Summery July Races Coming This Month

The Fourth of July

Want to race on a Thursday afternoon? Here’s your chance. A sampling of holiday races zipping around the Bay Area on July 4:

• Tiburon Yacht Club’s Brothers & Sisters Race around the eponymous islands north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
• Coyote Point YC’s Stars & Stripes in the South Bay off the coast of San Mateo.
• Encinal YC’s Fourth of July Regatta for juniors on the Estuary.
• San Francisco YC’s Fireworks Folly.

Around Northern California

On July 6-7, Stockton Sailing Club will host their Founders’ Regatta, celebrating their “Founding Fathers” (a group of boys). “The club was started in about 1933 by a few youngsters who went to Stockton High School and hung around the Stephens Brothers Boat Works,” wrote Bob Winter for the SSC website. “They built their own boats and kept them tied to the bank just west of the boat yard. Meetings were held in a loft over the garage at the Stephens’ home on Baker Street.”

Following 12 months of racing in a variety of venues across the globe, 13 teams compete on July 13-14 at the SailGP Season 4 Grand Final on San Francisco Bay. This final regatta of the series will decide the overall season champion. Find tickets and info here. 

Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation in Redwood City will host the North American Women’s and Open C420 Championships. The Women’s will be on July 13-15, with 40 female pairs registered so far. The Open NAs will follow on July 17-20, with a whopping 122 entries. Registration is still open.

Santa Cruz YC will set the stage for the Santana 22 Nationals on July 19-21.

For boats of a certain age: Bay View Boat Club invites owners of vintage fiberglass sailboats built from the 1960s through 1999 to enter the Plastic Classic Regatta on Saturday, July 20. The race will take place off the waters of San Francisco’s Pier 54. Following the race, “party like it’s 1999!” See www.bayviewboatclub.org/plastic-classic.

Missives from the Yacht Racing Association

The next race in the YRA’s Offshore Series will be the Jr Waterhouse Race, hosted by Richmond YC on July 13. Enter here.

“Get your entries in for the always popular Encinal Regatta,” urges the YRA. “If you’ve been around for a while, you probably think of this race as the 2nd Half Opener, but since July is no longer an ‘off’ month for racing, we don’t divide our racing season into halves anymore, which means the 2nd Half Opener has evolved into the Encinal Regatta.”

The regatta will be on July 27. “This race starts near the old Berkeley Pier ruins and heads out under the Golden Gate Bridge to the Point Bonita Buoy. After rounding Bonita, boats run down back through the Bay, under the Bay Bridge, and continue racing down the Estuary to the finish off the Encinal YC. After the race, head up to the club for a great after-race party with live music, a food truck, and drinks from Encinal’s famous Tiki Bar.” Enter here.

EYC invites racers to overnight at the club Saturday night and then participate in the Estuary Extravaganza, brought to you by EYC, Island YC and Oakland YC, on Sunday the 28th. Enter here. To reserve an overnight slip, contact the EYC port captain at [email protected].

High-Altitude Lake Racing

On July 12-14, Tahoe YC in Tahoe City will host the Santa Cruz 27 Nationals.

Fresno YC’s High Sierra Regatta takes to Huntington Lake on two consecutive weekends. Weekend 1, July 13-14, is for Moth, Snipe, Day Sailer, Lido 14, Laser, Banshee, RS Aero, RS Toura, Optimist, Melges 14, Vanguard 15, San Juan 21 and International 14 classes, plus Portsmouth-rated Open Centerboard boats. Classes invited for July 20-21 are PHRF, Ultimate 20, Catalina 22, Victory 21, Wylie Wabbit, Thistle, Melges 15, Moore 24 and Coronado 15 classes and Sportboats (J/70, Viper 640, Open 5.70, Melges 20).

“This is one of my favorite events every year. It’s a large regatta with a lot of different classes of boats,” writes Sam Wheeler of the San Francisco Vanguard 15 fleet. “Courses are long, with just two or three races each day. The stars at night are spectacular.”

The following week, on July 26-28, the Mercury fleet will have their High Sierra Regatta and Mercury Nationals on Huntington Lake back to back.

Southern California Races

“Look out, California — here come the Melges 24s!” writes Joy Dunigan. “All eyes and teams turn to the West Coast for three incredible Melges 24 regattas. First up is the US National Championship, hosted by Santa Barbara YC on July 12-14.”

July 19 — Dutch Shoe Marathon. SDYC, www.sdyc.org.

As part of the US Open Sailing Series, Alamitos Bay YC will welcome the Olympic Classes (470, 49er, 49erFX, Formula Kite, ILCA 6, ILCA 7, iQFOIL 8, iQFOIL 9, Nacra 17), Youth Worlds classes (29er, 420, Formula Kite, ILCA 6, iQFOIL Youth, Nacra 15), and invited classes (Finn and ILCA 4) for the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta on July 19-21.

This year, fleet size for the Governor’s Cup International Youth Match Racing Championship has increased from 12 to 14. Sailors from five countries will converge on Balboa YC in Newport Beach on July 22-27. This year’s roster will feature all four of last year’s semi-finalists, led by returning champion Jeffrey Petersen, 22, from the host club. Petersen also won in 2021. One of the competitors will be the winner of the US Youth Match Racing Championship for the Rose Cup, held in Marblehead, MA, last week. 

Registration is open for the INSA Junior Sabot Nationals. San Diego YC will host the championship on July 29- August 1. This is the first time since 1962 that the event will return to SDYC.

Up the Coast

This is the busy season for the Columbia Gorge Racing Association, headquartered in Cascade Locks, Oregon. Their activities this month include the popular Columbia Gorge One Design Regatta (C-GOD) on July 26-28. The event will also serve as the ILCA District 22 Championship.

The July calendar abounds with many more races and regattas. See a pretty comprehensive list in our Calendar as published in the July issue of Latitude 38, hitting the docks today. Also feel free to note your favorites in the Comments section below.