Ready for the benefit regatta

With the community getting ready for the inaugural First Team Real

Estate Invitational Regatta, the boat race to benefit Hoag Memorial

Hospital Presbyterian, taking place at the Newport Pier May 20 to 22,

we decided to get a look at the behind-the-scenes organizing and what

makes up a regatta. Editor Tony Dodero spoke with local attorney Jay

Swigart, a longtime member and former commodore of the Newport Harbor

Yacht Club.

Where did the idea for the First Team Regatta come from?

Following a meeting of Hoag’s Endowment and Planned Gifts

Committee in early 2003, and while I was commodore of Newport Harbor

Yacht Club, I was approached by Ron Guziak, the executive director of

the Hoag Hospital Foundation, about organizing a fundraiser for the

hospital around a sailing event. I didn’t really have a clue as to

how we might go about doing this, because I had never heard of such a

thing, but agreed that I would organize a brainstorming session with

several members of Newport Harbor Yacht Club, who had not only

significant sailing experience but also significant experience

organizing regattas. Our initial group consisted of several Newport

Harbor Yacht Club members -- former Star World champion and America’s

Cup skipper Bill Ficker; longtime sailor and race organizer par

excellence Phil Ramser; longtime sailor, big boat owner and former

winner of the Ensenada Race Jim Madden; my Yacht Racing Council

chairman at the time Paul Stemler; Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s racing

coordinator Jenn Lancaster; as well as Ron Guziak from the hospital.

Out of that initial meeting, we developed several core ideas.

First, that the regatta should be in big boats, so that there would

be room for a limited number of sponsors and their guests to ride

along without interfering with the crew’s ability to race the boat.

Second, that the regatta should not be a Newport Harbor Yacht Club

specific event but rather involve other local clubs as well. Third,

that we make every effort to ensure that the sponsors obtain as much

benefit as possible for their participation. Fourth, that we provide

the sailors with a first-class racing experience, and we have firs-

class social events. And, finally, in order to make it convenient for

the boat owners, that we schedule the regatta after the Ensenada Race

and before Transpac, when they would likely be in the area anyway,

and that we hold the race biennially to coincide with Transpac. Jim

Madden volunteered to prepare the minutes of that meeting, and he did

such a good job that he was unanimously elected to become the

co-chairman of the organizing committee. No good deed goes

unpunished.

For those not familiar with racing, just what is the definition of

a regatta? And what makes this one unique?

A regatta is a series of races, typically one or two per day over

a period of several days. Regattas to determine a world champion in a

particular class can involve upwards of 7 races spread out over a

week or more, but most regattas are two or three days long, generally

over a weekend or several weekends. The boat with the most or least

points, depending on the scoring system, for all of the races -- or

in some cases after throwing out a race or two -- is declared the

winner. If the boats are all of the same design, then the order of

finish in each race determines the ranking in that race. If the boats

are not of the same design, then the boats are handicapped based upon

an established handicapping rule, which in the case of our regatta is

the Americap rating system, and then the boat’s elapsed time around

the course for a particular race is adjusted based upon the boat’s

particular handicap. The boat with the minimum corrected time for the

race is then declared the winner of that race. As a result, the order

of finish of the boats in a handicap race does not necessarily

determine how they actually fared in the race.

This regatta is unique in several aspects, not the least of which

is that it is a “regatta” as opposed to a single race. It will also

be a race around a course of buoys located in the ocean off of

Newport Beach. Most sailing events involving big boats are distance

races that start in one place and finish in another, such as the

Ensenada Race or the TransPac Race to Hawaii. In those races, the

boats start and then disappear over the horizon a few minutes later.

And with the type of boats we’re talking about, they disappear over

the horizon in a hurry! In our regatta, the boats will remain within

a relatively confined area as they sail around a series of buoys and,

therefore, our regatta will provide the skippers and crews with a

unique opportunity to hone their buoy-racing tactics and their

sailing-handling skills as they transition from sailing upwind to

downwind and vice versa. At the same time, it provides the spectators

with an opportunity to see a lot of action, both in terms of mark

roundings as the boats are changing sails and in terms of the boats

interacting with each other. I can’t recall there ever having been a

big-boat-only, buoy-racing regatta in the Newport area, and certainly

not within the last 20 to 30 years.

Another unique aspect of this regatta is the boats involved. Not

only are they big -- the minimum size invited was 50 feet -- but most

are 70 feet plus and also the state of the art of these boats. There

are only a handful of these boats in the world, and we are hoping to

have as many as 20 in our regatta. Some of these boats have canting

keels -- that is, the ability to swing the entire keel to one side of

the boat or other to flatten the boat out as it sails upwind. Some

have a forward rudder in addition to the traditional stern rudder.

And some are made of materials so exotic you have to get a special

license from the government in order that they can be sure you aren’t

intending to build a missile instead.

Of course, this regatta is also unique in that it is a charitable

fundraiser for the benefit of Hoag’s Heart and Vascular Institute.

Figuring out how to do this without negatively impacting the racing

has been a challenge, but we’re hopeful we’ve worked out a system

that will satisfy all concerned. The sponsors will get to put their

names on the side of a particular boat and put a couple of their

employees or guests onboard, and yet the crews should not be impacted

to any significant extent by their presence. For those potential

sponsors who are sailors and more adventurous, there is also a unique

opportunity to skipper one of the hottest boats in the field. Scout

Spirit, a Reichel/Pugh 78-footer recently acquired by the Newport Sea

Base and the holder of several world sailing records, is up for

auction to the highest bidder or syndicate of bidders. For a price,

then, some lucky person will have an opportunity that is generally

only available to the mega-wealthy and their professional skippers to

drive one of these high tech boats, and at the same time get a

charitable tax deduction.

How big will this be for Newport Beach? Is there anything bigger

for boat racing here?

Needless to say, we’re hoping that this will be huge for Newport

and for Hoag. We recognize that it will take time to establish this

regatta as a national and international event, but I believe we’re

off to a good start. We’ve got a great group of participants and

we’re getting great support from the community. Our title sponsor,

First Team Real Estate, has been very generous both financially and

with their commitment of personnel and resources. We’re hopeful that

the regatta will be a significant benefit to Hoag but also a boon to

the local business community as we bring in to the area 300 or more

sailors plus spectators and sponsors’ guests.

The Ensenada Race is certainly bigger in terms of the number of

boats and TransPac has been around a lot longer, but the reality is

that it is very hard to compare our regatta to anything else in this

area simply because there isn’t really another event like it.

What regattas have you raced in?

I’ve sailed all my life. I grew up on a 60-foot schooner my family

cruised and raced in the 50’s and 60’s, and I’ve raced Snowbirds and

other small boats in the bay for more years than I would like to

admit. I’ve raced in several Etchell’s World Championships and North

Americans, the Six Meter Worlds, numerous Ensenada Races, Ahmanson

and Whitney series, the South China Sea Race, Newport to Isla

Navidad. In fact, as we speak, I’m getting geared up to sail to Cabo

San Lucas in the race that starts from Newport next weekend. I’ve

also sailed boats from here to the South Pacific and back and from

here down through the Panama Canal. There are many who have done far

more sailing than I have, but I believe I can hold my own.

What opportunities will there be for people to watch the regatta?

There will be several ways to watch the regatta. The simplest will

be to walk to the end of the Newport Pier and look to the west. We

are going to try to set the leeward mark of the course as close

inshore as possible, taking into consideration safety concerns and

the wind. It will probably still seem a ways off, though, so the next

best bet would be to buy a spot on one of the volunteer spectator

boats, or better still, get invited as a guest of one of the sponsors

who will have a number of spots reserved for them on these boats.

Incidentally, we are working hard to put together a fleet of

spectator boats that will be very comfortable and an enjoyable

experience in and of themselves. As I mentioned, the sponsors will

also have an opportunity to put a couple of people onboard the race

boats for an up-close and personal look at the action. Also, if

someone has his own boat, he or she is more than welcome to come out

and view the action, although we ask that they observe the spectator

control boat admonitions and stay out of the actual race area.

You’ve said before that the regatta has brought together yacht

clubs that in the past didn’t work together. What made this

different?

It’s not accurate to suggest that the clubs can’t work together;

it’s just that they haven’t done much of this in the past. Usually

one club or the other organizes a regatta and takes full

responsibility for it. This is different because it is intended to be

a charitable fundraiser, and we thought it was important to get the

community involved generally and keep the yacht club’s egos out of

it. The informal agreement between Newport Harbor Yacht Club and

Balboa Yacht Club is for Newport to be the regatta organizer this

inaugural year, with Balboa in charge of the on-the-water duties such

as race committee, mark setting and spectator control, and then in

the next regatta two years from now, for Balboa to be the regatta

organizer and Newport to run the on-the-water activities. So far,

it’s worked out great, and I’ve made a lot of new friends at Balboa

Yacht Club.