Legacy Building
While most college regattas are contested in dinghies, some events—including the Los Angeles Yacht Club’s Port of Los Angeles Harbor Cup—offer big-boat experience, great racing and onshore socializing. This year’s Harbor Cup (March 13-15) was extra tense for Chris Vilicich, California Maritime Academy’s skipper, who hoped top continue his school’s four-year winning streak. After 10 races the Vilicich and the Keelhaulers pulled off a proud five-peat, beating the College of Charleston and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Sailstrong
The annual Tour de France à la Voile, which features both stage racing along the coast of France and in-port regattas, is getting a facelift for 2015. Gone are the monohulls of yore, replaced by a fleet of 24ft Diam 24 one-design trimarans, which were designed by VPLP and built in France. While not foilers, these new tris have already attracted some big names to the event—including Bernard Stamm, Franck Cammas and Thomas Colville—which kicks off on July 3.
Sprint for Information
In March, Race For Water Odyssey—a MOD 70 racing trimaran—left Bordeaux, France, on an around-the-world-in-less-than-300-days mission to collect data and to make an educated assessment of how much plastic pollution is in the world’s oceans. By visiting islands near the world’s trash vortexes, the team, led by skipper Stève Ravussin and expedition leader Marco Simeoni, hopes to help determine the human and environmental ramifications of this pollution, and to raise international awareness. Learn more at raceforwater.org.
Production Cup
In an effort to spur participation, June’s Annapolis to Newport Race has added several interesting components. As previously noted, the race is serving as part of the greater East Coast Offshore Series, and a Performance Cruising class has been created. Now news has broken that the event will feature a Manufacturer’s Trophy, to be awarded to the production-boat manufacturer who has at least five yachts competing, and whose top-five finishers generate the best average score.
