(San Francisco, California)- On the first day of the 2015 sailing season
opener at St Francis Yacht Club, the Spring One Design regatta, it
seemed everyone was there— 80 boats, 300 sailors, 8 fleets— everyone,
that is, but the wind. Early season conditions prevailed and the lack of
breeze on Saturday resulted in a string of postponements with,
ultimately, no racing.“We knew that even if we were able to get off a start,” says regatta Chair Peggy Lidster, “we wouldn’t have been able to get around any windward mark. There was no wind in any direction, and we were fighting an ebb.” Sailors made the most of the day by enjoying the sun, admiring the fleets’ many sets of new sails and meeting back at the St. Francis Yacht Club for food, drinks, lawn games and even a “shmores” (graham crackers, melted Hershey’s chocolate and melted marshmallows) pit in the courtyard.
Conditions varied throughout Sunday, wavering between 7 and 20 knots. The unsteady breeze kept all fleets alert as fresh crew shook off winter-time cobwebs and fresh sets of sails took on their first tacks and douses.
“Looking around, you could feel a fervor for the start of the season. These are the Bay-area one-design keelboat fleets, and everyone brought their A-game,” says Lidster. “The entire central Bay was filled with sails, from Alcatraz to the majestic Golden Gate Bridge to our fabulous city-front along the southern shore of San Francisco Bay. The number of sailboats and the camaraderie between fleets was fantastic— it felt like days of old!”
While the smaller boats competed on the City Front course, the ginormous twenty-one boat J/105 fleet started off the western face of Alcatraz Island, heading upwind 1.3 miles in a westerly direction toward the mid-span of the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a heavy ebb, creating the inevitable short chop as the current flows into the prevailing westerly. The combo of the 4.0+ kt ebb and incoming 20 kt westerlies (the tradition SF bay seabreeze) built up massive, slab-sided chop at least 4-6 ft tall, and was most especially acute just off the southern tip of Alcatraz. In the end, the day was dominated by Bruce Stone’s team on ARBITRAGE turning in a 3-1-2 to finish with just 6 points. Not far off their pace was their nemesis and good friend Scooter Simmons on BLACKHAWK, throwing in a 4-2-4 for good measure to take second with 10 pts. Finally, sailing a rapidly improving scoreline as they worked out the cobwebs and bugs after the first race was Phil Laby’s GODOT, posting an impressive 9-3-1 for 13 pts to take the bronze. Rounding out the top five were Pat Benedict’s ADVANTAGE 3 in fourth with 17 pts and in fifth was Jeff Litfin’s MOJO with 18 pts.
The J/111s saw close, fast racing but it was Dorian McKelvy’s MADMEN that took the crown with two bullets and two seconds for just 6 pts total. Behind them, it was a horse race for the balance of the podium with Richard Swanson’s BAD DOG winning by a nose over Roland Vandermeer’s bright red BIG BLAST! The tie-breaker for fourth was won by Gorkem Ali Ozcelebi’s DOUBLE DIGIT over Rob Theis’ AEOLUS.
The J/70s had a light turnout due to the conflict with the Helly Hansen San Diego NOOD Regatta. A number of the top San Francisco Bay teams were sailing in San Diego as part of their practice for the upcoming J/70 North Americans sailing on South Bay in September. Nevertheless, the six boat fleet saw St Francis YC member Peter Cameron shake out all the cobwebs early and post a blistering three bullets on Sundays amazingly beautiful day of sailing along the City Front. The J/70s could be seen flying downwind in the last race, zigging & zagging downwind in full-on plane mode, seemingly skipping up and over the steep, choppy ebb-tide seas; though everyone once in awhile someone would stuff it hard into the back of an unavoidable vertical backside of the ferry boat wakes! It was fun sailing for those SF Bay die-hards! Taking second was Geoff McDonald’s 1FA and in third was Tom Thayer 7 Robert Milligan’s RAMPAGE.
For more St Francis Yacht Club Spring One-Design sailing information
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