03/08/2025
J/111 Wins the Islands Race Overall!
J/Teams Garner Lots of Silverware- a Sweep in ORR E Division!
(San Diego, CA)- Southern California’s much-anticipated offshore racing season kicked off the 2025 season with the 15th annual Islands Race, co-hosted by the San Diego Yacht Club and Newport Harbor Yacht Club. Thirty boats started the 142.0 nm race, departing from Long Beach Harbor and making their way around Santa Catalina and San Clemente Islands before finishing in Point Loma.
Last week when looking ahead to this year’s race, the expected conditions were slower than most years. Newport Harbor YC PRO Charlie Welsh managed the start of the race. “Racers were greeted at the starting area in the vicinity of Pt. Fermin bout with sporty 11-16 knots of breeze with a considerable bump. All starts got off on time with the breeze waning as the sun peeked through the clouds. Our most exciting start was the ORR-E and EZ classes as two boats were over early. The RC team acted swiftly and both boats cleared and continued racing. All racers looked as if they’d stay on starboard tack for the majority of the first leg to the west end of Catalina. It was a great way to kick off the 2025 Islands Race! Thank you SDYC for another great collaborative event with both clubs working seamlessly.”
All fleets started on time, making 6 to 8 knots boat speed slightly below rhumbline to West End in a good WNW breeze. After rounding the top of Catalina, the wind trickled out leaving boats slowed down for about 3 hours just after sunset. The race kicked back on through the night with boats speeds back up to 6-10 knots to the virtual waypoint mark beyond San Clemente and the turning point to head east for the 72-mile run to the finish near Point Loma.
On the final leg, the fleet had split either in a rhumbline direction or a more southern direction with a spread of 11+ miles from top to bottom.
Doug Jorgensen, owner and skipper of the J/111 PICOSA, shared his experience on this year’s Islands Race. “I’ve done probably five Islands Races. The hospitality of both NHYC on the front end and SDYC on the back end makes it part of the fun. It's great for seeing our friends and so on.
It was probably the coldest race in memory. It was freezing. And we knew it was going to be freezing because that’s what the forecast was. So we geared up, which was fine so we were warm enough. We had a somewhat late finish (13:50:21). The wind shut off in a couple of different places, once last night between Catalina and San Clemente. But, that lasted for about 3 hours, then we picked up more breeze again.
My favorite part is probably going down the backside of Catalina and then shearing off to go to San Clemente. It’s good sailing.“
As PICOSA crossed the finish line, they established the top corrected finish time for the race to that point. Other veteran offshore J/Boats teams had strong performances as well.
Winning the ORR C Division was Dan Murphy's all-carbon speedster- the J/125 JAVELIN! In ORR D Division, Dean Stanec's J/130 NIGHT'S WATCH took 5th place.
The ORR E Division was swept by J/Teams. Winning was the Jorgensen's J/111 PICOSA. Then, taking the silver medal was Jeff Shew's J/121 RAVEN and Ed Sanford's J/111 CREATIVE took the bronze medal.
Finally, winning the ORR-EZ Division was won by Robert Kraak's J/120 KOOKABURRA.
With 2025 being a Transpac Race year, more than half of the Islands Race fleet (17 boats) are on schedule to race to Hawaii this summer, including all nine boats from Classes A and B.
For more Islands Race sailing information
Daniel Geissman, NHYC Regatta Chair Jess Gerry, NHYC Race Office Wayne Terry, SDYC Regatta Chair Jeff Johnson, SDYC Waterfront Director Jared Wohlgemuth, SDYC Regatta Admin
