53rd Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race sees consistent winds and good racing

For 53 years it’s been the biggest long-distance sailing race of the year in Santa Barbara—this year was no different.

More than 85 teams took part in the 53rd annual Santa Barbara to King Harbor race over the weekend, attracting hundreds of sailors from around California. The race began in Santa Barbara and ended in Redondo Beach. 

Dirk Freeland and his crew onboard his 31-foot sailboat named Full Send, clinched victory in the 78 boat Performance Handicap Racing Fleet—with a corrected time of 8 hours and 41 minutes. Last year, Freeland won his division, but fell short of the overall racing fleet title by 9 minutes, finishing second. 

Freeland said that he and his crew have found the recipe for victory, but he owes that recipe to his tactician, Jeff Grange.

“He’s my long-time crew, and he has the race figured out,” Freeland said. He’s confident that next year they can do it again. 

How offshore sailboat racing works

Offshore sailboat racing is scored through different methods than sailing regattas where races are repeated and a combined score determines rankings. 

Offshore races feature a start at point A, and a finish at point B. Sailors use compass angles and wind angles to determine sail configurations and the fastest heading—while still balancing the shortest distance to the destination. With wind patterns changing as they traverse the ocean, offshore racing is a true navigational test.

So the first boat that gets to the finish wins? Not quite.

Looking at an offshore race, there can be a wide variation in the size and shapes of boats. Each of these boats can do different speeds, are built for different conditions and have different crew sizes.

To balance this, offshore racing uses a rating system to balance out the results. Calculated from a boat’s theoretical average speed, measured in seconds per mile, a handicap system is applied that gives slower boats a head start on faster boats through a time allowance. 

For example, a boat that is bigger and faster may have a rating of 100–100 seconds per mile–and a slower boat might have a rating of 200–200 seconds per mile. If the two boats raced on a one-mile course, the faster boat would have to finish at least 101 seconds ahead of the slower boat to actually win.

Boats with similar ratings are scored together in smaller divisions, and then boats are also scored across the whole fleet. While there are line honors awarded for whoever reaches the finish first, it is very rare that they win the race overall.

There are also several different measurements for calculating ratings, so a large offshore race may feature a few different standings for different rating systems. 

For this race they are as follows: Performance Handicap Racing Fleet, Ocean Racing Catamaran Association, and the cruising class for boats not built for racing.

Mono-hull boats and multi-hull boats are scored separately and can receive different records as multi-hulls can be much faster due to having less drag.

A mono-hull boat has one hull, or body of the boat, while a multi-hull can have two smaller hulls (a catamaran) or three (a trimaran) kept together by beams and netting. 

Results

In the multi-hull fleet, Chris Slagerman’s Westerly SIG45, Vamanos, took the win. Slagerman’s catamaran finished with a corrected time of 9 hours and 24 minutes. 

For line honors, it was George Hershman’s Good Energy that reached Redondo Beach first. The 63-foot Reichel Pugh completed the coastal sprint in 7 hours, 7 minutes, and 10 seconds. Hershman was able to put almost 15 minutes between them and the second finishing boat, Peligroso. Though he fell short of the monohull race record by just under 40 minutes. 

In the cruising class, Yehuda Elmakias’ Zuzu won the five boat fleet with a time of 11 hours and 24 minutes. 

Santa Barbara teams performed well in the overall standings. Freeland, Jim Yabsley, Brian Zimmerman and their respective crews, took up three of the top five places in the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet.

Three local teams were also able to win their respective smaller divisions. Freeland’s Full Send won Ultra Light Displacement Boat+C, Jim Yabsley won Ultra Light Displacement Boat+A with his Carkeek 47 named Yabsolutely; and Thomas Bollay took the win in the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet+D on his J105, Armida.

Reflecting on the race

First the teams sail out to and around the northern edge of Anacapa Island and then southeast towards Redondo Beach where King Harbor awaits.

On the roughly 92-mile race course, small tactical decisions matter just as much as broader strategy.

“We had a good strategy for the leg out to Anacapa, we pushed the boat low,” Freeland said. Full Send was the first boat to deploy their spinnaker–a third, bigger sail—allowing them to head on a lower angle from the start. The deep angles helped them sail less distance than other boats on the course.

Tactically, their lower angle of sail set them up for a critical position in the final segment of the race.

“We were able to get on the starboard lay line about 15 miles from the finish,” Freeland said. Being on lay line meant that they could focus on pure straight line boat speed for 15 miles, a big advantage over other teams that had to make course changes to reach the finish.

Plus, Freeland said it was the best crew he’s ever had.

Santa Barbara Yacht Club race director Brad Schaupeter said that from the race management side, the race went smoothly.

“There was great synergy between Santa Barbara Yacht Club and King Harbor Yacht Club,” Schaupeter said. The two clubs co-host the event each year.

The wind this year was right in the sweet spot for boats like Full Send, Schaupeter said. The top three boats in the over 70-boat PHRF division all were around 30 feet long with similar ratings.

“More wind would have been too much, and lighter wind would’ve been challenging for them,” the race director said. 

The forecast for the event didn’t look the brightest, with the wind predicted to drop off after Anacapa Island. Instead, a westerly wind in the 12-15 knot range blanketed most of the course, allowing for much of the fleet to reach King Harbor before midnight. 

Unfortunately for a few boats, the steady breeze blew right past them. The tracker for the race showed a few boats lost wind after Anacapa island and had to sail much further out to sea in the attempt to find wind.

Shockwave and Babushka finished the race in over 16 hours, more than 3 hours behind the next best finisher, reaching King Harbor well after midnight. Several boats retired due to losing wind as night progressed. 

Schaupeter said the balance between offshore distance and the time the course takes is the key to the race’s popularity. From 80-foot racing boats that can compete in races across the Pacific, to smaller 30-foot boats crewed by two people, few races in the world attract almost 100 boats. 

“It’s truly an offshore race, but you’re not going to be sleeping on the boat, you’re not committing to providing multiple meals and sleeping arrangements,” Schaupeter said.

The Santa Barbara to King Harbor race is a unique opportunity for smaller, local teams to compete in an offshore race–and as the past two years have proven–win one. Boats like Full Send don’t often compete in offshore racing.

“It’s the best big, little one,” Schaupeter said. “Some of these people have done this race for 40 years.”