Tony Langley Gladiator sweeps the race. San Diego Yacht Club, Southern California, hosted eight sleek 52-footers and six Beneteau First 36.7s as part of the Southern California Yachting Association Midwinters on February 10-11. Competitors saw winter skies and cooler winds prevail on Saturday, and SoCal balminess on Sunday.
Tony Langley Gladiator on TP52 Earns the First in Newport, California
Over the course of five fleet race starts, it was Tony Langley of the TP52 Gladiator, whose crew is training with Ben Ainslie and members of Land Rover BAR, to claim a first after corrected time. Dale Williams and crew of the TP52 Wasabi were all smiles collecting a second-place spot—barely besting Tom Holthus and BadPak by a scant one minute on corrected time. Shared Langley, “We arrived on Tuesday to light air during practice. Over the course of the week we saw a range of conditions and got in a lot of good sailing while here.” The British racer states that he likes the Corinthian format for this event, plus the warmth and hospitality of the region.
The British prevailed; Tony Langley Gladiator of British Sailing with Land Rover BAR tallied 2-1-3-1-2 for 9, BadPak clinched second with 4-4-2-2-1 (13), and Manouch Moshayedi and his Pac52 Rio crew raced to 1-3-4-4-4 for a count of 16.
