Long Beach Yacht Club to Host 2021 U.S. Match Racing Championships

LONG BEACH— Long Beach Yacht Club is set to host the 2021 U.S. Match Racing Championships Oct. 1-3.

The championship will welcome ten skippers and their teams who qualified for the race through a series of qualifying events throughout the country, including the recent Women’s U.S. Match Racing Championships held Aug. 19-22.

As of Aug. 29, nine teams have registered for the race, including skipper Janel Zarkowsky sailing for Scuttlebutt Sailing Club, who came in second place in the women’s championship, and Pearson Potts of St. Francis Yacht Club in Boston, the 2019 champion from the U.S. Match Racing Championships held in San Francisco.

The championships will be completed in Catalina 37s, there will be up to 11 boats provided for the regatta along with the following sails: mainsail, jib, genoa, and spinnaker.

Boats will be allocated by draw and rotated daily, and the organizing authority or race committee can choose to re
quire the rotation of sails for any reason.

Competitors will be placed in a set of round-robin races based on results from previous competitions or their World Sailing ranking in the past 30 days.

The event will then move to a knock-out series and then the finals race. The course will be a windward-leeward with starboard rounding at the windward mark and the finish downwind the leeward mark may be at the gate.

The course area will be off of Belmont Memorial Pier on the Congressional Cup Stadium course.

The winner of the championship final will receive a photo of the perpetual Prince of Wales Bowl and a qualifier spot for the 2022 U.S. Match Racing Championship.