Open Sailing put on quite a display at the Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show in Oakland this year. With a total of 5 boats you couldn’t miss these unique looking race boats especially in the crowd of much larger more cruising orientated sail boats.

The Pogo 2 was definitely the star of the show attracting the most attention at the dock. To the seasoned sailor it was an opportunity to check out a boat that they have only seen in pictures, and to others it was something completely new and exciting, either way the Pogo 2 continued to turn heads and get compliments!

Also on display was the ever popular Open 5.70. The fleet in Northern California has tripled in size since the last years Strictly Sail Boat Show and there are now 11 actively racing Opens on San Francisco Bay. With the Spring Dash just the weekend before there was a lot of buzz around the boat. With one on the trailer, one in the water, and one available to go sailing there was plenty of opportunity to learn everything there is to know about this hot race boat. The season for the fleet has had a strong start already with plenty more events planned – check out the Northern California Racing Calendar and contact the Fleet Captain, Marc Finot at norcal@open570usa.com, for crewing opportunities.

Finally we had the all carbon Open 6.50 on display. This unique clear coated, LA Kings branded racing machine certain caught the eye of everyone passing by. With 3 boats in Southern California this rocket ship of a sailboat has proven to be a lot of fun on the water.

Check out the gallery of pictures below, as well as a larger gallery on Facebook.

Pressure Drop were at the Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show and enjoyed a walk through of the Open 5.70 from Nik Vale.

Photo by Matt Beardsley

The Open 5.70 fleet in North America broke new ground this weekend with their first ever Open 5.70 exclusive event. Hosted by Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda the weekend of racing attracted 8 boats including one from Southern California. Saturday saw perfect conditions for the boats as the breeze built to more than 20 knots. Racing just south of the Bay Bridge the sailors and race committee had to deal with shifting breeze and big currents which made the racing all the more challenging. Sunday had less breeze which made the racing even closer. Nik Vale on USA 277 from Southern California had a great weekend finishing 1st in the first 6 races of the event to end up 8 points in front of Tom Baffico overall.

The highlights of the event included 3 practice starts at the beginning of each day – a great opportunity to test your skills and push harder than you might on a real start with no consequences – definitely a great fleet building excercise  made possible by the fact the event was exclusively Open 5.70s! Also, the day would end with a race down the estuary – a break from the normal windward / leeward course – that had boats reaching with spinnakers up doing 15+ knots of speed in front of Jack London Square – the race committee barely made it back to the dock in time to finish the race!

The event was well covered from all angles by the local sailing media – Pressure Drop took some great pictures, NorCalSailing dedicated an article to the event, and we also got a mention in Latitude 38. The primary photographer for the event, Matt Beardsley, managed to capture some great action shots (see slideshow) in between helping the race committee set some marks!

“Slapshot”, the LA Kings branded Open 6.50, was recently featured in a silent auction held by the Kings Care Foundation to raise money for the Children’s Cancer Research Fund (CCRF). On auction was a poster of the racing sailboat that had been autographed by the team as well as the chance to actually go out for a sail on “Slapshot” with Team Open Sailing.

The winners of the auction, Fred and Mary, recently visited Open Sailing to go for a sail. It was a perfect Southern California day – sunny, good visibility, and good breeze. Click through for more pictures.

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