The University of Southern California Varsity Sailing Team sails out of its home base at the United States Sailing Center, Long Beach, California.  The Sailing Center is located on Alamitos Bay, and is a short thirty minute drive from the Main Campus at USC.  The Sailing Center itself evolved as a result of the sailing competition of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.  The Olympic sailing village was on the beach, close to the Sailing Center’s present location, and the organizers of the Olympic regatta had the vision of creating a lasting legacy to the Game’s sailing activities, which ultimately evolved into the current U.S. Sailing Center.

The Sailing Center itself is a very modern facility, with all the amenities that make it an ideal location to run a top sailing team out of. The Center is housed in a just over 4,000 square foot building which contains offices, a formal lobby, a conference room, complete workshop, multi-media classrooms and even a kitchen. Onsite there are also separate men’s and women’s restrooms, changing areas and showers. The Center’s boatyard houses the fleet of 21 Collegiate Flying Juniors, as well as other boats including 420s and Lasers. Most of these boats are stored on dollies, and ramp-launched, so it makes rigging and getting onto the water very convenient. The Center also has numerous keelboats, ranging in size from

under 20 feet up to a 52 foot ocean racing boat. Some of these larger boats are occasionally used by the team for recreational sails and sloop practice. There are also numerous coach and support boats onsite, ranging from bay and ocean whalers on up to 40’ RC boats. The Sailing Center also has ample trailers, including several triple trailers and several tow vehicles. The team maintains two large vans to travel to and from practices and regattas.

As previously mentioned, Long Beach has some of the best sailing conditions found anywhere. The wind is very consistent and usually blows hard (Spring to Fall regularly 15-18 knots). Within a minute of leaving the Sailing Centers basin, the Sailing Team can be practicing on the protected waters of Alamitos Bay. A further five minute sail away is a larger basin within the Bay, and ultimately within an easy 15 minute sail, sailors can be sailing on the semi-protected waters of the inner Long Beach Harbor (created by a 7 mile breakwater). These varied venues allow for great practice and regatta conditions. The Belmont Pier just down the beach from the Sailing Center has provided an awesome hosting venue (great viewing for spectators, coaches and the teams) for the 1995 College

Team Racing and Dinghy North American’s, the 1998 Single-handed North American’s and the 2000 High School Dinghy Nationals and the inner Alamitos Bay is the annual location of the nations largest combined college and high school regatta the Rose Bowl.

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