Island Time, Catalina Fun-Run-Style

With 50-plus performance boats and one 53-foot yacht in the late-September Catalina Island Fun Run, the Southern California event celebrated its ninth anniversary. That’s something lead organizer Corey Vodvarka, who lives in Long Beach and owns a 30-foot Eliminator Boats Eagle V-bottom, finds hard to believe.

Every year, he tells himself, is going to be his last.

“Now people are saying, ‘You’re up to nine, you have to get to 10,’” he said, then laughed. “So I’ll do it again next year. And then I’ll tell myself it’s my last one again.”

A 53-foot yacht was the perfect focal point for Saturday’s raft-up at Cat Harbor. Photos by Erick Bryner copyright Fast Loud Photography and Daren Van Ryte/OC Photographics

Vodvarka doesn’t really mind the work because he’s doing it for his friends. All volunteer event-organizers have such thoughts before they’ve had time to forget whatever drove them crazy. Light to moderate venting is to be expected—if not encouraged to promote organizer sanity and retention—in the event aftermath.

Participants in the Catalina Fun Run come from Arizona, Nevada and Utah. There even are a few Californians in the group.

The event attracted everything from high-performance center consoles to V-bottom sportboats and catamarans.

“We left out of Newport Beach on Friday as usual and ran to Two Harbors, where we had a beach party with a DJ,” Vodvarka explained. “I rented the entire beach—I’ve done that for the past three years. Then later in the afternoon we ran to the town of Avalon on the island, where we stayed two nights.”

After mooring in Avalon Harbor and checking into their hotels, participants are free to group up and wander off for dinner. There is no set plan or meeting time and there doesn’t need to be. Avalon is a tiny town. Downtown consists of one long waterfront street and a few streets behind it. Post-dinner meet-ups need no organizing. They’re inevitable.

“Plus, we have a group chat through our Facebook page so we communicate that way,” Vodvarka said. “Everybody really seems to enjoy it.”

The Catalina Fun Run operates on island time, which means no one is in a rush.

Some full-time Avalon residents have cars, but for the most part the Catalina Fun Run group uses golf carts—or their feet—to get around. The bar-hoppers in the group typically find themselves at Luau Larry’s or one of the town’s other well-known watering holes.

By Saturday afternoon, 20-something boats joined the planned tie-up at Cat Harbor on the windward side of the island. Exposed to the open Pacific Ocean, the windward side can be rough and, per its name, breezy. But for Vodvarka and the rest of the Catalina Fun Run crew, conditions were flawless with calm seas, little wind and low-to-mid 70-degree temperatures throughout the afternoon.

Enjoy more images from the Southern California event.

“Brandon and Amanda Larsen own the 53-foot Navigator yacht that joined us,” Vodvarka said. “They keep it in San Diego but live in Scottsdale (Ariz.) Anyway, they own a company called Tide Craft Boats, which makes yacht tenders and was one of our sponsors this year, and they brought a couple of them. We had a great time playing around with them that afternoon. That was a big hit.”

Though most of the group ended up meeting at a place called the Chi-Chi Club on Saturday night, the evening followed the same “plan”—meaning no plan—as it did Friday. The fleet headed back to the mainland on Sunday.