Arizona Yacht Club Birthday Regatta 2025
Arizona Birthday Regatta 2025:
Sailing in the Desert! Around Valentines Day each year, the Arizona Yacht club celebrates its birthday with a three-day charity event at Lake Pleasant, just about forty-five minutes northwest of Phoenix. The event is hosted at Lake Pleasant RV resort. The venue boasts a full marina, sailing school, dry camping, and full RV hookups. The club rents out a community building for breakfast gatherings and dinner festivities. Campers are treated to scenic saguaro cacti and the soothing calls of wild burros, watch your step! Lake Pleasant Harbor has three boat ramps and a hand launch area for visitors to use. The hand launch area has mostly been closed to the public for the past seven or eight years, but the Arizona Yacht Club has negotiated some limited use for events to make beach launching possible.
Fifty-six boats came from all over the country to compete over three days. Ranging from Sunfish and FJs to a Hobie 33! We saw a range of conditions and temperatures. An additional treat this year was that the eighty-year-old Philippine Mars is on display at the lake! The historic WWII bomber is en route to its final resting place at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson. It landed at Lake Pleasant earlier in the week and is being dismantled on the west side of the lake for transportation to the museum. It could be seen from just about anywhere on the lake.
Day One: Friday Feb 14th was a separately scored charity race for fun. Many competitors could not make it on Friday so that day typically gets parsed off each year. In this case, Friday was a fantastic beach cat day. We saw breeze in the high teens and low twenties with twenty-degree wind shifts and some 10kt gust differentials coming down the lake. The racers were separated into Portsmouth and PHRF classes for ease and reduced participation. As the first race was getting underway, most of the Portsmouth fleet that the multihulls were in retired early, and we were left with two Waves and my Hobie 18 Magnum. We ripped around for two races until the breeze started to settle down and the chill started to set in, and we headed back to the beach. David Peltier corrected out to first place, we took second and Jim Sajdak too third. The four other dinghies and skiffs in the Portsmouth fleet did not compete. The handicap multihull fleet and the Wave fleet cruised down to the Marina Restaurant, Dillions, and got some good food, and listened to and eclectic set of 80s, 90s and early 2000s live music.
Day Two: The Gentle Drift!
With a forecasted breeze of one with gusts to three, we took off with limited expectations. There was a bit of breeze to cruise down to the starting area and putt around, but not enough to really get a race off. The race committee started the cruising fleet and a few keelboat fleets only to have the wind shut down mid race.
After a few hours we decided that the diurnal pattern was in effect, and we would head south towards the dam and the beach. If the breeze filled in… we would catch it and ride back to the starting area, if not… then we would be in prime position to avoid paddling home! Some breeze did tease its way in as we hit the beach, and the Race committee got a few fleets going, but it quickly fizzled out. Everybody cruised over to the event building and enjoyed a DJ, catered dinner and AYC birthday cake!
Day Three: The Frosty Dawn!
The forecast called for a bit more, but only in the wee hours of the morning. Fortunately, the event organizers called for a 9am start, so we had the opportunity to catch it! My crew and I pushed off early to take advantage of the breeze. In true Arizona sailing fashion, we were a but under dressed. The chill was worth it as we hiked off the wings and blasted around the lake until the course was set and competitors came out. We did have a bit of an unfortunate interaction with a Buc, while waiting for racing to start another competitor was whipping around and made contact with our transom as we were parked. Apparently while the crew was trying to fend off our wing, a crew member caught his finger between the boats and ended up shooting back to shore for some medical attention. Competitors and Race committee relayed information and met the boat as it reached shore and took care of the injured crew member.
Meanwhile… the rest of the competitors were getting underway! We had some breeze in the single to double digits with trapezing and fairly consistent wind direction. The race committee managed some fleet combinations to avoid a forty-five-minute start sequence for the nine fleets involved. Our race got off and we nailed the start line and shot away from our competitors. We did a couple of early tacks and wasted some time, but still rounded well ahead of the fleet. On the downwind, we confidently gybed in front of an island and headed for our leeward mark only to be met by Steven Dawson cruising in on his Hobie 16 to meet us at the leeward mark. He had gone wide and held his speed. We started to make ground again and managed to short tack a few more times. We took line honors… but with only a seventeen second lead, Steven took first. In the next two races we learned to bang the corners and maintain a healthy lead that secured us first for the fleet. In the second race one of the keelboats got confused and tried to start with us, causing some frustration and some comedic effect. We all sort of buzzed around him and peeled away. In the third race, we were started with the Portsmouth fleet and two MC Scows and a Melges 15 seemed to motor up the center of the course. The rounded ahead of us and shot straight down to the leeward mark. We made up ground and passed the Melges, but the MC Scows managed to stay ahead of us and finish moments before we did. As we putted around the finish area I looked at the time and dying wind and we decided it was time for lunch. We made our way up the course towards the dam again and the breeze started to shut down. It was about 11:15 with no racing after noon anyway and the forecast called for the breeze to die at 11. As we made our way to the beach, the radio seemed to be full of competitors calling in to retire and fleet captains doing the same. We helped each other pack up boats and were up to the awards ceremony by 2pm. Hot Dogs, drinks and other snacks were available, and the room was full of post-race chatter. Jim Sajdak was named SW regional Champion for the Formula Wave Clas and Drew and I took First place for the Multihull fleet.
Another successful AYC Birthday Regatta in the books! See you next year!
