Prison Break

5 CAL 34's and seven other boats showed up for Ventura Sailing Clubs (VSC) Annual Prison Break on Santa Cruz Island, Ca. VSC allowed the CAL 34s, to race a one design class. After discussions and a few libations, it was heavily debated if the CAL 34 ever had a class of its own. This may be the first ever CAL 34 national event, with hopes for a future from now on. Prisoners Cove dates back to the late 1800's. It is said that Mexico sailed a ship full of prisoners to San Diego to off load it's passengers and was denied. The ship moved its passengers up the coast. The passenger list became more important by the stop. By the time it got to Santa Barbra everyone knew about the ship and it special passengers. The captain eager to off load the passengers stopped off at Santa Cruz and off loaded the group with enough provisions and stores to make a trip to the mainland and return. It is said he never returned, leaving the prisoners alone on the island. To this day it is not known what happened to them. Did they build "a something" to escape the island? Did they Swim across the channel and get eaten by sharks? It is not really known what happened to the prisoners. VSC in its own way promotes the hideaways, secrets and honors those long lost legends and forgotten histories of the islands in order to get more people out, sailing and having a great time. The Prison Break is one way of remembering California’s wild days and history of the islands. Everyone congregates in Prisoners for the weekend and stays behind an imaginary start line so not to give someone an unfair advantage. (Just try to anchor in the wrong spot and see what happens) After a weekend of fun and crazy events, such as how many people can you fit on a "Islander 32" before the head starts to overflow? Right now, they are at 29 and no water. What is your score after you dive off the pier? This crowd rates them harder than the judges during the Olympics. A clean entry only made a 4 at the most. Saturday night is the skippers meeting, where everyone meets on a boat and all the rules are made up and ways you can cheat. It is a wild bunch and fun tales of years prior. Sunday, noon is the targeted escape. The course was a 24 mile run to Ventura Harbor entrance. All boats are not allowed to readjust their anchors one hour prior to the escape. You can sail off the anchor, row a dingy and tow your boat, paddle, which seems by far the most popular way, or as one Del Rey 24 does, use a set of oars to row your boat out of the back of the pack. Dave and I on his CAL 3-34, "Allegria" decided we would hoist the main and recover the rode as fast as possible in order to have some rudder control and not collide with the other boats. The CAL 34's pretty much anchored together. There was "Compass Rose" a 2-34, "Hubba Hubba" a CAL 34, "November 2" a CAL 34, and "Second Fiddle" a CAL 2-34. (I hope I got that right) After the horn went off, you were either pulling on something or laughing so hard at everyone else, you had tears in your eyes. Dave and I got the sail up and then the anchor. I looked over and here came the Del Rey 24 out of the back of the bunch and heading out to sea. "Allegria" was covered in dirty air, we tacked after two minutes and was off in clean air giving us the advantage to about 5 miles before the finish line. "Second Fiddle" comes across our bow flying a double headsail set up and stays the lead to the end. "Allegria" right behind for a second in the CAL 34 class. "Hubba Hubba" finished third giving a fourth to "Compass Rose", "November 2" had a engagement and warned us he would have to drop out in order to make the time. I would like to thank VSC for helping us make this possible and look forward to future races involving the CAL boats. Randy (Who sailed on Allegria) CAL 3-34 Channel Islands Ca