Last Saturday was a beautiful winter day in San Diego! We had an exceptional turnout with DF95 and IOM skippers eager to finish the points season on a positive note..
Chris Davidson posted this regatta report:
Thanks to all that turned out for the last races of the season. Ty & Sandra Beach did an amazing job as Race Directors for both classes on the day with a mixture of medium and long courses giving competitors plenty of racing. A big thanks to Jack and the several guys that lent a hand with the marks and boat. Many hands do make light work. 🙂 A glorious day at the pond with plenty of sunshine and although somewhat testing breeze, the competition was top notch. Plenty of winners to share bragging rights! A very warm welcome to our newest member, Connor Albertson, who I am sure will share some wins himself in the future.
See you all soon! 🙂
Regards
Chris
Steve Ross captured video footage of todays racing action. Thank you Steve!
29 skippers competed in the first event of the 2026 ‘wrap-around’ season for the DF95 Travelers Trophy. The regatta was sailed off the docks at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Sunday, December 28th, 2025. Competitors were greeted by cloudless skies with temperatures in the mid-60’s. Despite the glorious SoCal weather, skippers faced challenging conditions including variable 0-6 knot breezes, varying currents, wakes from passing yachts and weeeeeeeeds. Racing took place on a windward-leeward course with the start at the leeward end, an outside-in gate at the windward end, an inside-out gate back at the leeward end, back to the windward gate, and a downwind finish at the leeward end. Seven races were sailed with one throw-out.
Congratulations to San Diego ArgonautJess Atkinson, who successfully navigated the weeds, tides and wakes to top the field and claim his bottle of rum! Thanks to Keith Ives & Company for hosting and running the event!
Next Up: DF95 AZ Winter Regatta – Region 8 Travelers Series Regatta – January 31st – February 1st. If you hurry, you might be able to grab one of the LAST 3 AVAILABLE SPOTS!:
Whilst there was wind today, the pond certainly did deliver some testing conditions.
Thank you to Gil, Jess and Chris Staiger for undertaking RD duties for the two classes and a big thanks to all competitors and of course the ‘Peanut Gallery’ for seeing out the season’s racing for these two classes.
Results for the Soling 50’s;- (Videos below, thanks to Steve Ross!)
Scot Tempesta, founder of Sailing Anarchy, joined us at the San Diego Model Boat Pond during our Wednesday lunch sail this week. In this 35-minute podcast episode, he shares his first-hand impressions of sailing a DragonFlite 95 with the San Diego Argonauts fleet.
Scot reflects on how much fun he had racing DF95s with Jon Rogers, Scott Harris, and others, touching on everything from rigging and race starts to the occasional “in irons” moment. He also highlights the welcoming, friendly community he experienced at the Pond—one of the things that made the day especially memorable.
In the episode, Scot gives a candid, often hilarious account of getting back into radio-controlled sailing after years away, openly owning both his rust and his rediscovery of why he loves racing sailboats. He walks listeners through his first Wednesday session at the Mission Bay Model Boat Pond—from struggling with tiny rigging components and fat-fingered mistakes, to immediately appreciating how well-tuned and fast the DF95 felt thanks to Jon Rogers’ setup. Despite early missteps (snagging the anchor line, getting caught in irons, running aground while leading), Scot emphasizes how forgiving, welcoming, and genuinely helpful the San Diego Argonauts fleet was throughout the day.
The start line of a DF95 Points Race
Scot repeatedly highlights what surprised him most: how real the racing feels. Starts matter, shifts matter, mistakes are instantly punished, and moments of pure groove—when the boat hooks up and just goes—are every bit as intoxicating as on a full-size racecourse. He reflects on how RC sailing compresses decision-making, forces constant focus, and exposes weaknesses in boat handling and situational awareness far more quickly than big-boat racing. For him, the DF95 is not a toy but a legitimate training ground that sharpens instincts, accelerates learning, and reconnects sailors to the essence of the sport.
A scene from a former RACE WEEK event held at the San Diego Model Boat Pond
Ultimately, the episode becomes a love letter to accessible, low-drama racing. Scot contrasts the simplicity and fairness of one-design DF95 racing with the cost, politics, and rating frustrations of big-boat handicap systems, concluding that model sailing delivers more joy per dollar than almost anything else in sailing today. He encourages experienced sailors—and especially lapsed racers—to try RC sailing if they have a fleet nearby, promising they’ll find strong competition, generous mentorship, and that unmistakable “I love this f***ing sport” feeling all over again.
