2026 C420 Pacific Coast Championship Results & Recap

Article Contributed by Grayson Tella

The 2026 C420 Pacific Coast Championship went off August 29 to 30 at Newport Harbor Yacht Club, drawing a 61 boat entry list to the waters off Newport Beach for one of the doublehanded 420 class’s marquee West Coast events of the summer. Organized by San Francisco Yacht Club and hosted at Newport Harbor Yacht Club, the championship brought together sailors from up and down the California coast, along with entries from well outside the region, to settle the Pacific Coast title in a single fleet.

Unlike some of the sprawling multi fleet events the C420 calendar produces later in the season, the Pacific Coast Championship kept the entire entry list in one start, with the race committee completing six races across the weekend. That format put a premium on consistency, since every sailor was racing the same course against the same field from the first gun to the last.

The entry list reflected just how far the Pacific Coast title now reaches. Southern California was out in force, with several yacht clubs sending teams. Northern California answered with a deep contingent from San Francisco Yacht Club, St. Francis Yacht Club, the Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation, and others. Southern Yacht Club, based more than 1,800 miles away in New Orleans, also made the trip west to compete.

Final Results (Top 3)

1st: Sean Kaseburg and Kylie Peterson (San Diego Yacht Club), 12 net points

2nd: Carter Newhauser and Luca Mejia Young (Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation), 13 net points

3rd: Otto Wehner and Benjamin Benahmed (Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, Long Beach Yacht Club), 14 net points.

The battle at the top of the fleet stayed tight from start to finish. Just one point separated first from second, and one more point separated second from third, with Kaseburg and Peterson closing out the regatta with a string of finishes inside the top four, including a race win in the final start, to hold off Newhauser and Mejia Young. Wehner and Benahmed, sailing under a combined Alamitos Bay, Bahia Corinthian, and Long Beach Yacht Club entry, stayed in touch with the lead pair for most of the event before a difficult final race opened up the gap to fourth.

That gap proved significant. While the top three finished within two points of each other, fourth place fell more than twenty points back, a sign of how compressed the leaderboard was at the very front of a 61 boat fleet.

San Diego Yacht Club backed up its overall win elsewhere in the standings, with Santiago Escobar and Victoria Stout, sailing under a combined San Diego and Mission Bay Yacht Club entry, finishing inside the top ten. The Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation also placed a second boat, Mark Novak and Arushi Lee, in the top six, giving the Bay Area program two crews inside the leading group alongside its runner up finish.

With the Pacific Coast title decided by the smallest of margins, expect the top finishers to carry that form into the fall as the C420 class heads toward its next round of championship qualifiers.

Full results are available via Clubspot HERE. Photo credit @club420class.