Regatta

The Newport Harbor High sailing team dominated the Pacific Coast single-handed laser radial championships last weekend in Long Beach. The team took three of the top four places in the regatta, in which 51 boats from over 25 California high schools participated. Newport Harbor junior Michael Menninger won handily with 92 points, followed by Cole Hatton, also a junior, in second place with 111 points. Chris Barnard, a freshman, placed fourth with 128 points.

Linda Dam Veteran sailors Kerry Deaver and Bob Williamson spent Thursday working on their 43-foot sailing boat and getting it ready for the fifth annual Children's Hospital of Orange County regatta, hosted by the Balboa Yacht Club. Williamson, a retiree and staff commodore at the Balboa Yacht Club, and fellow boat owner Deaver, are among hundreds of participants who will race in the two-day sailing event in the Newport Harbor Saturday and Sunday with hopes of raising money for the hospital.

Lindsay Sandham The inaugural First Team Real Estate Invitational Regatta, a fundraiser benefiting Hoag Hospital's Heart and Vascular Institute, will take place May 20 to 22 off the Newport Pier, and many local businesses are gearing up for the expected influx in tourism. Executive director of the Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau Marta Hayden said she expects it will be good for the tourism industry in Newport Beach. "Obviously, it's going to have a positive, great effect, and we're very excited," she said.

Ready! Set! Sail! The 40th anniversary of Balboa Yacht Club's Governor's Cup is almost here, and the tradition has been going strong. Twelve teams, each consisting of three youths between the ages of 12 and 19, have been chosen to compete in this year's regatta, which will take place between July 18 and July 22, with pre-race preparations on July 17. "On a yearly basis, around the first of each year, we send out fliers to announce the...

Rick Devereux Upon further review, the conditions Friday for the First Team Real Estate invitational regatta were not that bad. Friday, which saw winds between 6 to 8 knots, was downright blustery compared to Saturday's competition. The winds were around 5 or 6 knots at the start of the race at 1 p.m., but died down considerably to around 2 or 3 knots toward the end. The conditions were so light, race officials shortened the course. Instead of two races, there was one, and instead of two laps around the buoys, there was one. "Yesterday it was slow at the start and started to pick up," said Nathan Prather, a crew member on the 55-foot boat Bolt.

WORCESTER, Mass. - The Orange Coast College women's crew teams had some positive results in Sunday's Champion International Collegiate Regatta at Lake Quinsigamond. The Pirates women's novice 8 team won its heat, defeating Bates, New Hampshire, Mt. Holy Oak, Colgate and Vasser. The win put the Bucs in the grand final where they took fourth, just 12 hundredths of a second out of third. In that race, OCC's crew of Evelyn Powers, Lara Fraser, Brooke Alblston, Christina Koss, Malin Gustavsson, Sofie Flarup, Jessica Griffin, Kellie Wilder and Jenna DuBois competed against Trinity, Williams, Bates, Wesleyan and Tufts.

Although Roy Disney's Pyewacket finished first, there were surely no losers in the First Team Real Estate Invitational Regatta, held last weekend in Newport Beach. The three-day race just off shore drew some of the biggest, fastest sailboats in the world to Newport's waters -- a perfect setting for a perfect yacht race. Unlike other regattas, in which boats start from here and sail off to a distant finish line, much of this race was visible from land.

For seafaring icon and former Disney executive Roy E. Disney, the exhilaration of cruising the Pacific Ocean and feeling the wind sweep across his face brings him back to the biennial First Team Real Estate Invitational Regatta for the Hoag Cup, this year as honorary chairman. But Disney said this event, running Friday through Sunday, stands out among other competitions of its kind because of what it gives back to the community. Besides offering an engaging spectacle, all of the event proceeds benefit the Heart and Vascular Institute at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, one of its centers of excellence.

Elia Powers Bring on the big boats. Four-hundred feet of temporary docks have been put in near Carnation Cove to accommodate the eight largest vessels in town for the First Team Real Estate Invitational Regatta.The zig-zagging docks protrude from shore near 2209 Bayside Drive, said Robert McDonald, the regatta's deep-water dock committee chair, who supervised the construction project. A U-shaped section at the end of the docks will hold four of the largest race boats.

On a beautiful sunny weekend in Seattle, the 20 best high school sailing teams in the nation, chosen through district and regional qualifiers, competed in the Interscholastic Sailing Assn. High School Fleet Racing Championship - the Mallory trophy. Newport Harbor High sent a team of nine sailors: Franchie Cappellini, Jackie Cappellini, Keenan Chung, Ryan Davidson, Erik Higbie, Daniel Segerblom, Greer Wattson and Chase Wells. They placed fifth in the nation. Three of the top four came from the competitive Pacific Coast Region.

Organizers of the famed Newport Beach-to-Ensenada sailing regatta were stunned by the mysterious loss of four crew members aboard a 37-foot boat that disappeared in mid-race, marking the first fatalities in the event's 65-year history. While the U.S. Coast Guard was still investigating the accident, regatta organizers said they believed the boat was hit and demolished by a much larger ship - perhaps a freighter or tanker - passing in the dark early Saturday. The boat disappeared from the online tracking system around 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

CREW Newport Regatta NEWPORT BEACH - The Orange Coast College men captured the Palmer Cup as the top team of the 47th annual event, winning four of six races Saturday The OCC varsity eight won a close race, finishing in 6 minutes, 1.1 seconds. University of San Diego was second in 6:01.3 and UCLA was third in 6:02.2. The Pirates won the Norman E. Watson Cup for finishing first. "It was a great day for our rowers and that varsity eight finish was something special," OCC men's crew coach Paul Prioleau said.

The weather and the ocean swells were the biggest challenge for the Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar high school sailing teams. They battled the cold, wind and rain as they competed in the Gaucho Regatta, put on last weekend by the UC Santa Barbara sailing team in Santa Barbara Harbor. At dawn on March 17, the two large sailing teams drove through the pouring rain to Santa Barbara in numerous cars. They towed their boats to sail against 28 other high school sailing teams from San Diego to San Francisco.

The sailing teams from Newport Harbor High School and Corona del Mar High School traveled to San Francisco to sail in the fourth Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Assn. Regatta of the school year, called the Golden Bear Regatta, on Feb. 25 and 26. This year the regatta was hosted by the UC Berkeley sailing team, rather than Stanford University, and was held off of Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. There were 29 teams in the Gold division and 30 teams in the Silver division.

NEWPORT BEACH — The UC Irvine Sailing Team sponsored the High School Anteater Regatta hosted at Newport Harbor Yacht Club this past weekend. Twenty-eight California high school teams participated in the Gold Fleet along with 28 teams in the Silver Fleet. It was the largest turnout for a high school regatta in recent history, with about 300 sailors. It was too bad the wind didn't turn up. The event took place in the calm before the storm that arrived Monday. With almost no wind on Saturday, the race committee was able to get off only three sets of races for Gold and three for Silver all day. On Sunday the winds were slightly higher at about 4 knots, and so three more sets of races were pulled off in the afternoon.

Back from a memorable weekend in Boston, Newport Aquatic Center varsity eight head coach Jeff Collett and his team gained valuable experience on a national stage. Racing in on the Charles River with a time of 16 minutes, 15 seconds, NAC finished 29th out of 78 boats - the top 37% - on Sunday at the Head of the Charles Regatta. Collett was a little disappointed with the final result Monday in a phone interview, but was happy about his team's efforts. Marin Rowing Assn., who rows near the San Francisco Bay Bridge, won the regatta with a time of 15:06.

The Newport Harbor High School and Corona del Mar High School sailing teams continued their dominance in the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Assn. (PCISA) on Saturday and Sunday by taking second through fifth place at the PCISA All-Girls Invitational Regatta at the San Diego Yacht Club. Thirteen high school girl teams from the San Francisco Bay Area to the San Diego area competed in the regatta in the San Diego Bay and off Shelter Island. There were two days of racing with a total of 18 races combined with the A and B divisions.

When Newport Aquatic Center varsity eight head coach Jeff Collett took over for his best friend, former head coach Rick D'Antoni, he had to keep up with tradition. In just his second season, Collett has done just that, returning the rowing team to the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. He's done it with just one returner from a 2009 team that finished third in Boston, Newport Harbor senior Gordy Box. The team will compete Sunday at 1:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at the Charles River in Boston.

NEWPORT BEACH – A stiff westerly breeze challenged about 50 sailors Sunday in the annual Flight of the Lasers regatta. Organized by the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce's Commodores Club and the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, the race has been held in one form or another since 1936. Winds blew steadily at about 10 to 12 knots, providing long upwind stretches in the south and north Lido Channels. The race also has a fun tradition of awarding the youngest and oldest skippers, and the best costumes.