Sailing benefit hoping to fetch $200,000

Andrew Edwards

Fundraising expectations are not as high as those for the Toshiba

Senior Classic, but organizers of the inaugural First Team Real

Estate Invitational Regatta hope to hoist a hefty sum for Hoag

Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

“We’re hoping to raise approximately $200,000,” Hoag Hospital

Foundation executive director Ron Guziak said. “It is a first-time

event and it has the potential to be much greater.” Guziak said the

current plan is to hold the event every two years.

This year, the Toshiba Senior Classic again broke the

million-dollar barrier, raking in $1,071,000 for the hospital, Guziak

said. Another recent fundraiser, the Christmas Carol Ball, netted

close to $500,000.

Organizers want to attract the largest and swiftest sailboats to

the regatta, Guziak said. To do that, they plan to schedule future

races to coincide with the biennial Transpacific Yacht Race. In that

event, boaters launch in Long Beach and speed their way to Honolulu.

The regatta is scheduled to begin Friday and conclude Sunday.

Instead of a distance race, competitors are expected to tack around a

buoy course.

At least two more regattas can be expected, First Team Real Estate

executive Debbie Lewandowski said. Her company made a six-year

agreement to sponsor the race.

Lewandowski said she could not confirm how much First Team Real

Estate spent to become a sponsor. Her company has posted several ads

in Orange County bus shelters, and Lewandowski said her firm has

actively promoted the race with TV and radio spots.

“We’ve spent a fortune advertising this event,” she said.

Money raised by the regatta is set to be dedicated to the Hoag

Heart and Vascular Institute, Guziak said. The hospital wants to use

the funding to pay for clinical research and to construct a new

building for the institute.

The idea behind the regatta was conceived more than two years ago,

Guziak and event co-chair Jay Swigart said. Organizers thought an

event built around sailing would ensure the fundraiser would be

unique to Newport.

“We have to have something no one else has,” Guziak said.

The challenge, Swigart said, was to figure out a way to raise

money from a race, and organizers decided to give companies and

individuals the chance to sponsor racing boats.

As an incentive, sponsors can have the best seats for the race by

being able to watch the action from aboard competing yachts.

“The concept we came up with was to have corporate sponsors, and

have them, in effect, buy the boat for the weekend,” Swigart said.

Lewandowski and Guziak said gross proceeds for the race have

already topped $400,000, though Guziak noted that this year’s race

will likely be more costly than future regattas, since the event has

never happened before.

“There’s a learning curve that makes it more costly early on,” he

said.

One of the event’s costs is a temporary dock that is expected to

be ready for the yachts Tuesday, said Robert McDonald, who chairs the

regatta’s deep-water dock committee. The docks are set to be built

near Carnation Cove and are needed because the racing yachts can have

keels as deep as 17 feet -- too deep for Newport Harbor.

“[The dock] brings together a great many boats that wouldn’t be

able to compete in Newport Beach,” McDonald said.

“Genuine Risk,” a Dubois 90, is expected to be the first boat to

arrive at the temporary docks at 3 p.m. Wednesday, McDonald said.

After the regatta begins, he expects sailing fans watching aboard

spectator yachts will “be close enough to hear the straining

halyards.”

“You’re going to see an awful lot of tacking, a lot of sail

changes, all in a short area,” he said.