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A year after the contest for the 34th America’s Cup, world-class sailing is alive and thriving on San Francisco Bay. For four days in September, the 50th Anniversary edition of the Rolex Big Boat Series hosted hundreds of sailors on 99 teams, rotating onto three strategically-placed race circles that triangulate the constant wind and tide challenges of the largest Pacific estuary in the Americas. Having developed stadium sailing long before the America’s Cup made it a local colloquialism, the St. Francis Yacht Club ensured fast fun for spectators as well as competitors by designing each day’s second race (always sailed in a blustering afternoon breeze) to finish within cheering distance of the clubhouse’s famous second-story race deck that commands attention east to Alcatraz Island and west to a sun-drenched, or alternately fog-enshrouded, Golden Gate Bridge. The J/105s made up the largest fleet at Big Boat this year, and Bruce Stone’s Arbitrage held the lead every day, earning the team the Commodore’s Cup plus the Rolex watch. “This is the toughest fleet in the country I think,” said Stone who missed winning last year by a narrow margin. “We felt that the new courses were really interesting, and St. Francis Yacht Club did a really excellent job,” he added. Scooter Simmons’ Blackhawk took the silver position, and Phillip Laby’s Godot the bronze. Complete results

In a departure from the traditional J105 A-Series circuit, Fleet One enthusiastically accepted an invitation to race from the beautifully located and always hospitable Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon. Saturday’s windward-leeward course was set up a few hundred yards off the end of the end of Berkeley pier. A light ebb was running, stronger to the south side of the course, switching to an early flood later in the day at the top mark. Blackhawk, Godot, Akula, Arbitrage and Mojo prevailed in the gusty winds and managed to outpace boats that suffered in the strong breeze and substantial chop that had developed by race 3. In an interesting twist to the usual go-fast, turn-left circuits, the RC ended racing with a long beat leg to a finish close to Little Harding, making for an easy cruise back to the club, live band and beer/pizza party.

Sunday’s racing was located in a more Northerly part of Berkeley Circle, once again in light ebb, but with no particular current advantage on either side of the course. Mojo took the first race bullet and Godot could only manage a 4th, compressing the field and ensuring that any of the top 5 boats had a legitimate chance to win the regatta with a good showing in race 5. Mojo and Godot both had good starts, converging on the starboard layline to the top mark. Mojo miss-judged a very close duck and hit Godot a foot or so from their stern – causing damage and the retirement of both boats. 

After considerable mathematics, some throwout-rule analysis, redress hearings and a rather disappointing late goal by Portugal, the results were: 1 – Godot, 2 – Blackhawk, 3 – Arbitrage, 4 – Akula and 5 – the unlucky Mojo.

J105 Fleet One A-Series Championship racing continues on July 12th with the Sausalito YC Regatta. Register here.

Last weekend saw the third annual running of the Phyllis Kleinman Swiftsure Trophy Regatta, hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club. As usual, Fleet One J105s were out in force with 18 boats on the line in anticipation of some close city-front upwind action on a flood-dominated field of play. Conditions were clear, but very breezy with 18kts of building flow from a slightly more southerly direction than typical for late spring on San Francisco Bay.

The first leeward mark of the first race was Blossom Rock, which became a J105 mosh-pit as the center knot of boats arrived simultaneously, screaming for room while trying to manage kite douses in the gusty and building southwesterly flow. David Mace’s Moonshine lost its battle with rudder traction at the mark, rounding up into Bruce Stone’s Arbitrage, causing damage, but thankfully no injuries and ending the day for both boats. The RC organized a second race around the cans and then called it a day as puffs of over 30 kts created more carnage, retirements, an unscheduled trip to Alameda for one boat with douse-difficulties and a dropped rig in the multihull division. Phil Laby’s Godot managed the conditions best, taking a bullet and a 2nd ahead of Blackhawk, Risk, Akula and Mojo.

Sunday started in the same vein as the first day of the regatta, with strong breeze and an established flood. The RC ran the scheduled races as two-lap windward-leewards. Godot’s was unable to hold onto first place, ceding the regatta to a well sailed Blackhawk and resurgent Mojo on 15 points each. Blackhawk, with two wins, took the regatta, followed by Risk in third, Arbitrage, taking advantage of the redress rules, in fourth and Akula in fifth.

The next Fleet One event is the San Francisco Yacht Club Invitational Regatta on June 7/8 – sign up early!

Sergei Podshivalov and crew Randall Landaiche won their division in the annual BAMA Double Handed Farallons race this weekend. Javelin beat out 8 other boats and completed the 55 nautical mile course just 15 corrected-minutes ahead of Achambault A35 Mirthmaker. This year’s event was a bit of a drifter, with multiple DNFs across all classes. Check out the write-up on Pressure Drop for photos and back-story.

Ryan Simmons picked up where his dad left off last season and drove Blackhawk to a win in the Spring One Design regatta. Conditions started out light, but became idyllic as the wind gained strength to the 12kts to 15kts range. Unusually for San Francisco, the breeze was warm enough for many crew members to stow their heavy foulies and enjoy shirt-sleeve sailing under clear skies with just the briefest hint of fog under the Golden Gate.

Tides were in a flood to ebb transition on both days, yielding generally wide lanes and plenty of space on the race course. As the ebb built during the later part of the racing day, the beach became a strong attactant to downwind boats, an effect that lead to some close quarters action and a brief, but non-damaging, grounding as Alchemy took a wrong turn and ended up stuck in the sand by the yacht club.

Blackhawk pulled off their win ahead of a well-sailed Mojo. Godot, Akula and Jam Session rounded out the top five.

Check out drone video of the action and don’t forget to sign up for JFEST.

The 2014 Corinthian Midwinters hosted a J105 OD class which included several active Fleet One boats, a few newcomers and some old friends. Racing was close with challenging light and variable wind conditions on Knox and Central Bay courses, capped by legendary Corinthian hospitality that included beer, live music, semiars, single-day trophies and a fundraising auction organized by the Bay Area Racing Federation with funds going to support lung cancer research in honor of Rob Moore. Charles James’ Roxanne took four of four bullets, earning a clean sweep of this year’s winter racing. Second overall was Akula, third place went to SheLovesIt.

The Spring One Design is just one month away – don’t forget to pay your class dues and sign up for the regatta.

Late-late-late-breaking news: Jeff Zarwell confirmed that the new make-up race date of Feb 22nd is just for fun. Which means that Wonder is the Winter Winner.

Late-breaking news: Jeff Zarwell has proposed February 22nd as a “make-up-date” for the canceled RegattaPro series. It’s not over ’til it’s over!

With Saturday’s final races abandonned due to the approaching storm, the RegattaPro Winter Onedesign J105 winner is Tom Kennelly’s team Wonder, who remain on top after 6 races. Second and third places were decided by tiebreaker, with Cuchulainn beating out Jam Session. 19 boats entered the winter series – largest ever for the fleet – confirming the format and highlighting the year-round fun that is sailing on San Francisco Bay.

The 2014 Championship season kicks off on March 15/16 with the Spring One Design regatta sponsored by the St. Francis Yacht Club. The full Fleet 1 racing schedule is here, and includes both Championship and B-season regattas.