Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week - Overall
by Long Beach Race Week 1 Jul 06:37 BST
June 26-28, 2026
Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week - Day 3 © Bruce Crary
Final Day of Racing Decides Several Class Championships in Thrilling Sunday Showdown
The final races of Long Beach Race Week saw crews reacting to wind conditions that lightened as the day progressed. Courses were marked by wave states that ranged from steep chop and wide swell at the start to flat glassy water later in the afternoon. Several class championships remained undecided until the final race.
"We started the day with about 11 to 12 knots out of the south," said Race Committee Officer Randy Beers. "It held until the middle of the day before it died off to about 6 knots and went hard left."
Though challenging for many, the day's evolving conditions created opportunities for boats and crew that knew how to sustain power at lower wind speeds, especially those looking to advance their standing on the final day of racing.
Among those defining stories was J70 class victor Cake. Scott Deardorff and his crew fought off 13 challengers in the highly competitive fleet. The boat held second place for two days before shifting into an overall first with a bullet in the final and deciding race, a 73-minute drifter that spread the fleet and tested mental fortitude.
"We communicated constantly," said Deardorff. "You know it was 'Eyes out, call chop, keep it moving, smooth maneuvers, don't rush it.'"
"Yeah, we really never shut up," joked trimmer Tristan Richmond.
"And it was good that we didn't," added bow Emma Deardorff. "We needed to win that final race outright in order to win our class in the regatta."
Other standout performances included PHRF A class champions, the Melges-32 The Baby Screams, helmed by Jeff Janov. In addition to class honors, The Baby Screams also won the Golison & Kent Family Trophy, which is awarded to the highest placing boat with the lowest average race score whose skipper sails with a minimum of three family members aboard including the skipper.
"Grant and Jordan are sailing in the Olympic Class regatta in a few weeks, so it was great to be able to do this together with them," he said of his two sons, who are on the scratch sheet for San Pedro OCR in July.
Also aboard the Melges 32 were 3-time 49er World Champion and Dutch Olympic Team sailor Floris Van de Werken and Polish ILCA 6 sailor Wiktoria Golebiowska.
"We had a pretty exceptional international crew," said Janov.
From Friday's tactical tests to Saturday and Sunday's leaderboard shakeups, camaraderie and crew dynamics - not just speed - were deciding hallmarks of this year's champions, especially aboard boats that came from behind to win podium honors.
Perhaps most inspiring of all was the performance of Midnight Express, led by skipper Pete Hambrick. After an advanced Parkinson's diagnosis, Hambrick bought a CF-27 near identical to one he raced in the 1970s and '80s with crewmates Walter Johnson, Phillip Infelise, and Jeff Silver. Now spread across the U.S., the crew returned in full to race with Hambrick in this year's Long Beach Race Week. Solidly in fifth place by the end of Saturday's racing but not out of the points, Hambrick and his crew decided to push.
"We listened to Pete on tactics, and then we did two tacks - we tacked Pete and then we tacked the boat," Johnson smiled, describing the crew's unique maneuvering.
The crew established repeatable evolutions and worked them methodically over the weekend, overtaking two faster boats on the final race day to cross the finish line in second on the Random Leg C course.
"We really love this," said Hambrick. "We spend time on the water together and it's really like spending time with family."
For Race organizers Chuck Clay and John Busch, that sentiment has long been emblematic of Long Beach Race Week. From dockside debriefs to the nightly social events at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and Long Beach Yacht Club and Sunday's awards ceremony, the weekend combined high-level competition with an esprit de corps that's made it a fixture on the West Coast sailing calendar.
"The Long Beach racing community is why we do this" said LBRW co-organizer and two-time Alamitos Bay Yacht Staff Commodore Chuck Clay. "It's what makes this weekend special."
"All of us coming together for a weekend on the water, racing hard, and having the best time," added Long Beach Race Week Co-Chair John Busch. "There's nothing like it."
Hosted jointly by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and Long Beach Yacht Club, Long Beach Race Week sees participation from a wide mix of one design and PHRF competitors, from veteran campaigners to first-time entrants eager to test themselves against the region's top sailors. It is the largest yacht race on the West Coast.
For full schedule, results, and more, go to lbrw.org