INTRODUCING THE HOMEPORT REGATTA TEAM........

Back row - Rikki, Gareth, Garrett, Larry, Kurt, and Dan.   

Front row - Amelie, Akyra, Christine, Brenda, Michelle, Shelly and Karen.

Not pictured - Bill and Cindy, and Mike.

As you may know, the Homeport Regatta is the brainchild of organizers Larry Golkin and Gareth Jones. Larry and Gareth are dock neighbors. Both have cruising boats. Gareth and his family live aboard theirs. One afternoon in February, Gareth asked Larry, "When is Anacapa to Port?" (a race hosted by a local yacht club). Larry responded, "Are you going to enter Jedi?" (Gareth is also a part owner of a J/24). He said,"No, I'm going to enter Moomba." Larry said, "Sounds like a throw-down to me."

Larry and Gareth got to discussing the possibilities: What if the two of them raced each other around Anacapa Island? Then, they thought, what if they asked a couple other friends to race, too? Then, they pondered what if they approached the marina management and asked if they might be interested in hosting an event — a race around Anacapa Island for tenants of Vintage and Channel Islands Marinas who have cruising boats or who live aboard?

Vintage Marina Partners not only liked the idea, it agreed to partner with Homeport Regatta Sailing to produce the event. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Last year witnessed 33 vessels enter the race and nearly 200 sailors, their crew and family members enjoy the after race party with awesome food donated by Ay Pappi and interesting Cuban style music.  Some amazing sponsors contributed excellent prizes for the raffle and silent auction.  And some donated money to help make it all happen.  When it was all said and done, Homeport Regatta Sailing donated a little more than $2000.00 to the Channel Islands Marine Wildlife Institute (CIMWI) which funds were used to acquire their Fast Response Whale Disentanglement Vessel.

This year, we have big things planned.  First, the Sailing Instructions have been reworked with a new course chart designed with the possibility of less than perfect sailing conditions in mind.  Second, we have moved the after-race party to a place where we can all be warm and out of the wind as we celebrate the  the race and enjoy great food and music.  Speaking of great food, The Waterside Restaurant and Wine Bar is catering and has agreed to close the restaurant just for us.  The Coco Knots will be playing their special brand of fun music for your listening or dancing pleasure.  We again have a huge array of extraordinary raffle prizes and some fabulous items for silent auction.

I would like to say that none of this would be possible without our sponsors.  But, that would not be true.  It is the team of people dedicated to putting this event on that are truly indispensable; for without their effort and commitment, there would be no sponsors.  Moreover, without all of YOU who sign up to sail in the event and to celebrate at the after race party, there would be no Homeport Regatta.  And it is for this reason that our theme for this year's event is "ohana."  Ohana is an idea in Hawaiian culture. The word ohana means family in the Hawaiian language, but in a much wider sense, it includes not only one's closer relatives, but also one's cousins, in-laws, friends, and other neighbors. The idea is also that family and friends are bound together and everyone must work together and not forget each other.

That being said, the team gets together weekly to plan the event.  Folks have commented on what a great job we do and wonder how it all comes together so seemingly flawlessly.  I can honestly say that the key is our mutual respect for one another and the recognition that we are all well organized and committed volunteers doing our very best.  And I'm pretty sure we all like each other, too.  So, we all look forward to our weekly get-togethers at which time we think out loud and share ideas, accept responsibility for necessary tasks, and report our overall progress.  It's actually a lot of fun. This group has worked tirelessly since January to bring you the 2019 edition of Homeport Regatta.  It's almost here and we are very excited about it.

If you haven't signed up yet, please do so as time is running out.