They’re the Jeep Cherokee of sailboats: their builders made a ton of them, they still run great, they can be a sport utility vehicle or a station wagon, they go fine on the flat stuff but can also handle the steep stuff - like offshore swell or Bay chop. They’re Catalina 30s, and on Friday-Sunday, 21 of them raced for their national championships, hosted by South Beach Yacht Club.

They were split up about evenly in three divisions: Racing Spinnaker, Racing Main & Jib, and Cruising. Cruising boats are just that. “We have the stove, head, and all the cushions onboard,” said Roger Tennyson, who owns Cruising division boat Grinnin’ Bear. “And we can’t change the jib.”

The division definitions allowed for standard rig and tall rig boats to race together. “This is a standard rig,” said Bob on Grinnin’ Bear. “A tall rig would be a disadvantage here.”

“There are no tall rigs in this regatta,” added Mike Kastrop. “They’re more common in Southern California.” Mike’s boat Goose is a previous Catalina 30 champion and 2008 SF180 champ.

“Most of the boats are from the Bay,” said Mike. “Two from Antioch and three from Santa Cruz. Plus three crews from out of the area chartered or borrowed local boats. They came from San Diego, Chicago and Florida.”

Friday’s race course was in the South Bay, and, although the weather was achingly pleasant, it was also frustratingly calm. “There were holes everywhere,” said Tom on Goose. In the first race on Friday, the Main & Jib boat Avalon got within 200 feet of the finish and then just sat there for 15 minutes - until they started drifting backwards. “Very few boats were able to finish in the non-spinnaker division,” said Avalon’s tactician, Bill Pritchard. “The wind filled in for the second race - a smooth, quick race with good sailing.” added Bill, who, incidentally, is a former partner in the now-defunct Santana sailing magazine of Southern California, and therefore no stranger to light air conditions.

Laurie Miller, another previous fleet champion, from Starkite, said Friday was a long day for the spinnaker boats too. “The race committee postponed the first start for over an hour due to no wind. Once racing started, we traded positions a lot. Because of the ebb, we anchored three times.” The water is deep there in the ship anchorage, 50-55 feet, so pulling up the anchor three times was a lot of work.

Saturday was a whole different story - on a whole different race course. The line was set up north of Treasure Island, the windward mark was near Alcatraz - or Alcatraz itself - and the leeward mark was way down the Berkeley Pier past a field of barges.

Rob Hutchinson, crew on Outrageous, which won the second race on Saturday, called it “white knuckle sailing,” with winds at 18-20 knots by Alcatraz, and gusts into the twenties, diminishing to about 12 at the leeward mark. Back at the dock Saturday afternoon, Outrageous and Goose had their spinnakers spread out on their decks to dry. A crew on Goose explained that they got a soaking from crashing waves as soon as the bags were put on the bows. “They were wet before we even hoisted,” she said.

Impulse, sailing in Main & Jib, broke their whisker pole nearly in half, and the bowman had to hold it out for the long downwind leg. They started that leg in the lead, but fell to the back of their division by the leeward mark.

John Ford (co-owner with his father, Jack) of Avalon said that they got a bullet in the first race on Saturday. “We had a close finish in the second race with Friday’s Eagle. It was hard fought to the end. We lost by 10-15 seconds. They were very strong. We had a better sail for the downwind legs - a 130%. They had a better sail for upwind - a 110%, with a full main.”

Laurie on Starkite called Saturday’s racing, “Very close, very intense, major endurance for the crew. We’ve never raced that intensely. It was bouncy, an exhausting nail-biter. But it was a fun race because it was so close - down to the last minute between Goose, Starkite and Outrageous in the second race.”

As the fog rolled in Saturday afternoon, the forecast for Sunday changed from “up to five knots” to Small Craft Advisory with gusts to 21 knots. The Catalinas had only one race on Sunday, on the Central Bay course. Sunday was also a windy day with only one race around the Slot and plenty of time to get back to the club, rounding out a good three-day weekend using the SUV (sailing utility vehicle) for its designed purpose. But the kids in the back still cried, "Are we there yet?"

According to the provisional results, Jack McDermott’s Adventure won the Spinnaker Division, John and Jack Ford’s Avalon won Main and Jib, and brothers Dan and Mike Courter’s Ross’ Dream from Antioch won the Cruising Division. For more, see www.southbeachyachtclub.org and www.cat30fleet1.com/cat30nat.shtml.