‘An exciting race for everybody’

If you’re offshore anywhere between the Channel Islands to San Diego, odds are you’ll see some crowded waters this weekend.

Southern California harbors, including Newport Beach’s, will play host to the 81st annual Southern California Yacht Assn. Midwinter Regatta.

Some will be staged on Saturday, others on Sunday; either way, hundreds of boats out of hundreds of classes will be racing in the area.

Newport Harbor is hosting four of the 33 races the yacht association is putting on this regatta. The American Legion Yacht Club, Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, Balboa Yacht Club and Newport Harbor Yacht Club are all hosting races this weekend.

Because the yacht association has so many members and so many clubs, each club will host races for only a few classes.

For example, Newport Harbor Yacht Club is hosting a race for six classes of sabots, all with sailors aged between 8 and 12 years old, organizers said.

“It’s definitely one of the more fun events,” said Jennifer Lancaster, the club’s race director. “This is the first time for them to dust off their cobwebs from the winter and get ready for spring.”

For kids, it’s an opportunity to get out and compete, said Morrie Willkie, director for the yacht association and chair of this year’s midwinter regatta. Only sailors who belong to yacht clubs in the association can compete, he said.

It would be hard for many to resist the regatta, as everything from power boats, yachts, canoes, dingies and even remote-controlled boats has a race this weekend for their category of watercraft.

“It kind of forces people to want to get into the yacht clubs. It really just becomes an exciting race for everybody,” he said.

Organizers boast that the regatta is the largest in North America, and this year they expect between 700 and 800 participants.

Races will happen along coastal harbors and in lakes in California and Arizona. The Newport Harbor Yacht Club race alone is expected to draw up to 75 sabots in the race, Lancaster said.

For more information on the regatta, go online to www.scya.org.