Congratulations to Argonauts Commodore Jess Atkinson who will be GIVEN THE CHAIR for winning the 2026 Dragon Flite 95 Region 8 Travelers Trophy! (His personalized Lounge Chair will be presented at the first race of the 2027 season at the Long Beach Yacht Club.)
Tag: DF95
🧜♀️ A Mermaid Joins the Argonauts!
The San Diego Argonauts have a new skipper — and a new Mermaid in the fleet!
Please welcome Sharman French, one of our newest SDA members and, notably, our first female member in quite a while — perhaps close to a decade!
Sharman recently picked up a brand-new DF95, and she certainly made it her own. Appropriately named Mermaid, the boat now sports a beautiful custom mermaid skin (from DragonSkinsUSA) that is going to be hard to miss on the water.
Getting a new DF95 from the box to the starting line takes a little work, and in true Argonaut fashion, it became a team effort. Steve and Pat helped Sharman rig and set up the boat, while Kerim helped apply Mermaid’s colorful new skin.
And there’s another fun twist to the story.
Sharman has spent time in Marblehead, Massachusetts — a pretty fitting coincidence for someone now getting into RC sailboat racing!
For those new to the hobby, Marbleheads are one of the oldest, fastest, and most sophisticated development classes in radio-controlled sailing — what we recently called the “Formula 1 cars of RC sailboats” in our latest Argonauts Radio episode, “Marbleheads Are Making a Comeback: Trend or Here to Stay?” If you haven’t heard it yet, check it out and learn a little more about this legendary RC sailing class.
From Marblehead to Mission Bay, perhaps Sharman was destined to become an RC sailor!
Mermaid is now rigged, skinned, and ready to go. The next step is getting Sharman out on the starting line with the rest of us.
We also hope Sharman’s arrival inspires more people of all ages, backgrounds, and genders to come discover the San Diego Argonauts. RC sailing is a sport and hobby that truly can be enjoyed by just about anyone — whether you’re an experienced sailor, a lifelong maker, or someone who has never touched a sailboat before.
There’s always room for another skipper at the pond!
Welcome to the San Diego Argonauts, Sharman — and welcome to the fleet, Mermaid! 🧜♀️⛵
We look forward to seeing both skipper and boat crossing tacks with us at the pond!
🏆 Team Challenge II – Final Results
Congratulations to Annoying Orange who bested the Defending Champion Boys of Summer to claim the top prize in Team Challenge II with Team BS coming in 3rd!
Teams Green, Orange and Black advanced directly to the Finals, while Red, Blue, Yellow and White duked it out in the sudden-death Wild-Card Bracket:
Team Red emerged the victor to join the Finals:
In the Finals, Annoying Orange ran the table and won the championship (having lost only a single race in Stage 1 to 2nd Place Boys of Summer).
Videos courtesy of OCMSC and Larry Grant:
Thanks to Len Bose & the Orange County Model Sailing Club for hosting the Event and providing logistics, mark management (and ice-cold bottled water!)
⛵ DF95 Travels Trophy Racing in Irvine — Fleet Race (Aug 8th, 2025)
The Region 8 DF95 Travelers Trophy season continued on Saturday, August 8, with a great day of racing at Mason Regional Park in Irvine, home of the Orange County Model Sailing Club.
Entries were limited to 17 skippers, allowing everyone to race together in a single fleet. With temperatures in the mid-80s, bright sunshine, and consistent winds, conditions were ideal for an impressive 16 races.
And San Diego Argonauts sailors had a very strong showing!
🥇 1st – Jess Atkinson – 28 points
🥈 2nd – Keith Ives – 42 points
🥉 3rd – Larry Grant – 49 points
4th – Dennis Rogers – 60 points
5th – Stephan Cohen – 72 points
Awards were presented by Len Bose, AMYA President and originator of the Region 8 Travelers Trophy series.
Don Frakes served as PRO, with Bob “Shoe” Schumacher, Alex Brown, and Rock Kendall handling scoring.
A big thank-you to everyone who helped make another full day of Travelers Trophy racing possible — and especially to our friends at OCMSC for hosting us at Mason Park.
There’s also some good news from our friends in Orange County: OCMSC has launched its own YouTube channel!
The new channel gives sailors throughout Southern California — and anyone curious about radio-controlled sailing — a chance to see some of the action at Mason Regional Park.
And they have already posted videos from Saturday’s Travelers Trophy regatta:
OCMSC YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaJ43CPT6A5yxj0hvguosRg
Travelers Trophy – Heat 8:
Travelers Trophy – Heat 13:
It’s great to see another Southern California model sailing club putting racing footage online. Videos like these help introduce newcomers to the sport, let sailors study the action, and help connect our growing RC sailing community.
So give OCMSC a subscribe and help get their new channel off to a great start!
And Then Came Sunday…
Saturday’s fleet racing wasn’t quite the end of the weekend.
The next day, many of the same sailors were back at Mason Park for the DF95 Team Challenge, a very different — and very fun — format featuring two-person teams and only four boats on the course at a time.
We’ve already covered all the action from Sunday in a separate post:
Two days, two very different styles of racing, and a terrific weekend of DF95 sailing in Southern California.
Congratulations to Jess, Keith, Larry, Dennis, Stephan, and all the skippers who competed — and thanks again to OCMSC for a great Saturday in Irvine!
⛵🏆 Race Week 2027 (Save the Date)
Save the Date: 2027 San Diego Race Week
The Argonauts Board and the Race Week Committee have officially met and selected the dates for our 16th Triennial San Diego Race Week, which will take place at the San Diego Model Boat Pond from September 27 through October 11, 2027.
Our current plan is to host eight National Championship Regattas across eight model yacht classes over two weeks.
We are currently working with the AMYA class organizations to finalize the Race Week schedule and determine the order in which each class will compete.
Mark your calendars! We look forward to welcoming sailors from across the country for two exciting weeks of competitive racing and camaraderie at one of the premier model yachting venues in the United States.
Stay tuned for additional details as planning continues.
📊 Updated Region 8 Travelers Trophy Standings
🏆 2026 Team Challenge I: Monday Morning Quarterbacking
Congratulations to ‘The Boys of Summer’ (Larry Grant and Jim Sears) who managed to ‘Outwit, Outplay, Outlast‘ the competition and win the coveted top position in the first Region 8 Team Racing Event of 2026!
With 8 Teams, the day began with a Stage 1 Round-Robin of 28 Races. The winds were good, the course was tight, the competition was fierce and many matches were decided in the last few feet before the finish. Team Bueno (John Rogers and Scotty Harris) piled up 6 wins with only a single loss to ‘The Boys‘ who also lost only a single race to the ‘Trap Rioters‘ (Doc Elliott and Stephen Cohen). Meanwhile, ‘Annoying Orange‘ (Dennis Rogers and Jess Atkinson) managed 5 wins to round out the Top 3 and join the Boys and Bueno directly in the Finals (Stage 3).
The remaining 5 Teams were seeded into the Stage 2 Wild Card Knockout Bracket where sudden-death awaited each losing Team. The Bleve Bombers (Len Bose and Chuck Simmons) crept from the cellar and ran the table to win 3 straight races and earn their way into the Finals!
Proof that no matter how poorly a Team does in Stage 1, the Team Management System (TMS) allows everyone a second chance.
In Stage 3, it all came down to the 2 FINAL RACES to determine the first 3 Places! In the penultimate race, the Bleve Bombers defeated Annoying Orange to claim 3rd Place. Then, in the final race of the day (RACE 38), the Boys beat Bueno to clinch 1st Place!
Kudos to Team ‘Dry Heat‘ (Rod Sturgess and Mike Fruciano) who traveled all the way from Arizona to compete!
If you missed out on all the fun, you have a second chance to participate in Team Challenge II on August 16th at Mason Park in Irvine. Don’t miss it!
📊 DF95 Travelers Trophy Standings
Following the completion of the Sacramento Travelers Trophy Regatta on May 2nd & 3rd, here are the current R8 TT Standings:
The next event on the Region 8 Travelers Trophy circuit will be TEAM CHALLENGE I in San Diego on May 30th:
https://www.sandiegoargonauts.org/2026/04/27/2026-df95-team-challenge-i-registration-now-open/
🏆 DF95 Region 8 Travelers Trophy Brings Great Racing & Camaraderie to Sacramento
The San Diego Argonauts had an outstanding showing at the May 2–3, 2026 Region 8 Dragon Flight 95 Travel Trophy Regatta at Bridgeway Lakes in Sacramento, hosted by the Sacramento Model Yacht Club (SMYC).
In a competitive 14-boat fleet and breezy Northern California conditions, Argonauts sailors captured 4 of the top 5 finishing positions.
Leading the charge was Jess Atkinson with a 1st place finish, followed by Len Bose in 2nd, George Pedrick in 3rd, Dennis Rogers in 4th, and Chris Staiger in 5th.
The regatta featured steady 10–15 knot winds, fast racing, and the always-appreciated camaraderie that makes the DF95 Travel Trophy series such a favorite among skippers throughout Region 8.
In addition to the racing, the weekend highlighted everything that makes the Travel Trophy series special — road trips with fellow sailors, reconnecting with friends from other clubs, sharing stories over Saturday dinner, and learning how different clubs organize and run their events. Another fantastic weekend of competitive RC sailing, strong Argonauts results, and great camaraderie throughout Region 8.
🚩Fleet Captains Step Up to Support Weekend Racing
In line with our recent Board and Member meeting discussions, our Commodore Jess Atkinson has encouraged members to step up into a new volunteer role—Fleet Captains—for each of our four sailboat classes.
Here are the Fleet Captains by class:
IOM: Dennis Rogers
DF95: Jack Calafato
ODOM: Keith Sternal
Soling 50: Ben Reeves
These Fleet Captains will help coordinate the setup and breakdown of the regatta course during point series weekends, aligned with the order of racing. The first fleet of the day will take the lead on setting the course and getting the skiff out on the water, while the final fleet will handle course breakdown and help clean and secure the skiff.
In addition, Fleet Captains are responsible for coordinating help and arranging backups or replacements as needed—making sure each weekend runs smoothly even if schedules shift.
This new system kicks off on May 9th with the ODOM & Soling race day.
This is a simple but important step toward keeping our race days organized and efficient—and a great example of the Argonauts community pitching in to support one another.
Thank you to everyone who stepped up!