This year’s Coastal Cup, sponsored by the Encinal Yacht Club, finally got off to a windy start after a few years of drifters, southerlies and generally boring races. As one seasoned racers said, "This race will either bore you or scare you to death depending on the conditions."

The course from St. Francis Yacht Club to a finish off Catalina Island’s West End was windy (sometimes up to 30 knots), wavy (the swell was actually too short, making for hard driving), and in the end slow going for the last miles.

The finish for the Coastal Cup moves around from year to year just to keep it interesting. Last year was off the town of Santa Barbara. The difference between that shorter course and finishing in Catalina is 83 miles, which can make for a hard time on the smaller boats. So it was nice to see the small guys finish first for a change. The Hobie 33 Still Crazy from the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Corona Del Mar got there first, and the local Express 27 Tule Fog from Richmond Yacht Club came in third overall.

Complete results are available at www.encinal.org. Video from racers coming soon, once we get the cameras back from them!