Disney to preside over Hoag Cup

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and First Team Real Estate announced Thursday that Roy E. Disney was named as honorary chairman of this year’s First Team Real Estate Invitational Regatta for the Hoag Cup.

The race is scheduled for June 8 through 10.

The former Disney executive and nephew of Walt Disney, Roy E. Disney is not just a big name for the hospital to attach the its charity event. Disney is a fixture in the sailing world, and at the first-ever Hoag Cup in 2005 — it’s now held every other year — Disney won the race’s Class 1 division aboard Pyewacket, which he later donated to the Orange Coast College sailing school.

“He’s like the grandfather of yacht racing around the world,” Hoag Hospital Foundation executive director Ron Guziak said. “He’s so well known for that, so to have him involved just adds to the notoriety of the whole event.”

The event benefits the hospital’s Hoag Heart and Vascular Institute, one of its areas of excellence.

But Disney will not just serve as honorary chairman this year; he plans on returning to defend his title.

Disney was a fixture in Transpacific Yacht Race for years and is now in the process of making a movie about the race, a huge event among racers that takes them from Southern California to Hawaii.

“It’s a great precursor to the Transpacific Yacht Race, and right here in our own backyard,” Roy Disney said in a news release. “I am honored and excited to come on board as honorary chairman of this year’s event.”

Twenty racing boats will participate in the invitational, which spans three days, with eight buoy races total.

The hospital decided that a yacht race, scheduled in between the Transpacific and Newport to Ensenada races, would be the perfect fit for a charity event in Newport Beach.

“We believe that part of the heritage of Newport Beach is the yachting community, and that was here long before most anything else really…. The development of the community has obviously changed, but this is part of the fabric of Newport Beach,” Guziak said.

More about the event will be released later, including information about tickets.