East and West's Most Excellent Weekend

Harbor 20 sailors have a ball in Hilton Head

October 23-25 was an epic weekend for Harbor 20 sailors at South Carolina Yacht Club, or SCYC. Each year, Harbor 20 sailors from across the country get together to participate in the East/West Challenge, a 3-day sailing fun fest with a format unique to Harbor 20s.

In this traveling regatta, the host fleet welcomes teams from the traveling fleets to stay in their homes for the weekend. "The Harbor 20 way is to move people, not boats. The host club provides the boats and arranges for housing with their members, food and beverages, entertainment, etc. This makes for not only a great sailing event, but also for an incredible social event." -Peter Haynes, former class president.

For the past 7 years, two teams from each coast represented: Newport and Santa Barbara for the West, Annapolis and Hilton Head for the East. This is the first year that Fleet 6 in Charlotte Harbor, Florida sent reps for the West.

The 2014 E v. W was hosted by Santa Barbara Yacht club. It was a delightful beach party featuring Starlets, Olympians, and Moguls. Santa Barbara's Al Salzer was such a gracious host, everyone wanted to stay another night.

2014 Santa Barbara beach party

The South is not one to be outdone in hospitality. All participants and their spouses, plus an additional 40 volunteers saw to it that this was a truly amazing weekend, with a party every night.

SCYC style buffet

South Carolina Yacht club hosted a sumptuous pool side buffet on Friday evening. Harbor 20 sailors like to kick off their weekend with good food, good drinks, and great company!

Saturday evening, Mary and Joe Highsmith welcomed everyone to their home on the May River for an oyster roast and pig roast.

After dinner, everyone crowded on the dance floor under the oak trees while listening to "Low Country Boil" play live.

De Sole Home

The weekend concluded with Sunday's Award Ceremony held in Elenore and Domenico DeSole's lovely home. The De Sole's hospitality is famous among East Coast Harbor 20 sailors from the annual Windmill Harbour Regatta .

The East v. West Regatta has gained some media attention as well. The following is a piece from journalist Bill Lawrenson of the Island Packet Newspaper

Harbor 20 Sail
boat Racing - EAST VS. WEST

The weekend will decide who has the bragging rights for the next year, the East Coast or the West Coast. Three crews from each of the Harbor 20 (H 20) fleets in Newport Beach and Santa Barbara, California, representing the West will defend their title against similar crews from H 20 fleets in Annapolis and Hilton Head Island, representing the East. Each fleet had an elimination series where the winners earned the right to come to this regatta. Competition for a place on the team was fiercest in Newport Beach where there are over 75 active racing boats in their H 20 fleet. On The Hilton Head the elimination series was 70 races between March and May. If you want to race in the East-West Regatta, you have to be serious.

Award for Windmill Harbour qualifying regatta

H 20 sailboats are twenty feet long one design class boats all having have identical hulls and carry a limited number of sails from specified manufacturers. These rules ensure that all boats virtually the same.

The crews travel to the regatta site, but use boats provided by the local fleet [a benefit of

Big Fleets

The H 20 East-West regatta is fleet racing for both a team trophy and individual prizes. This year's event is the eighth H 20 East-West regatta. The venue alternates between the East coast and West coast each year. It was Santa Barbara in 2014, and Annapolis the year before. The West team is slightly ahead of the East team in overall competition for the team trophy.

South Carolina Yacht Club

The event will be run by South Carolina Yacht Club. After boat assignment and a practice race on Friday afternoon the competition starts in earnest, with all day racing on Saturday and Sunday. Spectators can see the event in Calibogue Sound (near Windmill Harbour). Power boaters are asked to keep their wakes to a minimum near the race course.

South Carolina Yacht Club

East-West Regatta Harbor 20 Sailboats - Day One Saturday

Crews from Santa Barbara and Newport Beach CA, sailing in six boats representing the West, battled with similar crews from Annapolis MD and Hilton Head Island (representing the East) in the eighth Annual East-West Regatta last Saturday and Sunday. Following a practice race on Friday, the competition began in earnest on over the week end. Crews race virtually identical Harbor 20 sailboats, and different boats are assigned to crews on each of the two days of the event. This is all about the sailors and not their boats. All position count in this competition, one point for first, two for second, etc. The low scoring team wins.

Wind was light over Calibogue Sound on Saturday morning, but freshened during the day. Five races were held. The six East's crews jumped into an early lead and ended up with a team total of 132 vs. 156 for the West's crews. Chuck Millican and Ned Nielsen of the Hilton Head Team were the fastest overall, and scored 3 firsts, a second and a third, an outstanding performance. Ed Kimball and Gary Thorpe of Newport Beach CA were second fastest.

Congratulations!

It was an riveting regatta. For those who weren't able to make it to the scenic Hilton Head Island, you can still relive it with the live race tracker.

Overall, the East won as the best coast for 2015. The active sailing calendars at Annapolis and Hilton Head paid off, giving them an edge. But when you're sailing Sportboats with Cupholders, who wouldn't want to sail every chance they get?

Next year, the regatta will be held at Newport Harbor Yacht Club, we are excited to see what awaits in 2016.

W.D. Schock Corp.

951-277-3377

23125 Temescal Canyon Rd. Corona, CA 92883

Email: [email protected] Website: http://wdschock.com

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