(San Francisco, CA)- Last weekend’s battle for the San Francisco Cup
ended in a victory for the St. Francis Yacht Club, winning with a score
of 12-6 over our worthy rivals from across the Bay. San Francisco Yacht
Club, as last year’s winners, hosted the 2017 rendition of the Cup. They
did an excellent job managing 18 races on Berkeley Circle in perfect
match-racing conditions, and an equally fine job organizing Saturday
evening’s festivities.After a short delay while the wind settled in on Saturday, the Open division began racing, sailing in IODs. With 8-10 knots out of 245°, minimal current effect and lovely spring sunshine, it looked all set for a great day of racing, and that is how it turned out. In the first race, the Perkins brothers, sailing for SFYC, got the win despite a great start and first windward leg by Craig Healy and his crew Pamela Healy, Tommy Ducharme, Chris Smith and Joe McCoy sailing for StFYC. It seemed the SFYC boat had the speed edge, particularly downwind, but the StFYC team went to work tweaking things to make up the difference in the following races.
Next,
it was the all-women teams, racing the J/22s from StFYC’s fleet, and
StFYC’s Nicole Breault showed her usual form by winning the start and
never looking like she would be caught. On board with Nicole were crew
Molly Carapiet, Jody McCormack and Juliana Testa.The score was tied 1-1 and the first round depended on the juniors!!
In that race, also sailed in J/22s, Spencer Paulsen and crew of Parker Klebahn, William Hale and Mats Keldsen lost a hard-fought battle to put SFYC up 2-1. However, the StFYC youth team was not to lose another match and that was pretty much the story of the regatta. At the end of Saturday’s twelve matches, SFYC had won all four in the open division and StFYC had won all the women’s matches, meaning the key difference were the Juniors. StFYC won three out of four.
That evening, when everyone headed back to Belvedere Cove for a splendid evening of food, drink and entertainment, StFYC was up 7-5. The first club with eleven wins would determine the winner, so it was still anyone’s game.
Sunday’s
skies were overcast and the wind came out of the south at approximately
145° with 9-11 knots, holding firm with only a 5° shift. In the first
match, Craig Healy and team came out determined to put a win on the
board in the Open division. They came close and the racing was tough,
but the first match went to SFYC.Nicole Breault continued her winning form by claiming two more wins for a clean sweep in the women’s division.
The juniors proved their mettle and improved on the second day of racing by stretching their lead in both races and winning both of their matches.
According to Bruce Stone, "the Open Team’s win in the second match of the day brought us within one race of the series win for StFYC and the final score was a resounding 12-6. The San Francisco Cup is back in our hands! There were cheers in the Grill Room when the trophy was brought back to StFYC Sunday afternoon!"
Congratulations to all the sailors and many thanks to the organizers, the SF Cup Joint Committee with StFYC members Nadine Franczyk (Chair), Pat Nolan and Greg Meagher; Race Committee; the umpires; the StFYC and SFYC race staff and the enthusiastic supporters who cheered for their teams! Sailing photo credits- Chris Ray/ Pressure-drop.us. For more San Francisco Cup sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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