West Coast I-14 Fleet Takes On ABYC Turkey Day Regatta
On November 22 and 23, Alamitos Bay Yacht Club (ABYC) hosted its annual Turkey Day Regatta. The event featured one PHRF fleet and a staggering 14 one-design fleets, most of which were dinghies. Among the many dinghy fleets was the 10-boat I-14 fleet, which has been working hard to (re)grow the class recently.
The West Coast I-14 fleet is fast-paced, competitive and welcoming, and is actively looking to recruit new members. The fleet even employs a relatively unique strategy to get new racers on the starting line.
“The USA I-14 class here on the West Coast has been pushing to grow the fleet and seriously train for the upcoming 2026 World Championship in Kingston, Ontario,” regular I-14 sailor and Northern California fleet governor Patrick Wilkinson tells Latitude. “There are modern, competitive boats available for sale and fleet-owned loaner boats that make it easy to join the fleet and compete with the best in the world.
“The Turkey Day Regatta at ABYC is always a fun one to get you in the mood for the holidays,” Wilkinson continues. “The club puts on a beautifully catered smoked turkey Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night, and the winner of each division goes home with a full-size turkey. This has been one of our highlight events for the I-14 class for a couple of years now, and this year we had a nice turnout of 10 boats, including one new I-14 owner, Lucca Ferrel from Marina del Rey.”
Wilkinson, a Richmond Yacht Club (RYC) sailor, sailed the Turkey Day Regatta with Chris Henderson of the Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle (CYCS), and finished fifth. The duo recorded second-place finishes in races two and three.
“Saturday was a typical fall day in Long Beach, with a morning easterly that clocked south and died, only allowing for one light, tricky race,” Wilkinson tells us. “Sunday brought a nice southerly sea breeze of six to 10 knots, and along with it extremely tight racing [within] the 10-boat fleet.”
The regatta was ultimately won by SDYC’s Brad Ruetenik, who won races two through five after finishing fifth in race one for a net total of four points (each boat was allowed one drop). Behind Ruetenik was the SCYC team of Mikey Radziejowski and Evan Sjostedt with a net total of 12 points. The duo finished second in races one and three.
The podium was rounded out by Cameron Puckey and Max Roth (sailing for SDYC and RYC respectively), who also had a net total of 12 but lost on the tiebreaker by one point. Puckey and Roth had third-place finishes across the board until the final race, in which they finished sixth.
While the competition among the teams is fierce, the best aspects of the West Coast I-14 fleet include its dedication to growing the fleet and the attitude of working together to get faster as a collective.
“As a newer sailor to the I-14 fleet I enjoyed the camaraderie between teams; before and after racing each day we all talked about what we found to be fast or not,” the aforementioned Roth tells Latitude. “Something that I’ve come to love is how much everyone helps each other go faster, sharing tuning notes, working on sail designs and foil shapes together, while still being fierce competitors on the water. As someone who’s spent a lot of time on keelboats recently, it was nice to be back in a skiff going fast. Bill Lee’s saying of ‘fast is fun’ still rings true, and these boats are the epitome of fast and fun. Being a part of such a tight-knit fleet is very rewarding and makes the racing on the water even more fun.”