Around-the-World Race Is Rescheduled

The single-handed around-the-world race for catamarans and trimarans--Multihull Challenge 86/87--has been rescheduled from Aug. 30, 1986 to Nov. 7, 1987 in an effort to recruit more participants.

“We probably wouldn’t have had more than five entrants if we hadn’t rescheduled this year’s August starting date,” said Georgs Kolesnikovs of Newport Beach, race organizer, in a press release. “With the postponement, I can see about 15 on the starting line, which would give us about the same size field as the Whitbread and BOC round-the-world races have.”

The 26,000-mile race will start and finish in Los Angeles Harbor, and sailors can use the course of their choice to make the trek. They must leave the three main capes, Horn, Good Hope and Leeuwin to port, but they can stop as often as they wish.

Kolesnikovs said he expects several yachts to break the record for single-handed circumnavigation because multihulls are uncommonly fast.

The entry deadline is May 1, 1987, for multihulls 32 to 60 feet long. To qualify, sailors must make a nonstop, single-handed trip of 1,000 miles by Oct. 1, 1987.

The fastest single-handed circumnavigation was set by Philippe Jeantot, a Frenchman who won the 1982-83 BOC Challenge in a 56-foot monohull yacht in 159 days, not counting three stopovers.

Sailing Notes

The Coast Guard will close an area westerly from the end of the Newport Harbor jetty to all vessel traffic, except for the approximately 700 sailing yachts and official patrol vessels starting the Newport-Ensenada Race. The closure will be from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. on April 26. Violators are subject to heavy fines.

The Newport Ocean Sailing Assn., Corona del Mar, has conducted this annual Newport-Ensenada race for the past 39 years. The race starts at noon and may be viewed from the beach or the bluffs.

Members of the Navy Yacht Club, Terminal Island, held opening day ceremonies last week with their 1986-87 officers--John Ide of Palos Verdes, commodore; Herb Turner of Fullerton, vice commodore; Alita Marks of Cypress, rear commodore; and Bill Lewis of Fountain Valley, fleet captain.

All vessels are advised to keep clear of military operations by the Coast Guard and the Navy in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles until 4 p.m. April 20. These joint coastal defense exercises began Tuesday.

In addition the Navy will be conducting minesweeping maneuvers in the vicinity of the Long Beach breakwater from April 17 through 21. Minesweepers will be towing cables up to 500 yards astern. Vessels should approach no closer than 1,000 yards astern and 500 yards on either side while minesweeping is in progress, according to the Coast Guard’s local Notice to Mariners.