The “New” Don Trask International Masters Regatta This Weekend
As we were preparing to go to press with the November issue with a story on the passing of legendary West Coast sailor Don Trask, we heard from the San Diego Yacht Club that, as of October 14, 2025, it has officially renamed the International Masters Regatta the Don Trask International Masters Regatta. The announcement came out this week just ahead of the event, which runs today through Sunday at the San Diego Yacht Club. Don, who passed away on September 29, founded the International Masters Regatta at St. Francis Yacht Club in 1979 as a tribute to Master-level skippers who had made a name for themselves in the sport.
In its early days, the regatta was held in J/24s, and then eventually changed to J/105s.The regatta moved from StFYC to San Diego Yacht Club in 2012, thanks largely to the efforts of Malin Burnham and with Don’s blessing. Don always loved sailing in San Diego and continued to be an ardent supporter of and competitor in the regatta once it moved south, competing in the event six more times. Don’s longtime crew and friend Bill Kreysler echoed this sentiment, stating, “Don loved to sail and loved to win, but most important to him were the friendships. Don reminded us that sailing is about sharing a sport we love with the friends we’ve made along the way.”
In its 42nd year, the Don Trask International Masters Regatta is bringing 12 talented skippers from Canada, Germany, and the United States to compete for the coveted title. Over three days of racing, teams will compete using SDYC member-loaned J/105s in a round-robin format on San Diego Bay. This year’s roster includes some well-known names from both near and far. With invitations for the regatta going out to only a handful of select sailors, the event tends to feature the best of the best in the Master-level age range. Event chair Dave Vieregg describes the selection process for the Don Trask International Masters Regatta, stating, “Past champions from different classes, unique regions, or countries are invited to race here in San Diego. Entry is by invitation to skippers who are 60+, sailing with crew who are 45+. The ages make the event unique, but their significant accomplishments in racing as well as the shared camaraderie make this event extra special.”
John Dane, from Pass Christian Yacht Club in Mississippi, is a seasoned sailor with many regatta wins under his belt, including the 2024 Etchells North American Championship. This will be Dane’s first time competing in the Don Trask International Masters Regatta and sailing a J/105 in a competitive environment. Dane does, however, have a solid strategy by having his winning crew from the 2024 Etchells NAs, Bill Hardesty and Eric Doyle, racing alongside him.
Cory Sertl, vice president of World Sailing, returns as the sole female skipper taking the helm. The former Olympian, two-time US Sailing Yachtswoman of the Year, and incredibly accomplished sailor is quite familiar with sailing in the regatta, having placed third in 2023. When asked about her return to the event, Sertl kept it short and sweet, stating, “We are looking forward to coming back. We raced in 2023 and had a great time. It is a fun format and San Diego YC goes all out to welcome all the teams!”
West Coast competitors include Don Jesberg from San Francisco YC, Tracy Usher from StFYC, Chris Raab from Newport Harbor and Alamitos Bay YCs, Bill Menninger from Newport Harbor YC and Scott Harris from Coronado Yacht Club. It’s a great lineup!
Beyond the founding of the now “Don Trask International Masters Regatta,” Don was the West Coast manufacturer of both the Laser (he built 11,000 in San Rafael, CA) and the J/24. He brought a tremendous amount of fun, competitive spirit and support to future generations of young sailors, many of whom went on to compete at the top of the sport. We’ll have more on Don’s legacy and contributions to the world of sailing in our November issue.
It is terrific to have the San Diego Yacht Club honor Don with the renaming of the event. The wind is projected to be light, but the competition will be tight. Keep an eye on this weekend’s racing here.
Richmond Yacht Club Hosts 78th Annual El Toro Stampede
The El Toro Stampede is the oldest annual event at the Richmond Yacht Club (RYC). It’s changed over the 78 years of El Toro racing. Back in the 1990s the Stampede featured Saturday four-boat team racing, plus Sunday races for five individual weight divisions from Flyweight all the way to Brahma Bull; a backward or no-daggerboard in-the-harbor Green Bottle Race (bottle of Tanqueray for a trophy); plus a similar Soda Special Race (with a six-pack of root beer trophy) for kids.
The top three in each weight division raced in the Weight Division Medal Race. The whole huge fleet raced in two All Throwers races. The overall All Throwers champ, the Stampede winner, would receive a sack of steer manure as an award.
The Stampede has evolved, and this year 17 boats raced four no-throwout races. The courses, held near “Screaming Parents Cove” in the Potrero Reach Channel, were decently long. Fluky, double-hot-dog Race 1 was about an hour long, before a cool eight-knot southwesterly filled in and built for the second race.
Haydon Stapleton, the young 2023 national champion, looked as if he was going to dominate, winning the first race after a bad start, and running away with triangle-course Race 2. As the breeze built to 12 knots for Race 3, Gordie Nash seized control of the series. Stapleton got stuffed out at the starting line and had to scramble back, settling for second behind the yellow boat. A barge came through the course in the middle of the second lap, splitting the fleet, and 2022 Stampede winner Tom Burden got caught on the wrong side, going from third to ninth.
The course for Race 4, by Stampede tradition, had a weather mark rounded to starboard, and a red channel marker also taken to starboard, followed by a downwind run into the Richmond YC harbor, finishing off the end of A Dock. Nash and Burden got to the weather mark well ahead and match-raced around the course and into the marina. Nash won. Stapleton finished fourth, making the final series score close, but he really was in control all day long, despite worrying, “I’m going to try to not fall out of the boat,” before the racing started.
Tom Burden and Tom Tillotson (the very quick current national champ) finished in a tie for third, with Burden winning a third-level tie breaker. These two Toms, with very different sailing styles, also finished in a tie in last week’s Big Dinghy Regatta, with Tillotson winning.
The rest of the top 10 sailors included Buzz Blackett, Packy Davis (in a wood boat), youth sailor Alex Quinn, Lorn Marcellini (who lost his halyard in Race 3), Tony Su and Chris Sullivan. Rowena Carlson was headed for a top-five finish before a broken boom in the third race ended her day. Jim Morton sailed a vintage wood Toro, Honeybee, number 5649.
Vickie Gilmour ran the series using her Grand Banks Fats as a committee boat, and provided the traditional mugs as trophies. See everyone next year!
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California Sailors Diana and Joaquin Barrios Spotted at Annapolis
Bay Area sailors Diana and Joaquin Barrios were spotted at the Annapolis Sailboat Show recently, where they moored their 47-ft catamaran, Rising Dawn, for a “front-row” view of the show. Starting in 2024, the Concord-based couple sailed from the BVI to Boston, then south back to the Chesapeake.
This recent voyage included plenty of sweet moments at sea, doublehanding with their Australian shepherd, Huey, along with a rotating crew of family and friends. They fished for tuna in deep blue waters, partied in the Caribbean with a 40-boat flotilla, and moored near the Statue of Liberty. But the journey was not without its hair-raising moments, too, and even included riding the edge of a hurricane. They had to make quick fixes on the fly, like having to lash down a 2,000-square-foot spinnaker in a sudden downburst, and used engine cables to steer when they limped into a new harbor with a faulty throttle.
“That’s sailing!” says Joaquin about jury-rigging at sea. “You have to improvise when you have no choice.”
The couple returns to Annapolis each autumn, coming “full circle” to where they bought their Fountaine Pajot Saona 47 cat in 2019. They come for what they say is top-quality learning at seminars and Cruisers University, finding a variety of boat vendors all in one place, and even the occasional celebrity sighting — like when they spotted yachtie YouTubers La Vagabonde (who included Diana for a cameo in their 2019 Annapolis episode), Starry Horizons, Parlay Revival, Onboard Lifestyle, Barefoot Doctors Sailing, and Harbours Unknown.
After Annapolis, and planning ahead for 2026, the couple’s seafaring ambitions are unbounded. They plan to eventually cruise the Philippines after crossing the Pacific by way of the Panama Canal, but they may first “detour” across the Atlantic to Europe.
They’ve come a long way from when Diana and Joaquin first learned to sail as adults on San Francisco Bay. Joaquin took his first keelboat class at Club Nautique in 2010, eventually completing the US Sailing Coastal Passage Making (“CPM”) certification. Joaquin says he first became curious about sailing as a kid in the Philippines, seeing sailboats anchored in local coves. He met a sailor who had sailed from Taiwan and was headed to Australia, and says that encounter spurred his interest. He experienced his “first sail” on a rented wooden sailing dinghy when he was only 10.
Diana worked at Club Nautique for several years, completing courses and hopping aboard club sails in Sausalito. The couple encouraged their three kids, Maxine, Ria, and Joaquin III, to take sailing lessons at the Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda. The family slowly expanded their sailing area, chartering in the BVI, St. Martin, St. Barts, Ibiza, and Mallorca. Aside from vacation charters, the family mostly sailed through Club Nautique until they bought their dream boat. The kids are now adults with a love for sailing, hopping onto and off different legs of the couple’s retirement voyage, still sailing together.
Diana affirms, “It’s a great way to keep a family engaged.”
Voyaging From Alaska to Mexico Aboard the Beneteau 47.7 ‘Iwa’
In this month’s Changes, Robert and Heid Rivard share Part 1 of their voyage from Juneau, AK, to Cabo San Lucas, MX, aboard their Beneteau 47.7, Iwa.
We spent winter 2023–24 in Auke Bay (Statter Harbor), a little north of Juneau, Alaska — and got exactly what we were looking for: cold temps and snow, lots of it. We tied up our dock lines in September and didn’t untie them again until we left in April 2024. We spent the winter hooked up to 30-amp shore power, running two small heaters, one in the forward head and one in the aft lazarette, to keep the water lines from freezing. But our main heating source was our Refleks diesel drip heater. Through the winter we burned a total of 215 gallons of diesel, filling the day tank by jerry jugs every few days.
Besides cold temps, we also battled humidity and ran a dehumidifier nonstop, emptying 2–3 gallons of water per day. Over those eight months we shut the heater off only three times for cleaning. The diesel stove kept the cabin tolerable, never warm, but comfortable enough. We would keep it on medium to high during the day, keeping our main saloon around 62°F, with much colder temps on the floor. We would then turn it down at night to save fuel, sleeping under a heavy down blanket, bringing the cabin temp down to around 40. In the mornings, whoever was up first would turn up the heater, throw the kettle on top for coffee, then climb back under the covers. Merino wool thermals and thick down got us through the cold spells.
Although it was very cold, the winter snows started rather slowly. We ended up getting our first blizzard around Thanksgiving, then a long dry spell through December. Toward the end of January and early February, we got hit with back-to-back multi-day storms, which dropped around six feet of snow over two weeks. We would shovel the boat three to four times a day, starting right after morning coffee. We’d allow the snow to pile to the level of the lifelines before getting out with a combination of a shovel and broom to clear it.
Outside temps would routinely stay below freezing. During a couple of cold snaps, temps would drop below 10, but luckily we never saw below zero. Most of the winter consisted of short days, with the winter solstice seeing only six-and-a-half hours of sun above the horizon. In reality, our being surrounded by mountains, the sun would only peek out around 11 a.m. and go back into hiding by 2 p.m. That’s if there were no clouds, which was not often.
Join the Great Pumpkin Regatta
Join us for Richmond Yacht Club’s legendary Great Pumpkin Regatta and Party! Three race courses on Saturday and a fun Pursuit race on Sunday.