One of the advantages to hosting a national championship in March is you avoid conflicts with other sailing events. Unfortunately, this resulted in a “Who’s-Who” of local sailing royalty turning-out for the 2025 Harbor 20 National Championship in Newport Beach, CA. How do you best describe the Harbor 20 Champs (multiple choice)? A) Racing in a 20’-30’ white, lightweight high performance race boat.
B) Man-handling powerful planning hulls flying oversized asymmetrical spinnakers.
C) Competing in a class stacked with pro sailing teams.
D) Racing with a bunch of older, amateur (but still highly competitive) racers, while sitting on cushions and staying warm and dry in the deep cockpit. If you guessed ‘D’, you get the feel. As class founder Tom Schock described it, racing the Harbor 20 is not complicated; “It’s really just a big Lido 14.” But when you move past the boats simplicity, who wouldn’t want to race against sailing legends, including a bunch of retired industry pros, America’s Cup veterans, national and even world champions? This year’s entry list read like a “Who’s who” of So Cal sailing royalty from the last 50 years: Tom Schock, Argyle Campbell, George Twist, Bill Menninger, Doug Rastello, Bruce Golison, Jim Buckingham, Tad Springer, Jamie Hardenberg, and many more. Argyle Campbell’s boat name says it all: “No Travel Required.” The majority of the competitors were local to Newport Harbor, even though many of the top sailors are actively campaigning around the world in top classes like J70s, Etchells, Dragons, and Stars. Unlike most of these international classes, a lot of the local competitors have the ability to literally step out their front door and launch right onto the race course at the center of Newport Harbor. Visiting teams also came out from Santa Barbara and Annapolis, and were all graciously hosted with local sailors. While NHYC had a long list of social activities on-site, a few of the visiting sailors reported venturing out to find legendary frozen bananas at Dad’s on Balboa Island. NHYC hosted nightly get-togethers after each of 4 days of racing. During the event’s welcome reception, local sailors Jon Pinckney and Phil Ramming gave a briefing on local tactics and wind conditions – it seemed like a “Ted-Talk” on how to be prepared to win a big sailing event. Conditions were typical Newport Beach springtime, as in is warm and sunny, with light southwest breezes each day. There was definitely a run on sunscreen and hats at the NHYC ship store. As a lot of locals noted, competitors were lucky this event happened when it did – the prior week has seen almost nothing but rain. Nevertheless, fluky oscillating southwest winds tortured the patience of most of the H20 sailors throughout the event. The Harbor 20 is a simply rigged day-sailor, conceived for exactly this type of family-friendly racing. First built in the late 1990s, the H20 class has developed a strong following with active fleets in Newport Beach, Santa Barbara, Annapolis, Florida, and Hilton Head. While the championships brought out all the top tier of competitive sailors, the real secret of the local Harbor 20 fleet is it also attracts a huge number of entry level sailors just getting into sailing. During summer months, it’s not unusual to find 20-30+ Harbor 20s racing almost every night of the week in Newport Harbor, with the fleet typically broken out into A, B, and C classes. More recently the Harbor 20 has found a new following in ultra-competitive team racing. NHYC’s team racing events, notably the Baldwin and Palmer Cup trophies, attract top team racing sailors from around the world. And this coming October, NHYC and Harbor 20 Fleet 1 will be working together to host the Global 2v2 worlds. But that will be a different story line for a different day.
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B) Man-handling powerful planning hulls flying oversized asymmetrical spinnakers.
C) Competing in a class stacked with pro sailing teams.
D) Racing with a bunch of older, amateur (but still highly competitive) racers, while sitting on cushions and staying warm and dry in the deep cockpit. If you guessed ‘D’, you get the feel. As class founder Tom Schock described it, racing the Harbor 20 is not complicated; “It’s really just a big Lido 14.” But when you move past the boats simplicity, who wouldn’t want to race against sailing legends, including a bunch of retired industry pros, America’s Cup veterans, national and even world champions? This year’s entry list read like a “Who’s who” of So Cal sailing royalty from the last 50 years: Tom Schock, Argyle Campbell, George Twist, Bill Menninger, Doug Rastello, Bruce Golison, Jim Buckingham, Tad Springer, Jamie Hardenberg, and many more. Argyle Campbell’s boat name says it all: “No Travel Required.” The majority of the competitors were local to Newport Harbor, even though many of the top sailors are actively campaigning around the world in top classes like J70s, Etchells, Dragons, and Stars. Unlike most of these international classes, a lot of the local competitors have the ability to literally step out their front door and launch right onto the race course at the center of Newport Harbor. Visiting teams also came out from Santa Barbara and Annapolis, and were all graciously hosted with local sailors. While NHYC had a long list of social activities on-site, a few of the visiting sailors reported venturing out to find legendary frozen bananas at Dad’s on Balboa Island. NHYC hosted nightly get-togethers after each of 4 days of racing. During the event’s welcome reception, local sailors Jon Pinckney and Phil Ramming gave a briefing on local tactics and wind conditions – it seemed like a “Ted-Talk” on how to be prepared to win a big sailing event. Conditions were typical Newport Beach springtime, as in is warm and sunny, with light southwest breezes each day. There was definitely a run on sunscreen and hats at the NHYC ship store. As a lot of locals noted, competitors were lucky this event happened when it did – the prior week has seen almost nothing but rain. Nevertheless, fluky oscillating southwest winds tortured the patience of most of the H20 sailors throughout the event. The Harbor 20 is a simply rigged day-sailor, conceived for exactly this type of family-friendly racing. First built in the late 1990s, the H20 class has developed a strong following with active fleets in Newport Beach, Santa Barbara, Annapolis, Florida, and Hilton Head. While the championships brought out all the top tier of competitive sailors, the real secret of the local Harbor 20 fleet is it also attracts a huge number of entry level sailors just getting into sailing. During summer months, it’s not unusual to find 20-30+ Harbor 20s racing almost every night of the week in Newport Harbor, with the fleet typically broken out into A, B, and C classes. More recently the Harbor 20 has found a new following in ultra-competitive team racing. NHYC’s team racing events, notably the Baldwin and Palmer Cup trophies, attract top team racing sailors from around the world. And this coming October, NHYC and Harbor 20 Fleet 1 will be working together to host the Global 2v2 worlds. But that will be a different story line for a different day.
