(San Francisco, CA)- “The Big One” of the season for the offshore racing
crowd on San Francisco Bay is now upon us- the fabled Farallones Island
Race- fully-crewed teams. San Francisco YC in Belvedere is hosting the
event for the eighty-one entries. At this stage, it looks like the
sailors will be treated to a classic, epic race, with 15-25 kts from the
WNW on Saturday. With the start on an ebb-tide, the outgoing flows
through the gate and over the “Potato Patch” will produce enormous
breaking waves against the big breeze, challenging the crews on their
way out. By 2:30pm, the tide switches and with it flowing back into the
bay, the smoother water should make for an amazingly fast “planing
mode” ride back into the Bay!A veritable navy of J/teams have entered this one-day, but very challenging race that starts just off Alcatraz Island, heads west through the Golden Gate Bridge, round the Farallones rocks, then back into the bay to the start/finish line. Most boats generally finish by sunset, although in some years that has not been the case. For the fast boats, it’s a “race to happy hour” at the yacht club bar!
The
J/crews range from the classic J/30s up to the magnificent J/44, and
from the speedy J/88s up to the J/125 offshore machine. In the full-crewed division are five of the top J/120s in the Bay area that will be keeping everyone honest with the competitive crews, such as Barry Lewis’ CHANCE, Steve Madeira’s MR MAGOO, Timo Bruck’s TWIST, Ton Grennan’s KOOKABURRA, and Sean Mulvihill’s JAMANI. In addition, Jim Goldberg’s notorious J/109 JUNKYARD DOG’ers will be loving the big slog in big waves out to the rocks, so will Reuben Rocci’s J/111 SWIFT NESS, and Rich Pipkin’s J/125 CAN’T TOUCH THIS. Hoping for more benign conditions will be Tom Borgstrom’s J/92 HIJINKS, Kevin Mills’ J/36 DAWNS EARLY LIGHT, and the two J/30s entered, Tony Castruccio’s WIND SPEED and Jenny Thompson’s FRICTION LOSS.
In the Doublehanded Division, two J/88’s will be hoping for planing mode on the return leg, Jim Hopp’s WHITE SHADOW and Chris Cartwright’s VENTUS. Another Doublehanded team will be Rick Leute’s J/44 ACEY DEUCY. For Farallones Race sailing information and results For Farallones Race event information at San Francisco YC Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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