Santa Barbara to King Harbor Regatta

YACHT RACING

Date: July 30, 2021

The Santa Barbara to King Harbor Regatta is 81 nautical miles from the quaint harbor, where the mountains meet the beach, at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, sailing downwind along spectacular coastline, passed the backside of rugged Anacapa Island, down to fun in the sun Redondo Beach and King Harbor Yacht Club.

Our sailing adventure began for the crew of ‘Javelin’, a J125, which is a 41’ carbon racer, on Wednesday Night. We had just finished a race, part the sailing series that we participate in at our base in Marina Del Rey. After the evening’s festivities a portion of the crew set out to deliver ‘Javelin’ to Santa Barbara motoring up the coast all night.

The seas were running at a pretty good size, and it was to be a cool damp night. The crew members on board stood our watches and as it should be it was an rather uneventful trip. Surprisingly I actually was able to get some sleep even with the engine noise and wave motion.

Early on Thursday we arrived as the morning haze was just starting to lift showing off the beauty of Santa Barbara, the American Riviera. After mooring and some boat prep we headed for Owner Dan Murphy’s Ranch in the gorgeous rolling hills of the Santa Ynez Valley. After touring Dan’s unique, warm and inviting vacation home, that we would enjoy for the night, and a quick “howdy pard’” to the horses in the coral, the crew headed out for wining and dining. We loved sampling the local fare of a Murphy family favorite haunt. The food and wine was everything you would hope for from this Award Winning Wine Country.

As the starting gun sounded on Friday, just off the Santa Barbara Coast, the sailors were met with moderate breeze that would continue to build throughout the day. It wasn’t long before ’Javelin’ was kicking up a white frothy wake as it’s slender gray hull cut through the deep blue.

The backside of Anacapa Island, beautiful and rugged, was a game changer. The island blocked the wind, make it some what light and fluky. There was a certain way to sail it, and we did better than some to include our major competitors from MDR, but not as good as say ’Warrior’, another J125 that is excellently outfitted and crewed. Their experience in the race shined. We enter the backside of the island just in-front of ’Warrior’, who hugged the island, but when they exited they had a nice lead that would continue to grow all the way to KHYC.

The wind and seas continued to build as we surfed along hitting speeds of 18-22 knots. This was the first time I had seen ’Javelin kick up her heels like that. Even for a small cat sailor, racing Hobie Cats and other fast catamarans and being used to blasting across the water, this was pretty impressive! Then we were hit by a puff that was about 30 knots, this rounded us up hard, putting the boat on it’s ear and severely wrapping our spinnaker around the forestay. For the next 45 minutes the boat was comparatively parked, (actually we were still surfing under just the main at 9 knots which would be a pretty good clip in the moderate winds off of MDR), as the Bow Person Tanika Roy and Boat Captain Rob Dekker struggled to set the kite free.

As disappointing as this predicament was other yachts faired far worse suffering ripped sails and other damage. Even with all of this excitement we still finished 5th of the 10 boats in our particular class, besting some very fast boats.

It was a fun and exciting regatta and we are all looking forward to this year’s 49th running of the Santa Barbara to King Harbor Regatta.

CLICK THE PIC for all the action:
‘Pursuing Balance Through Adventure’ YouTube Channel

The Adventure begins- night delivery up the coast.

J125 ‘Javelin’

Crew Dinner in rolling hills of the Santa Ynez Valley Wine Country

Tom Materna enjoys the view up the mast fixing what I didn’t when I was up there.

Crew of the J125 ‘Javelin’

“He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea.” – Dr Thomas Fuller

Thanks for joining Owner Dan Murphy- Helm, Boat Captain Rob Dekker- Pit and a little of everything , Tom Materna- Jib and Spinnaker Trim, Tanika Roy- Bow, Ron Agustsson- Tactician, Caesar Berger- Jedi Master (yes, on our boat that is a thing), Jared Gargano- Main, and myself Roger Jenkins- Mast and Trim. We found ourselves ’Pursuing Balance Through Adventure’ Sailing along the scenic California Coast and what a ride in the stiff breeze! Hop on board for more fun under sail by doing these simple crew chores: LIKE, COMMENT, FOLLOW and SHARE. Above is the menu where you will discover that PBTA is involved in various outdoors and natural activities all across the West. Each location is a separate website and thus needs to be FOLLOWED independently. For PBTA Adventure Wear please go to SHOP APPAREL. The gear is top notch and bears the PBTA Logo/Mantra. Aren’t we all looking for a little escape, to find a little balance from our otherwise hectic, schedule driven, traffic filled lives? Profound Adventures in Nature are key to that balance, come along hop aboard, it’s Heaven on Earth.

Never Spit to Windward-

Roger Jenkins

Pursuing Balance Through Adventure

Viper Sailing

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA

Activity: Day Sailing on the Viper 640

I joined my long time Hobie Cat Racing friends Steve Myter and Dan Delave for a fun Summer’s Day, sailing Steve’s high performance dingy the Viper 640, a three man racer.

I have been racing Hobie Cats and other Catamarans, and for that matter other sailboats, with these two for decades both together as a team and more so against as competitors. On this particular Summer’s day it was just a fun sail with friends, and the conditions were as they are more often then not in Long Beach, perfect.

We have raced this small 21’ craft out of Alamitos Bay YC in Long Beach, California off and on for a couple of seasons. Steve and I had previously sailed together on a F18 Nacra Catamaran and were pretty fast in that class, but we never could quite master this monohull keel boat. I suppose the fact that it is missing a hull must have something to do with it, lol. The best we could manage was to become competitive. But it certainly is a fun boat that is for sure.

Photo Credit Viper 640 Class, Alamitos Bay Yacht Club.

At the dock at ABYC

A day on the water Viper Sailing makes one almost giddy. Steve Myter on the helm with ABYC Commodore Dan Delave.

“We clear the harbor and the wind catches her sails and my beautiful ship leans over ever so gracefully, and her elegant bow cuts cleanly into the increasing chop of the waves. I take a deep breath and my chest expands and my heart starts thumping so strongly I fear the others might see it beat through the cloth of my jacket. I face the wind and my lips peel back from my teeth in a grin of pure joy.” – L.A. Meyer

Here I am playing the kite on the Viper 640.

Thanks for joining Steve, Dan and I as our speedy dingy cut through the waters off of Long Beach, California. Blue skies, blue water, warm sunshine, nice breeze, full sails and good friends what more can you ask for? To continue ’Pursuing Balance Through Adventure’ you can do a couple of things to not capsize when you are attempting to meet that delicate balance between everyday life filled with traffic, bills, schedules, and stress, counter balanced with sailing the ocean blue in complete harmony with nature: LIKE, COMMENT, FOLLOW, and SHARE, that way you will not miss another PBTA High Seas Adventure. If you like the cap I have on you should checkout SHOP APPAREL. If you go to the menu above you can find other adventurous sports and beautiful locations that PBTA ventures to throughout the West. Each is a separate website and thus needs to be FOLLOWED independently.

Never spit to windward,

Roger Jenkins

Pursuing Balance Through Adventure

Marina Del Rey to Catalina Regatta

Yacht Racing

Date: June 12-13, 2021

When ’Pursuing Balance Through Adventure’ racing yachts off of the Southern California Shore is just the ticket and this regatta to Catalina Island and back is super fun.

The regatta, hosted by Del Rey YC, starts just off of Marina Del Rey and proceeds, as the famous 1958 hit by the band the Four Preps suggests, ‘26 Miles (Santa Catalina Song)’ across the sea. However, that mileage approximation would be from the closest point of land to Catalina. In this case it is more like 35 miles between MDR and the island, and besides that the race is to Cat Harbor which is on the backside of Catalina so it is a pretty good distance to be sailing for the day.

Funny thing is Southern California pretty much has more yachts than anywhere in the world and other than running up and down the coast there is no where to go except Catalina Island. The Island is a favorite for tourist and boaters alike. The main tourist section is Avalon with cute boutique hotels, quaint restaurants and fun bars, but our racing was at the opposite, more kick back, West End.

Aboard ‘Javelin’, a J125, carbon 41’ sailboat, life is good as Owner and Main Helmsman Dan Murphy keeps everyone smiling with his charm and wit attracting a talented and fun group of sailors.

The Team Captain Rob Dekker is a Dutch National Champion and has been sailing and racing big boats his whole life. He keeps everyone concentrating on the task at hand and sailing on an even keel… or else.

I am sorry, but even Rob has not competed as many times as my Hobie National Champion friend or I. Tom recruited me to this fine group of sailors, and it has been a blast.

Tom and I have competed against each other and sailed with each other as a team in big National and World Championships. We even switched off on the helm at one event. We are both Hobie 14 National Champions. Mine was a Canadian Nationals and his a US. But I trump Tom with a US Sailing Alter Cup Title, which is a Champion of Champions event. Admittedly I was crewing with my friend, Pete Melvin famed multihull designer, with multiple World Titles, an Olympian, and has more National Titles then he can remember. So I don’t know maybe that makes it a push between Tom Materna and I.

Julia Briggs is a young, brilliant Bow person, whom also happens to be a yachting professional, and a doll besides. She will never-ever complain about anything she takes everything in stride and just loves the challenge.

Rounding out our core group is another talented, fit, young woman Tanika Roy, a former Marine, now in Avionics for Virgin Orbit. Tanika balances out her grit and determination with a Zen like Buddhist quality. She can pretty much handle anything on the boat, and she bakes crazy good chocolate chip cookies.

‘Javelin’ also rotates in multiple other sailors all contributing to the fun and success of this team. All thanks to Dan Murphy and his love of life, the sea, competition, and more than anything a good time.

Now back to the regatta. There were many fine sailboats in the regatta. We had light winds and we had good winds. We had steady winds we had some shifty winds. All which add to the fun and challenge. You need to checkout the video as we came upon a very large pod of dolphins which was so darn cool! By the time we reached the backside of Catalina there were still half a dozen boats in the hunt for line honors. When it came down to it, as we drew near the finish, it was between us and the professional crew of the yacht ‘Sapphire Knight’, who’s recent refurbish had cost far more than the purchase price of our boat. Sapphire Knight’s professional crew should have spanked us, but the difference came down to we read the wind better, and deployed the proper sail quicker, and took line honors.

The team celebrated big time with a fine meal at the Del Rey YC’s Base Compound at Cat Harbor. Super food, super drink, super fun group. Maybe a little too much of the super fun drink… as a few members of the crew stumbled off down the gang plank, singing into the night arm in arm after we ventured into the bar/restaurant at Two Harbors for some sweet, but potent ’Buffalo Milks’ to cap off the night.

Early the next morning I went on a ‘tough’ hike before we headed off for the start. A couple member’s of the crew had a ’tough’ time even lifting their head up as we experienced heavy swell action. One member whom will remain unnamed completely grossed out the competition at the start with her butt in the air, feeding the fish off the bow, almost spewing on the nearby crew of about a dozen on the rail of the boat next to us. She has sworn off Margaritas followed by Buffalo Milks for good, or so she professed at the time.

Once again we had some light wind and some good wind. Probably a little less of the shifty tricky stuff such that the yacht we duked it out with the day before was sailing more on her lines, so no overall upset. We had a second across the line finish and corrected out second for the race. But one thing is for sure we had a best time ’Pursuing Balance Through Adventure’ Sailing.

Tight Competition in light breeze as we round the end of Catalina Island

Tight racing against the boat in the background that should be beating us soundly.

‘Javelin’ First Boat at the Finish at Cat Harbor!

Night at Two Harbors

That is ’Javelin’ in the background on the left, and the photo on the right Capt Rob steers a course for MDR.

PBTA YouTube Channel, click to watch

“Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be Pirates.” – Mark Twain

Thanks for joining Dan, Rob, Tom, Julia, Tanika, Karla, Jerry, Jen and I as we were ’Pursuing Balance Through Adventure’ Sailing during the regatta from MDR to Catalina Island on ’Javelin’. We hope that you will hop aboard for more high seas adventure and you can do so by fulfilling the following crew chores: LIKE, FOLLOW, COMMENT, and SHARE. If you care to checkout the menu above you will see that ’Pursuing Balance Through Adventure’ embarks on other type of adventurous lifestyle activities. They are mostly broken down by area. Each location is a separate website and thus needs to be FOLLOWED independently. For PBTA Adventure Wear please see SHOP APPAREL. The gear is top quality and bears the PBTA logo and mantra because aren’t we all looking for a little balance to our otherwise hetic, repetitive, burdensome, mundane lives? Epic adventures in nature are the ticket to that balance, come along let’s set a course to Shangri-La.

Never Spit to Windward-

Roger Jenkins

Pursuing Balance Through Adventure

‘Safari’ Fastest Charter Cat in the Caribbean

CAT FIGHT REGATTA

JOSH VAN DYKE, CARIBBEAN ISLAND

Activity: Big Cat Racing

Date: Halloween 2014

Facebook presented me with a memory today and since I feel it was not only one of the coolest things I have ever done, but a neat part of my sailboat racing history, I thought that I would share it.

I happened to be on a Corporate Reward/National Sales Meeting trip to Puerto Rico. My wife and I were treated to a Super Resort, with lavish accommodations and meals. While there I participated in a ”Fun Run”, a Mountain Bike through the jungle excursion, took a boat out to a small island off shore for fun in the sun and hiking, topped off with a night kayak adventure through some mangroves to a bioluminescent bay. It was a super enjoyable trip.

I thought hey, my Hobie Cat Champion friend Teri McKenna has a Charter Boat on the island Saint Thomas and that is only a quick flight from Puerto Rico. What an opportunity to hit a bucket list item, cruise on a Charter Cat.

Teri invited me over to her tropical paradise, a cool apartment right on the beach on Saint Thomas with a spectacular view of the most enchanting little bay. What an amazing week we had together. It seems Teri had been working so hard on her business that it had been awhile since she did anything fun. So showing me around “Paradise” was just what the doctor ordered for her as well. We traveled to multiple islands that are in the vicinity, went for a jungle hike, visited picture perfect beaches, had some great meals at cool restaurants and bars, sailed a big mono hull to another island, and all the things that people do on vacation.

The extra special things were Master Diver Teri took me on 3 scuba dives which of course were spectacular with colorful reefs and tropical fish including a 6 foot shark that was gone in a blink of an eye. We took out her Nacra 17. (The Olympic Catamaran designed by my friend World Champion Pete Melvin. Pete and I won the US Sailing Alter Cup together back in the day.) It was a fantastic day in nirvana, flying a hull on this speedy little cat was most thrilling as I helmed it across the splendid tropical blue green waters.

Now for the bucket lister… I have always been jealous of friends that would go race in some exotic part of the world at a Hobie World Championship and then take a week and cruise with other Hobie friends on big Charter Cats. Now was my chance. Teri owned a Lagoon 44’ Catamaran fully decked out, and chartering the incredible waters of the Caribbean. She was not only going to take me out for a cruise, but my timing was perfect as it was the weekend of ”Cat Fight” a regatta for Charter Cats off of the island of Josh Van Dyke.

The racers were made up of a combination of crews chartering and professional charter crews that were blowing off some steam. Teri’s arch rival was a cat similar to hers that had NEVER, EVER lost, and they had a transom full of plaques decorating the stern of their boat to prove it. Teri was sick and tired of losing to them feeling that they had taken some unfair advantages stripping their boat of weight, whereas the folks chartering did not have that luxury. But this time she decided that she would fight fire with fire. We would keep an eye on the competition and if we saw them offloading their anchor and other heavy gear than we would as well. They did, so we followed suit.

What a fantastic place to race. The winds were perfect. The pictuesque scene with the beautiful water, the glorious islands, and the marvelous catamarans was divine. About mid way through the race we were neck and neck with Teri’s rival- side by side next to a big rock jutting out of the ocean. I am not sure what was more nerve racking being side by side with the main competition as Teri practically willed our boat forward, or the big rock that was also just a matter of feet away. As we passed one of the shoals, which was a mark of the course, we squirted out into the lead. The other cats were left in our wake, fighting it out and blanketing one another. We had a sizable lead that later began to vanish as we funneled between two islands and the wind was filling from behind. I kept informing Teri that they were closing in on us. In frustration she said she didn’t want to hear any more about how they were catching us! I was able to go forward and read the other side of the headsail and direct Teri with the course according to the tell tails on the sail. This added another dimension to our effort. It turns out that we were able to cross the line just in front of the boat that had a dynasty going on this event.

What was really cool was at the Awards Banquet at the World Famous ‘Foxy’s Bar’ the boat that had never lost was as excited about our win as we were, because to them it was all about the competition, and they finally had some.

We celebrated the Halloween Weekend away toasting our victory with “Pain Killers” at another famous Caribbean Bar, the ‘Soggy Dollar’, enjoying the incredible views from the deck of ’Safari’, the Fastest Charter Cat in the Caribbean, snorkeling, sunning, and swimming. What a marvelous adventure and memory.

• 

  ‘Safari’ Charters Owner Teri McKenna takes the lead and never looks back… the rest of us did though.

“Well, it’s not far down to paradise, at least it’s not for me. And if the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility…” – Christopher Cross

Thanks for joining Charter Captain Stephen Ray, Chef Julia Blackney-Ray, Boat Owner Teri McKenna and I as we enjoyed a memory of ’Pursing Balance Through Adventure’ winning the 2014 Cat Fight Regatta aboard ’Safari’ the Fastest Charter Cat in the Caribbean. For more sailing adventures please do the following: LIKE, COMMENT, FOLLOW and SHARE. If you go up to the menu above you will see there are many locations that PBTA travels to on a variety of different types of adventures such as hiking, backpacking, off-roading, and so forth and so on. If you need adventure wear we have top quality hats and shirts at SHOP APPAREL.

*Never Spit to Windward,

Roger Jenkins

Pursuing Balance Through Adventure

*(First rule of sailing as taught to me by dear family friend, the late, great Rear Admiral Robert Quackenbush Jr, US Navy.

Launching ‘Pursuing Balance Through Adventure’ Sailing

This is Roger Jenkins. You may know me best through my series of blogs about Adventure and how that can help Balance out the hectic, busy, overstressed lives that we all lead from everyday existence. I try to get across the message while this is just part of life full of deadlines, work expectations, bills to be paid, chores to be completed, appointments to be kept, getting the kids to soccer, to the doctor, to ballet, homework, home improvement projects, shopping, and on and on and on… It’s just life… But it can be stressful and at times almost overwhelming trying to fit it all in. We all need something to de-stress. It could be working out, heck it could be knitting, lol.

One thing I do know is that Nature can provide that Balance. Just looking at something beautiful like a mountain, the ocean, a red wood, a water-fall, listening to the breeze through the pines, the trickle of a stream, feeling the rising sun on your face, the wind at your back, the taste of salt on your lips at the shore, or the scent of pine in the woods these are some of the things that make you feel at ease and take a load off… Nature can do that.

When you add to this adventure, which I will define as an Profound Experience in Nature, then I feel that ramps things up further Balancing us.

Add in exercise, and the exertion and physicality of climbing, paddling, hiking, biking and so forth, this starts etching this Balance into our memory.

Then throw in the excitement and the daring of Adventure and all of your senses become heightened and the ensuing Balance becomes part of who we are and it is something that we can take with us for when we are back to the reality of a ho hum work a day existence because we are now more Balanced through Adventure.

The last part of this idea of ‘Pursuing Balance Through Adventure’ is that this is a Pursuit not a Destination. It is something to always be striving for there is always another mountain top in a sense. When you have summited that just means you need to find another mountain.

Most of my posts are regarding hiking and scrambling beautiful locals with a sprinkling of backpacking. I sometimes touch on other forms of adventure such as mountain biking, canoeing, kayaking, SUP, to name a few. The truth of the matter is that these all easily fit into ‘Pursing Balance Through Adventure’ and there certainly are a lot more.

I recently added PBTA OFF-ROAD. I purchased the Toyota 4 Runner TRD Pro to gain better access to my hiking and backpacking, but found through the enthusiasm of my 17 year old son, Alec, that is pumped about this new undertaking of adventuring of this nature, that this can it’s self be a means to an end as far as ‘Pursing Balance Through Adventure’ and not just a vessel.

So it only seems right that I am adding ‘Pursing Balance Through Adventure’ Sailing. Sailing is something that has been my life for all of my life. It is so natural manipulating the wind, waves, and current to propel yourself through nature by utilizing nature.

I love everything about sailing from the simplicity of a small dingy such as Sabot, to the physicality of sailing in surf on a short board sailboard, to the speed of an F18 flying a hull downwind under full spinnaker, the teamwork of a yacht, or the ocean going of a 45’ custom trimaran, the delight of reaching speeds never though probable on a 20’ foiling cat, or the record breaking Tri-Foiler.

It is always good to be out on the water be it a ski boat on a lake, a motor yacht cruising through Newport Bay, a houseboat on Lake Powell, or racing a jet ski snaking through a canyon. But the natural feeling of harnessing the wind in your sails it something that is always special. I love every aspect of nature and sailing from the lighter wind days of drifting slowly barely leaving a ripple, to under full sail in the Caribbean on a big cruising cat, to getting fully launched airborne on the steep short waves of Lake Michigan on a Hobie 20. It’s all good.

Add to this the excitement of competition, jockeying for position on the starting line, using right away rules, boat set up, tuning for conditions, playing wind shifts all to your advantage and you gain the full package. Sailboat racing is a moving chessboard using your mind, sails, and physicality to propel you past your competitors. I have been through many aspects of sailing competition from my meager beginnings on a Hobie 14 in Virginia Beach where we finally had enough competitors for me to get a trophy to sailing at the Olympic Trials.

So a hearty welcome to ‘Pursing Balance Through Adventure’ Sailing. It is all about profound experiences in nature under sail.

“It’s remarkable how quickly a good and favorable wind can sweep away the maddening frustrations of shore living.” – Ernest K. Gann

Roger Jenkins age 16 sailing my Hobie 14 in Virginia Beach, VA.

Have a Hobie Day!

Roger Jenkins

Pursuing Balance Through Adventure