’s junior program, and, after graduating from Westlake High School and Moorpark College, joined the Navy to be close to the water.

The memorial, originally open only to sabots, is now open to all classes of small boat. Any member of a yacht club belonging to the Southern California Yachting Assn. or the United States Sailing Assn. is eligible to compete.

The regatta qualifies as the eighth in a hi-point series of competitions for sabots held throughout Southern California. The series is a set of nine regattas in which the winner is determined by the most points earned throughout the contests. Registration for the regatta, which costs $5, will take place on race day. All participants and their families are invited to the annual hamburger cookout afterward.

For information, call (818) 889-3917.