Big breeze at Big Boat Series

San Francisco, CA (September 13, 2014) – It blew 20 knots and above for a third straight day at the Rolex Big Boat Series, and with six races under their sailing belts, eight of ten classes – HPR, BAMA/Multihull, J/70, J/105, J/111, J/120, Melges 24, Express 37 – are counting on one last race (the traditional “Bay Tour”) tomorrow to either seal their deals or steal into top-three positions where bragging rights are as treasured as the trophies to be presented. The other two – ORR and Farr 40 – will let two round-the-buoys races determine the class champions, with the Farr 40 class also deciding the winner of its international circuit based on performances here.

“It’s all-on for tomorrow,” said Norman Davant, the event’s co-chair who is the token American sailing with Anatole Masfen’s all-New Zealand team aboard the chartered IRC 52 Beecom, which sits third in HPR class. “This has been awesome sailing. Because some of our team has never been here before, as soon as we finish each race it’s full, crazy, ‘selfie’ mania, with the bridges and Alcatraz and all the boats in the background. They’re going, ‘wow, wow, wow!’”

Davant said his class stayed inside the Bay today on two courses out of 51 that the race committee has to choose from, but there was “racing all over the place” with boats rotating to three different circles and never knowing what they’d do next. “Controlled chaos is a very good way to describe it,” said Davant. “We wanted to do something different on the land and the water, so we put a mark one mile west of the Golden Gate Bridge where we normally don’t go, and yesterday our class went to it twice. Last night, we brought food trucks in and had a great party for the sailors.”

Beecom had its best day yet, finishing first in today’s two races, but it is Greg Slyngstad’s (Sammamish, Wash.) J/125 Hamachi, in first overall, and Donald Payan’s (Hillsborough, Calif.) MC 38 Whiplash, in second overall, that are so close they are tied on points, promising an exciting final showdown for tomorrow.

“We have been sailing this boat really well for most of the week,” said Payan. “We did a rudder change that has made the boat much easier to sail, especially upwind where we’re much faster than we were here last year. The change to the fixed bowsprit has really helped too, making our downwind legs really fast; today we hit 19 knots in the last race! Tomorrow it will be tough, but we’ll just keep the pressure on to go for the win.”

Earning Boat of the Day was Alex Roepers’ (New York, N.Y.) Farr 40 Plenty, the 2014 North American champion which has dominated the scoreboard here in Farr 40 class since day one. “These regattas are so much of just hanging tough and not having the big mistake, and if you have a big mistake you have to recover nicely from it,” said the boat’s tactician Terry Hutchinson (Annapolis, Md.) “Our recoveries here have been very good, and I think that has been our strength. Most top mark roundings are bow-to-stern and that speaks volumes of the quality of the boats and the caliber of the racing in this fleet.”

In a touching moment this morning on the water, 14 Farr 40s, with black flags flying on their backstays, paraded solemnly by the Mexican entrant Flojito y Cooperando, paying tribute to the boat’s much-admired co-owner Bernardo Minkow, who passed away unexpectedly before racing on Friday. Co-owner Julian Fernandez had elected not to race on Friday out of respect for the memory of his close friend; however, the Flojito team raced in honor of Bernardo today.

Wayne Koide’s Sydney 36 Encore held on to his lead in ORR class by posting a 4-3 today. The ORR replaced IRC this year, and Koide, who counts this as his fourth Rolex Big Boat Series, is happy with that. “Handicap racing is all about sailing to your rating, and sailing as fast as you can,” he said. “What makes it particularly challenging for us is being one of the smallest boats. We are competing against bigger boats that can gas us on the start. Going up the course, we just have to sail as best we can. We are only two points in the lead now, so everything is going to be leaning on the last two races.”

Event website – Results – Photos

Report by Media Pro Intl. Photo by Rolex / Daniel Forster.