2004 Santana 20 Nationals - Santana 20s Battle In An Ideal Venue Friday-Sunday
Long Beach, CA/Aug. 13-15
Alamitos Bay Yacht Club abyc.org

Weekend weather general forecast: Morning fog, afternoon high 75, wind to 15K SW.

LONG BEACH, Calif.---Four-time winners Chris Winnard and Andrew Kerr head a fleet of more than two dozen boats in the Santana 20 national championship Friday through Sunday at the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. Entries will represent several Western states.

It's the first time Long Beach has hosted the Nationals in the history of the class dating to the late 70s---an oversight long overdue for correction, according to class president Phillip Infelise, an ABYC member who lives in Colorado but sails in Long Beach.

"I can’t think of an overall better venue," Infelise said. "Besides the weather conditions, a short distance from the club to the race course will maximize on and off the water activities. We have been pointing toward this venue for our Nationals for five years."

The schedule calls for three races each Friday and Saturday and two Sunday, all on a windward-leeward course set inside the breakwater of the Long Beach outer harbor. Racing will start at 12:30 Friday, conditions permitting, and at noon Saturday and Sunday.

The Santana 20, designed by Shad Turner and built by the Schock Corp., now numbers nearly a thousand boats. It's a 20-foot keel-ballasted single-masted sloop that uses a spinnaker downwind.

The current class champion is Charlie Ogletree of Texas, who won at Huntington Lake in California's Western Sierra last year, as well as at Klamath Falls. Ore. in 2001. But Ogletree won't be defending. He and John Lovell are representing the U.S. in the Tornado catamaran class in their third successive Olympics at Athens this month.

Winnard, from San Diego, and Kerr, from Oregon, teamed up to win the Nationals in 1993, '95, '98 and 2002. Other former winners competing are Willem van Waay and Travis Wilson of San Diego (2000) and Paul Stephens of Eugene, Ore., ('96 and '99).

Typical August conditions in Long Beach are a veil of morning fog lifting in mid-day.

Infelise said, "There will usually be a little more funkiness to the first race conditions, perhaps a slight delay as the southeasterly [sea breeze] transitions to the westerly as the land heats up.

"Races two and three each day should be in ideal conditions at 12-14 knots and sometimes more. In the first one or two races of the day everyone may think they are back at Huntington Lake. More wind in race three will remind them they are in Long Beach.

"Obviously, the inside-the-breakwater commitment means flat water so that the 'lake sailors' should compete on an even basis with the 'ocean sailors.' "

More information: www.s20.org/

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES
Phillip Infelise
President
cell (303) 619-9585
pinfelise@cresapartners.com

Bruce Golison
Director
cell (562) 305-6424
bruce@golison.com

CLASS PUBLICITY
Andrew Kerr
cell (360) 481-3337
kerrsailing@aol.com

EVENT PUBLICITY
Rich Roberts
(310) 835-2526
cell (310) 766-6547
richsail@earthlink.net