Latest Updates

DF95 Team Challenge – Round 2

The Second DF95 Team Challenge of 2025 was held at Mason Park in Irvine on Sunday, August 17th, 2025. Seven 2-Boat Teams competed in the Team Management System (TMS) run event. Just as in Round 1, Teams were organized via seeding in an attempt to even the competition. A shortened ‘reverse-hourglass’ course was sailed in shifty, light to moderate winds (with more than a few holes) under sunny skies. The 7-Team Matrix begins with a Round-Robin Stage where the top 3 teams advance directly to the Finals. The remaining 4 teams race a single-elimination ‘Wild Card’ bracket with the winning team joining the top 3 in the Finals which consists of a 4-Team Round-Robin. This racing format keeps every team ‘in-the-hunt’ for the championship until at least the 22nd Race (out of 30 total Races) and guarantees every Team gets to race at least 7 times.

There were a couple minor changes to the rules in the running of Round 2: Proper course between boats on different legs was emphasized and enforced, and ‘Instant Umpiring’ was adopted. Under RRS Appendix D Team Racing, an Umpire’s involvement after waiting for a voluntary single penalty turn requires a 2-Turn penalty. In Round 2, the Umpire called single-turn penalties immediately but reserved the ability to specify more turns if appropriate. This helped competitors know exactly where they stood following an incident and took the guess work out of protests and fouls. Results follow:

Congratulations to Team Red (Jim Sears & Angelo Greco) who sailed a near perfect regatta; losing only a single Race to 2nd Place Team Green (Larry Grant & Richard Diamond)

Thanks to the Orange County Model Sailing Club and Amya President, DF95 National Class Secretary, and all-around ‘good guy’ Len Bose for setting up the event and making it all possible.

Special thanks also to Jim Sears who rigged a YUUUGE ‘boom camera’ to take live aerial video of the event (drones are not allowed at Mason Park). We’re looking forward to more of his color commentary when he (hopefully) posts his videos on Youtube.

2025 Travelers Trophy – Final Standings

Congratulations to our own Vice Commodore Chris Davidson for winning the 2025 Region 8 Travelers Trophy for the DF95 Class! For this achievement he will be ‘Given the Chair‘ at the next event in Long Beach.

The Final 2025 TT Event was raced at Mason Park in Irvine on Saturday August 16th under sunny skies and fluky winds. 19 skippers competed in 14 races over a 2 lap windward-leeward course. Thanks to the Orange County Model Sailing Club! Results (with 2 throwouts) were:

TT Final Standings – 2025Download

Points Day Results – Soling 50’s & ODOM’s (Aug 9, 2025)

Surprise! What another great day on the pond!

Thanks Steve Delva for being the RD for both classes and thanks also Steve for helping Kerim and I pack everything away.

Good breeze and a good number of boats on the line for each class.
Welcome back Ken Titilah, hopefully we’ll see more of Ken for the remainder of the year.

Formalities out of the way it was on to the water.

Not surprising, Chris Staiger started clocking up a few bullets after settling in and consistently finished in the top three, taking out the day narrowly edging out Chris Davidson, Larry and Ty.

Racing was generally quite close with quite a few position changes as skippers navigated the tricky shifts and pressure lines.
Uncharacteristically there were no flying port hand starts from Bill this week. Must be saving himself. Stay tuned.

ODOMS’s were next on the water with some extremely tight racing between all boats at various times.
Kerim continues to light the pond on fire with another win overall. It’s not too late to enter the Nationals at San Francisco coming up!

The level of competition in this class has certainly lifted, in fact, the level of racing has lifted right across the board.
The information/ tuning sessions coupled with the ongoing sharing of knowledge is what makes being a part of the Argonauts so enjoyable.

Thanks guys for another great day at the pond.

A day of play next week, so bring what you got!

Best of luck to all of the Argonauts venturing up to Mason park next weekend to participate in the last DF 95 Traveller’s Series event on Saturday and to those skippers also participating in the team racing event up there on Sunday.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Argonauts are go!

2025 AMYA ODOM R8 Championship Results (Aug 2nd, 2025)

The sun was shining, sky was blue, we ran a race or two.
The water was warm, and skippers were here, too.

Times are tough, we are low on parts —
So here’s your sailing salute… on a scorecard!

= = = =

It was just another beautiful day at the San Diego Model Boat Pond for this year’s Region 8 ODOM Championship. Eleven competitors raced in near-perfect conditions. The wind was from the West, with oscillating gusts and shifts from NW & SW.

Top 6 Finishers – ODOM Region 8 Championship

  1. Jess A (Sail #56) – Net: 16
    Smooth, steady, and fast—Jess sailed a near-perfect regatta.
  2. Kerim (Sail #714) – Net: 19
    Kept it clean, calm, and consistent for a well-earned second place.
  3. Larry G (Sail #85) – Net: 29
    Tactical and consistent—always near the top.
  4. Gerry W (Sail #591) – Net: 46
    Sailed strong with guts and grace, edging into the top tier.
  5. Chris D (Sail #69) – Net: 50
    Kept the pressure on—smart lines and consistent sailing paid off.
  6. Tom W (Sail #19) – Net: 51
    Sneaky starts and crisp mark roundings, quietly slipped past boats

Thank you to Dennis Rogers, Ben Reeve, Jess Atkinson, Chris Davidson, and all others who helped put together this regatta—and to Bob Williams for serving up his legendary Pond Dogs that kept the fleet fueled and smiling between races!