Travelers Trophy – San Diego Argonauts

⛵ 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:

🏆 Team Challenge II – Final Results

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!

🏆 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!

Race Results: LBYC DragonFlite 95 Holiday Invite

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 Argonaut Jess 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!:

https://sailrc.club/events