The 60th annual Congressional Cup sets sail this week in Long Beach.
The international yacht racing competition includes crews from the U.S., France, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, and Australia.
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Tucker Thompson, who’s served as an announcer for the Cup for 23 years, credited 300 volunteers from the Long Beach Yacht Club for making the event so special.
“An event like this is normally professionally run, internationally, you know, at this level of match racing, but not here,” he told KNX News’ Nataly Tavidian. It's all volunteer run, and in many ways it's even better than any other event on the circuit."
Lisa Meyer, commodore of Long Beach Yacht Club, said the organization is already preparing for the 2028 Olympic Games, which will also be held at Belmont Pier.
“Since actually 2022 we’ve been preparing for ‘28, so we are welcoming sailors and they come in every July,” she said. “They come in for a period of two weeks and we run races for them. So we already have Olympians from all over the country who've been coming in and racing in our waters.”
The Congressional Cup races start at 11:30 a.m. each morning through Sunday at Belmont Pier. The winning crew will earn a $75,000 cash prize.
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