Wednesday, August 15, 2018

NE*NE Tops J/105s @ Summer Keelboat Regatta

J/105s sailing San Francisco Bay (San Francisco, CA)- In the summertime, San Francisco Bay is famous for its thumping seabreezes that often start out light in the morning with streaks of fog filtering through the grand twin towers of the Golden Gate Bridge.  However, my midday the breezes from the west are well into the mid-teens and in the more extreme scenarios, gusts can hit the high 20s/ low 30s.

The local J/105 fleet revels in the big Bay breezes.  A fleet of twenty-three boats was engaged in battle over the weekend for San Francisco YC’s annual Summer Keelboat Regatta.  After five races in two days, it was Tim Russell’s NE*NE winning by a whisker over Ian Charles’ MAVERICK.  J/105 #3 NE*NE (Lowell North’s original “superboat”) posted a 9-1-1-7-1 tally for 19 pts, while MAVERICK had a 4-9-3-1-3 record for 20 pts.  Rounding out the podium was Ryan Simmons’ BLACKHAWK with a 3-11-2-2-4 scoreline fro 22 pts.  The balance of the top five includes Doug Bailey’s AKULA in 4th place just one more point back and Phil Laby’s GODOT in 5th with 27 pts.  For more SFYC Summer Keelboat Regatta sailing results Flip