1D35 "Relentless" to Race 2025 LBRW with new owner
by LBYC Race Office 30 May 16:26 UTC
June 20-22, 2025
Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week © Derek Williamson
As Derek Williamson prepares to race in his first regatta - Long Beach Race Week (LBRW) - where he'll be helming his own boat, Williamson acknowledges that he's new to the game and has a lot to learn. He recently acquired Relentless, a 1D35, from the Orange Coast College (OCC).
It had previously belonged to Marty Vogel who donated it to OCC and Williamson was able to pull the boat from an OCC charter program. Prior to Vogel, Relentless was owned by Tim Fuller and Erik Champaign who had built out the boat to do the 2009 Transpac double handed (which they finished in 13 days) so the boat was delivered to Williamson in top racing condition.
"It really was a really terrific deal," Williamson said. "Marty gets the tax write off and I get to effectively charter the boat for three years before I purchase it and also donate to the OCC 501(c)(3). This is my first race boat, I'm over the moon about it and just very excited."
When Williamson moved to the area some five years ago he didn't know the bow from the stern of a sailboat, he claimed. He was quickly shanghaied onto Medicine Man, an Andrews 68. He recalls his first time out on the boat to test sails; he was perched in the princess seat when the owner Bob Lane told him he looked big and strong and with that, threw Williamson some winch handles.
"We had a bit of a rough day as it was 25 knots out which was terrifying to me but once we had it together we were going very fast and I fell in love immediately," Williamson said. "I ended up racing with those guys for a few years until the boat got sold. I didn't grow up sailing, I'm a big guy and I'm not going to do bow so I knew I needed to learn how to helm a boat."
Williamson enrolled in the Long Beach Yacht Club Soling program and started skippering the Long Beach Sailing Foundation Catalina 37s and loved it. He decided to buy a race boat and was fixed on getting something big like a 70-footer. Meanwhile, he continued to get sail coaching and helmed his first LBRW on one of the Catalina 37s last year. He competed with his girlfriend & fellow sailor Marilyn Cassedy and they took fourth place.
"It was a lot of fun; we could have done better but we went the wrong way on the last race!" Williamson laughed.
A friend mentioned the idea of the 1D35 and harangued Williamson on it for about a year, which he ignored because he was still determined to get a bigger boat. Another friend pushed harder and encouraged him to see the boat, he finally did and the next day signed the paperwork.
"Marilyn had been talking me into a one design as she's an excellent match racing skipper, and the boat is awesome," Williamson said. "I've been really lucky because Marty has been extremely supportive and excited to see the boat come back to Long Beach. Another 1D35 owner, Jim Bailey, has been wrangling the fleet and he's excited to get our own start for the first time at Cal Race Week. I'm really excited to be part of the group; they're all wonderful people and they're trying to help the new guy get going. Everything I've experienced so far has been amazing and I am as happy as I've ever been."
The last time Relentless competitively raced was in 2023 at Long Beach Race Week. Williamson is fortunate that he's barely had to do any work on the boat to get it race ready. He's replaced the strop, jib halyard and is replacing all the lines. The boat currently lives next to the sailing center in Alamitos Bay. On Memorial Day he took it out for a fun run to learn a thing or two with Scotty Dickson on board in a coaching role, along with some of the crew who will be with him for Long Beach Race Week. Dickson's vast coaching and team-building experience has been key to helping Williamson feel comfortable entering his first regatta on his new boat. As a coach, Dickson is skilled at taking a new team and giving them the building blocks to perform much better and learn on their own.
"It's not about the result when they have me on board, it's about the results they achieve after some coaching," Dickson noted. "Derek is a wonderful case study, he's very passionate about sailing and he now realizes how new he is to the sport. He's bought a very fun, reasonably high-performance boat and for his first sailboat, this is everything he can wrap his arms around. He's now got an opportunity to go out and race an awesome boat which is already very well prepared, and he can learn the intricacies of being in a race program - a big part of it is management. I'm helping Derek figure out the principles and team culture; it's going to be fun."
Among Williamson's crew for 2025 Long Beach Race Week are Sawyer Gibbs, Ben Wheatley, and Neil Rietdyk, and he's working on lining up others.
"I'm looking forward to LBRW, to being competitive and going fast upwind," Williamson commented. "It's a good opportunity to get as many starts in as I can; I'm aiming for more assertive starts this year. When I have Sawyer on the main with me we're pretty fast, and I'm looking forward to seeing what that looks like in an actual fast boat. But the biggest thing is the feeling of just getting to LBYC each morning, pulling the nerves together, gathering the team and going out to have fun. I'm extremely humbled by the people around me who help me and I'm just learning how much I don't know!"