Way-back time machines

Christopher Lewis, a grand-prix navigator more accustomed to high-performance machines, revels in the experience of racing a legendary way-back time machine.

The warning gun fires, and the prestart dance begins in the Classics fleet at the Rolex Big Boat Series hosted by San Francisco’s St. Francis YC. We’ve got 19 knots of wind already, and it’s still early. It will blow. I can feel the building sea breeze that has whipped San Francisco Bay into frenzied whitecaps nearly every summer day for as long as I can remember. For this regatta, I’m not in my usual position as navigator. Today, I’m the tactician. That’s because Mayan is special, and I find that it gives me insight into the expectations of the great tacticians I normally sail with on other grand-prix programs.

“Time to burn to the boat?” I ask Lance Berc, a retired Silicon Valley technologist with an Albert Einstein hairstyle. Berc is holding the “box,” which is the affectionate term for the tablet, repeating the nav computer down below. “Burning 4 min 25 boat,” comes the answer instantly, just as I’d trained him. “Pin burn?” “Burning 4 min pin,” he responds.

His numbers track because I know this patch of water in front of the club like my backyard. Even though the gun has just gone off, I prompt Lance to start giving me a data stream of info to paint the picture like other great tacticians have always encouraged me to do when roles are reversed.

“Beau, tack to follow Hurrica,” I say. Beau Vrolyk is the skipper, driver and chief caretaker, aka owner of Mayan. His wife, Stacy, is handling the runners. We smoothly pull off a tack. “Lewwy, they are jibing,” Hall of Famer Bill Lee says. “Think they want to play with us.” Lee, well-known as the “Wizard,” is the designer of the Santa Cruz line of race yachts and the legendary Transpac maxi Merlin, which is also racing in this year’s Big Boat Series. – Full story