J's Sweep Epic Big Boat Series

J/105, J/120s, J/125s Swamp Podium
(San Francisco, CA)-  True story.  J sailors "veni, vidi, vici" in this year's Rolex Big Boat Series.  Indeed, they came, they saw and they conquered.  In perhaps the most challenging conditions anyone who's ever sailed "Big Boat" can remember.  J/Teams simply dominated the podium at this year's event, sailed in epic weather, nuclear breezes and massive square waves that seemed to dominate the four days of sailing on San Francisco Bay.  Of 81 teams entered, 40% of the fleet were J sailors!  And an awesome display of sailing it was for those don't know why so many people have fun sailing their J's in everything from drifting matches to the "fresh to frightening, bashing and crashing" conditions (35+ knots) on the Bay.  When some one-design classes were canceling races (like the Farr 30s during their Worlds) and other "big boats" were blowing up bits & pieces everywhere, the entire fleet of amateur (corinthian) J/105, J/120 and J/125 sailors flew around the Bay having the time of their lives planing all over the place in complete control.  It was perhaps one of the most remarkable displays of having fun and sailing easy-to-handle seaworthy boats one has ever seen-- no wonder there were so many proud J/Owners in St Francis YC's Grill Room after the races telling "war stories" about planing for miles across SF Bay at speeds upwards of 18+ knots!

At the end, the big winners were the following:  Andy Costello's J/125 DOUBLE TROUBLE led a sweep of IRC C "Fast Forties" class, blowing away the new Farr 400 "sportboat" boat-for-boat (and on handicap) with a perfect score of seven firsts, the only boat to do so in the entire regatta! In fact, the J/125s swept the top four in IRC C class.  In IRC D class, Don Payan's J/120 DAYENU sailed to a near equal performance to Andy's team, showing a tough group of competitors why the J/120 class is so tough-- one-design excellence taught all Don needed to know to crush this class.  In the J/120s themselves, it was Barry Lewis's CHANCE that took home the silver.  Meanwhile, the J/105s had a controversial regatta.  By day two, one of the J/105 regatta leaders, last year's Rolex Big Boat Series winner, Bruce Stone's ARBITRAGE, was DSQ'd on a questionable protest and by day three the ultimate regatta winner, Scooter Simmons on BLACKHAWK was awarded two 2nds for redress while having started last and was fouled while in 15th place or worse (the top ten in fleet were about 1/3 nm in front)!  Nevertheless, Scooter's team nearly squandered a 12 pt lead to win by a small miracle.  Read more below on how it all happened, the trials, the tribulations, the triumphs in this year's epochal event.

Day One- Ties Everywhere:
If two- and three-way ties for first are indicative of heated competition, many classes set the stage in today’s opener for some fiery showdowns over the next three days of competition. A total of 81 boats took to San Francisco Bay.  “It was a perfect day,” said Barry Lewis (Atherton, Calif.), skipper of the J/120 CHANCE, which finished 3-1 today to tie in overall scoring with John Wimer’s (Half Moon Bay, Calif.) 1-3 on DESDEMONA and Stephen Madeira’s (Menlo Park, Calif.) 2-2 on Mr. MAGOO. “It was the typical 10-14 knots in the morning; then it blew up to 18-20 in the afternoon, with a nice ebb tide to play all day.”  Lewis said that in the first race all boats converged at the marks simultaneously, and multiple lead changes were the status quo; no one jumped out ahead. In fact, four of the six lead boats were within 20 seconds of each other at the finish. “It was very tight--that’s why it’s so much fun,” said Lewis. “The second race, on the city front, was three laps, so it was longer and gave us a chance to separate out.”

Event Co-chair and Principal Race Officer Kevin Reeds explained that IRC boats sailed on the “City Course” in the morning and switched places with the one-designs to sail the “North Course” in the afternoon. Both courses are designed to highlight San Francisco’s ampitheater-like qualities and enticed no less than four television stations to trek to the St. Francis Yacht Club waterfront to gather colorful close-to-shore footage for their on-air reports. “It was a crystal clear, perfect start to the regatta,” said Reeds, acknowledging a chilly wind but sunny skies that only occasionally succumbed to the famous low ceiling of San Francisco fog.

In J/105s, there also were two boats tied on point scores at the top of the scoreboard. BLACKHAWK (Belvedere, Calif.), with Scooter Simmons driving, and DONKEY JACK, owned by Edward Conrads/Rolf Kaiser/Shannon Ryan (San Francisco), finished 4-1 and 1-4, respectively. “We had decent starts, and in the first race we were sixth at the first mark, then made up some boats and were able to hold them off until we were passed at the finish by Donkey Jack.” Simmons added that the third-place boat, Bruce Stone’s ARBITRAGE, is also one not to discount. It is only four points behind in the 21-boat fleet. “They won the season and this event last year; it’s all a top notch group, but we are here to win it,” he added with a sly smile (not knowing, of course, he'd be granted a "gift" later by the Jury!).

Day Two- Fast Friday:
We’re done with day two of the Big Boat Series, and once again, the wind was tremendous. Again we saw puffs to around 30 on the course, with a crushing ebb tide producing 4-foot square waves throughout the afternoon. Two more days of big wind are in the forecast, and the riggers and sailmakers are working serious hours to keep up . We saw at least 4 shattered kites today in our small piece of the racecourse, though considering all the crews hoisted in the rigging both on water and at the docks, it’s a safe bet there were another few dozen repairs to do on Friday night.

The Big Boat Series this year was scheduled one week earlier than usual, and the one week difference makes it seem more like the Big Breeze Series than recent years. One person said, “It’s nice to finally have a really windy Big Boat Series. This is by far the biggest wind we've had in at least 6 years and this is what we love."

It is the practiced crews who prevail in this weather. In the J/120 fleet, many of the boats have had the same crews for years, and it shows. Chance broke this morning three-way tie today with a 2,1 score. Skipper Barry Lewis explained. “It's always about preparation, but moreover this year I have to say our main trimmer (Scott Kozinchik) has figured out the boat, the rig and how to easily change gears. All of our team does a great job, and there's no one on the boat who's been here for less than 6 years."

In a continually tough TP52 battle in IRC-A, Mayhem and Vesper are fighting for the top spot, while the guys from Power Play continue to threaten. Tony Rey put the Power Play program together for owner Peter Cunningham, who sold his company last year and wanted to do some real big boat sailing, starting his campaign with a blaze when their chartered mini-maxi Titan burned in Antigua earlier this year. Cunningham has settled in comfortably to the smaller 52.  "Believe it or not, it really does feel small in comparison, yet I go a lot faster from Crissy to Blossom (near Treasure Island) than I used to in my J/29 here," Cunningham said. "It may look easy, but it's not. I like the feel of the One Design racing - you can see your competition all the time." Cunningham is interested in keeping it fun and will race the Great Pumpkin regatta in San Francisco, and then head down to the Caymans for some J/22 and model boat racing with the entire crew before getting back into the tropical winter racing circuit.

"It's rough out there, like a washing machine," was how the conditions were described yesterday. Gusts up to 30 knots, even up to 35 on the North Course set the scene for carnage on the water in the wild second day of racing in the 2011 Rolex Big Boat Series. Most of the carnage consisted of round-ups, round-downs and broaches, some boats reported damage enough to cause them to drop out, and at least two crew members with injuries were carefully led ashore. One crewman went to the hospital for stitches after getting hit in the head with a boom.

The whole strategy on Friday was to just keep the boats under control. And with a full weekend of racing still to go, it just may be that 2011 becomes one of the most memorable, if not physical, years in the competition’s 47 year history.

“It was a 20-25 knot day today, gusting close to 30,” said Andy Costello (Pt. Richmond, Calif.) aboard the J/125 DOUBLE TROUBLE, which leads IRC C class and is the only team with a perfect score line after four races, two of which were held today. “We were hitting (boat speeds) in the 17 and 18s off the breeze, but we were fully under control.”  That wasn’t true for many of the class’s other sport boats, which were all in the 40-foot range and collectively referred to as the “fast forties.” Some wiped out and others struggled not to, while Costello sailed smoothly with his crew of seasoned dinghy sailors aboard.

“They feel the boat, and their response is quicker,” said Costello, explaining that his mainsail trimmer Trevor Baylis (Santa Cruz) is an Aussie 18, International 14 and 505 class world champion, while another crew member, Matt Noble (Pt. Richmond), is also an International 14 world champion, not to mention that his tactician Will Baylis (Tiburon), Trevor’s brother, is an Olympic silver medalist. “The J/125 is only 8600 pounds and 57% of that weight is in the keel; it has a spinnaker that’s 1900 square feet, so that’s big for a 40-foot boat.”

Costello was delighted that no less than three other J/125s are also sailing in IRC C, and they are filling the next three spots on the score board as well. “Boat-for-boat, Resolute (in second and skippered by Tim Fuller of Murrieta, Calif.) is our best competition. They are fast upwind, but our attributes are in planing downwind--that’s where we excel over the other boats.”

Maintaining their leads from yesterday were the J/125 DOUBLE TROUBLE, skippered by Andy Costello (Pt. Richmond, Calif.) in IRC C; the J/120 DAYENU, skippered by Donald Payan (Hillsborough, Calif.) in IRC D; BLACKHAWK, skippered by Scooter Simmons (Belvedere, Calif.) in J/105 One-Designs; and CHANCE, skippered by Barry Lewis (Atherton, Calif.) in J/120 One-Designs.

Day 3- Nuclear Saturday- Big, Epic, Huge, Ginormous
Sailors sensed it was going to be a difficult day when they showed up at the St. Francis Yacht Club this morning and it was already blowing dogs off chains. For the last two days it had taken at least until an early fog lifted for the wind to reach its peaks in the 20s, but this morning it blew 20-25 right out of the box, with gusts nearing 28 even before the first race start at 11 a.m. The result of it never letting up was a good amount of carnage on the race course and some losers as well as winners in the battle between man and Mother Nature.

The first boat back to the dock with damage was Scooter Simmons’ (Belvedere, Calif.) BLACKHAWK, which was leading the 21-boat J/105 fleet going into today; the boat was t-boned after a classic port/starboard crossing went awry while they were in the very back of the fleet (having fouled and already done a 360 turn). “WHISPER (skippered by Marc Vayn of San Francisco) was on port and looked to be ducking us, but I guess his mainsheet got stuck or something and he couldn’t avoid hitting us,” said Simmons, nodding to the port-side gash in his hull topped by a tumble of stanchions. “Our goal is to seek redress for both of today’s races and get this fixed before tomorrow.”  Redress was later granted, and Blackhawk added a 2-2 to its score, having turned in finish positions of 4-1-2-1 over the last two days. The team still sits atop the scoreboard with Jason Woodley/Scott Whitney’s (Tiburon, Calif.) RISK in second, a full 12 points behind.

Donald Payan (Hillsborough, Calif.) likened today’s racing to a “heavyweight boxing match.” He came out swinging and threw the last punch to finish 1-2 today in IRC D class aboard his J/120 DAYENU.  “We finished 1-2 yesterday, and the first day we turned in two firsts,” said Payan, who now has a five-point lead over the fleet. “Not too bad; if we can keep it up tomorrow, we can win.” Payan won this event last year, sailing in the J/120 one-design class and decided to try his luck in IRC this year. “I wouldn’t have done it if there hadn’t been enough J/120s here to make a class without me. I’ve raced in one-design for ten years, so I thought I’d try a different fleet...for the sense of adventure if nothing else. It has been a punishing three days, but the J/120 is very stable, and when you get it in the groove going to weather in north of 16 knots, it does very well.” Payan said knock-downs are uncharacteristic for his team, but he endured some disastrous jibes today that he thought would have cost him. “I thought we were doing so badly, but then I turned around and saw that everyone else was having trouble just the same as we were.”

But despite the chaos on the Bay, things sorted out just fine on the scoreboard for Andy Costello’s (Pt. Richmond, Calif.) DOUBLE TROUBLE. The team turned in another perfect 1-1 score today to continue leading the IRC C class.    Barry Lewis’s (Atherton, Calif.) CHANCE still lead in J/120 class, with a 1-3.  “They definitely got more than they paid for out there today,” said Event Co-Chair and Principal Race Officer Kevin Reeds. “It was big, big wind, big waves; the Rolex BIG Boat series.”

Day 4- The Final Classic, Gorgeous, Play Day on the Bay- "The Bay Tour":
After enduring yesterday’s high wind survival conditions, the hundreds of sailors on 81 teams at the 47th annual Rolex Big Boat Series would no doubt agree that handling today’s 14-22 knots on San Francisco Bay was a piece of cake. And rich was the cake’s icing: sunshine unobstructed by fog, with temperatures that had warmed by double digits to 68 degrees. A single “Bay Tour” distance race showed all classes the four corners of San Francisco Bay, visually anchored by the Golden Gate Bridge to the west, Alcatraz Island in the middle, and Treasure Island and Bay Bridge to the East, while an eighth class (Farr 30) topped off its world championship with four feisty races on the “North Course” that was their racing home for the regatta’s entire four days.

Spectators, too, were treated to the true beauty, emotion and power of sail when, before racing, all boats paraded in honor of 9/11 victims, and for the finish, a colorful lineup of spinnakers roared past the stretch of land closest to Crissy Field, triggering cannon fire from the uppermost decks of nearby St. Francis Yacht Club where later six perpetual trophies as well as Rolex Oyster Perpetual Stainless Steel Submariners would be awarded to winners in six of the classes.

Richard Rheem Perpetual Trophy – IRC C:    Andy Costello’s (Pt. Richmond, Calif.) J/125 DOUBLE TROUBLE was the only boat to turn in a perfect score for the series, which meant it won all seven races.  The crew was cool, the crew was smart.  Lock in the Baylis Brothers and go for broke-- it worked! :)  Read more about this "most excellent adventure" below- the H2oshots.com/ pressuredrop.com interview with Erik Simonson.

Keefe-Kilborn Perpetual Trophy – IRC D: Last year, Donald Payan (Hillsborough, Calif.), won the J/120 class skippering DAYENU, but this year he took the same boat and entered IRC, wondering how it would go. The performance of both his boat and team proved the gamble paid off, though Payan called the days before today punishing due to the physical demands made by the conditions. In the end, he deduced that his decision had been very gratifying. “One-design sailing is more of a chess board situation,” said Payan, “whereas IRC is more like a rally— you are competing against yourself.”

Commodore’s Cup – J/105: Even after a collision rendered it unable to race yesterday’s two races, Scooter Simmons' (Belvedere, Calif.) BLACKHAWK looked solid going into today with a full 12 points (helped by granted redress of second-place for yesterday’s two missed opportunities, even though they were in 15th place or worse(!) when the incident happened) over Jason Woodley/ Scott Whitney’s (Tiburon, Calif.) RISK, which stood in second. The lead wasn’t too comforting, however, when BLACKHAWK jumped the start gun and had to restart. “We had to make up 12 boats, and then we chose to go to shore for relief from the current and that was the wrong decision,” said Simmons. “The wind clocked right, and by the time we got to the city front, we were so deep it was the most discouraging thing in the world. Then we knew we had to rope in 10 boats. My crew is just so good that we were able to do it, but it’s not the way you want to win a regatta.” After a tenth today in the 21-boat fleet, the largest here, Blackhawk’s lead over Risk was seven points. Simmons said that since his first Rolex Big Boat Series (he has sailed six of them in three different boats), his goal has been to win a Rolex watch. “It is the epitome, the trophy we all want.”

J/120 Class: Mathematically, Barry Lewis’s (Atherton, Calif.) Chance only had to finish today clean (i.e. with no letters such as DSQ or DNF in their score) to win, but they finished fourth for good measure. Crew member Matt Dingo (Portland, Maine) explained how his team decided not to play “the cone” at Alcatraz, which was the right decision over reaching across to the city front early, but it put them on the outside of some shifts. “It was a little flukier on the side we chose, so we had to step on the gas,” he said, “but that’s what makes the Bay Tour legendary: it’s about what’s going on all over; you’re not retracing any of your steps during 24 miles; it’s only at the Rolex Big Boat Series, and it can be a make it or break it race for a lot of teams.”

Sailing photos courtesy of:
Daniel Forster/ Rolex- http://www.regattanews.com
Christophe Favreau-  http://christophefavreau.photoshelter.com/
Sharon Green/ Ultimate Sailing- http://ultimatesailing.photoshelter.com/
Erik Simonson/ H2OShots.com- http://www.H2oshots.com
Steve Buckingham/ NorCal Sailing- http://www.norcalsailing.com

Watch Rolex Big Boat Series sailing videos:
J/120s day one- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW1lCGj2mK4
J/120s day two- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxI9vOAcF-U

J/105s day two- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlsEBxstoYo
J/105s- day one, race 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVq1p1a5HY
J/105s- day three- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-cHiTvEDLM
J/105s- day three- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgbXOPO1BlM

T2P.TV video summary- http://t2p.tv/player/bbs2011/index5.html