Expand<\/a><\/p>\nLong Beach Lifeguards took second place.<\/p>\n
Aaron Fletcher, a marine safety rescue boat captain, was on the lifeguard team, which found inspiration from former Chief Lifeguard Ricard Miller, who died on Aug. 9 at 93 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a great event,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cSailing with the Long Beach Lifeguard Association is always a good time and with Chief Miller in the forefront of our minds and in our hearts, this year was special. The LBYC was incredibly generous again and Scott Dixon did a great job of organizing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remainder of the teams placed as follows:<\/p>\n
Third: United States Coast Guard LB\/LA.
\nFourth: American Legion.
\nFifth: MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center\u2019s emergency room staff.
\nSixth: Long Beach Search and Rescue.
\nSeventh: Dignity Health St Mary Medical Center\u2019s ER.
\nEighth: U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
\nNinth: Long Beach Police Department SWAT teams.<\/p>\n
This year, the perpetual trophy was rededicated in honor of Judith Meyer, a distinguished Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. Meyer died on July 4 after a long battle with cancer, leaving a lasting impact on the court and the first responder community.<\/p>\n
Meyer\u2019s health caused her to limit her volunteerism in recent years. But before that. she chaired the Heroes Regatta for many years and raised the bar \u2014 offering with branded shirts, prizes and activities for families. She recruited her parents, husband and friends to volunteer as well.<\/p>\n
Her husband, Steven Meyer, was one of the 36 volunteer coaches on Saturday.<\/p>\n
I asked him how he felt about the trophy now bearing his late wife\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was such an appropriate honor,\u201d he said. \u201cShe had so much respect for first responders and military. And she was so integral to the launch of the initial heroes and patriot regattas. I think that the Heroes Regatta would not be what it is today without her involvement and dedication, even later behind the scenes after she had to step back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her service will take place on Friday, Aug. 29, but will be private.<\/p>\n
LBYC Senior Staff Commodore Drew Satariano, meanwhile, provided history the Long Beach Sailing Foundation\u2019s fleet of Catalina 37s \u2014 which are used for the Congressional Cup and numerous community outreach regattas \u2014 for Saturday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n
Past LBYC Commodore Dixon chaired the event and reported that around 200 people attended the day of fun\u00a0 During and after the classic LBYC burger bash lunch, Long Beach Fire Department Battalion Chief Jake Heflin, serving as the master of ceremonies, presented prizes.<\/p>\n
The drawing prizes were gathered by Dixon, Alison Jackson and Sparky Ferguson. The Robert Blair family donated Angels tickets. Gift cards for gas, a variety of Pelican Products, Catalina Express tickets and Bloch Wellness donated gift cards were also among the prizes.<\/p>\n
\u201c(This is) One of my favorite regattas of the year,\u201d said LBYC 2026 Commodore Bob Piercy, who coached a team of nurses from St Mary\u2019s, \u201c(getting) to see beginners progress throughout the day and then to have them say how much fun they had, and they never knew what a great sport yacht racing was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monterey Car Week<\/p>\n
And now, it\u2019s time to leave the water \u2014 and step onto the track.<\/p>\n
My annual trek to the Monterey Peninsula for car week and the most famous auto show in the world, the Concours d\u2019Elegance\u00a0 took place from Aug. 8 to 16.<\/p>\n
Long Beach was well represented, as usual.<\/p>\n
The many tents where the cars were displayed were all provided and assembled by Long Beach\u2019s Ryan Choura and his team from Choura Events. This year, Choura added a warehouse to better service his accounts at Laguna Seca racetrackr.<\/p>\n
At Laguna Seca, Long Beach\u2019s Craig Carter raced against comedian Adam Carolla of Comedy Central\u2019s \u201cThe Man Show.\u201d Also on the track that same day were former F1 driver Jenson Button in a 1967 Alfa Romero, and McLaren CEO Zak Brown<\/p>\n
The 75th Concours d\u2019Elegance was outstanding once again.<\/p>\n
The Best of Show at the signature event went to a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster, originally owned by Hollywood legend Clark Gable. Earlier during the week, a 1935 Duesenberg, also once owned by Gable, sold for more than $9 million at the RM Sotheby\u2019s auction in Monterey.<\/p>\n
This year, the five auction houses reported almost $748 million in sales. Gooding Christie\u2019s at Pebble Beach set a company record, with $159 million in sales. A 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe sold at Gooding Christie\u2019s for $42.9 million \u2014 a record mark for an American car at auction.<\/p>\n
Concours d\u2019Elegance reported raising $4.3 million for local nonprofits this year. Since 1950, the event has now accounted for $50.1 million in donations.<\/p>\n
My two highlights of the weekend were seeing Princess Diana\u2019s personal Jaguar at Concours d\u2019Elegance and attending the Pininfarina reception.<\/p>\n
Pininfarina, an Italian car design firm, has been part of more than 200 distinct production and concept car designs since its founding in 1930, according to its website. The design house has collaborated with Maserati, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Peugeot, Honda, Nash and Fiat.<\/p>\n
Pininfarina announced \u201cDuetto Day 2026,\u201d a special tribute to the Alfa Romeo, and formally established the Pininfarina Trophy as a permanent Pebble Beach award. Locally, Flying Cloud Yachts co-owner Eric Gustafson drives one. (Duetto is a nickname for the Alfa Romero because it is as cute as the duetto, a popular Italian crispy sandwich-style cookie.<\/p>\n
At the same event, Pininfarina CEO Paolo Dellach\u00e0 announced a partnership with luxury homebuilder Manny Angelo Varas and MV Group USA. Pininfarina will introduce the Collection Sei Design by Pininfarina, a limited offering of six branded residences and the first single-family homes to bear the Pininfarina name. Each approximately 8,000 square-foot turnkey residence is fully furnished (Frank Lloyd Wright-like) and offered at $16.95 million.<\/p>\n
Later that night, Airstream CEO Bob Wheeler announced a formal design collaboration intended to shape the next generation of Airstream products as the iconic company approaches its 100th anniversary in 2031.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m anxious to see how riveted-aluminum trailers \u2013 sometimes nicknamed \u201cSilver Twinkies\u201d \u2014 will take on a luxury Italian feel and become \u201cGlistening Cannoli.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m reminded of the movie \u201cThe Graduate,\u201d during which Dustin Hoffman drives that cute Pininfarina-designed Alfa. A sequel could feature Hoffman as a lifelong bachelor traveling in a Pininfarina-designed Airstream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city\u2019s first responders \u2014 including firefighters, police officers, lifeguards, local nurses and members of the U.S. Coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,3929,3930,131,133,132,137,3738],"class_list":["post-445134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-grunion-on-the-water","tag-grunion-sports","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-the-grunion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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