Bling to the winners at Big Boat Series

After three days of short course races, the 61st edition of the Rolex Big Boat Series concluded as it always does with a long Bay Tour race as the final test for competitors, hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club on September 11-14.

The skippers at the top of the podium in the J/105 and ORC B classes were awarded coveted Rolex Submariner Date watches. Bruce Stone and Nicole Breault’s Arbitrage came away victorious among the J/105s, the regatta’s largest class with 27 boats, and Peter Wagner’s J/111 Skeleton Key was the victor in the ORC B division.

Going into the final day of racing, leaders in both Rolex contending classes were ahead by five points over the nearest competitor, but that differential did not guarantee a win for either yacht before the last race which would finish in front of the StFYC Clubhouse.

“This regatta is very meaningful to me and my crew. My first Big Boat Series was 40 years ago,” said Bruce Stone, who last won a Rolex in 2014. “This is the marquee event for the J/105 fleet, and now we are heading to Toronto tomorrow morning for the North American Championships.”

The ORC B division has seen Cape 31s dominate the podium for the past two years, but Wagner sailed his J/111 to its full potential to secure the Rolex, as well as the ORC B Pacific Coast Championship.

“Our team has sailed in San Francisco for many years, so the big breeze is very familiar,” Wagner said. “Teams spend a lot of time preparing for RBBS, making it the featured event of the season. It really brings out the best in people and is just a great week.”

The 65-boat fleet competed in six classes, with Brice Dunwoodie’s Ravenette dominating the J/88 one-design class, posting bullets in all but one race. “Racing together in RBBS has been the pinnacle of the last twelve years for our crew,” Dunwoodie said. “This has been the best season of sailing for the J/88 fleet on the Bay that I’ve ever seen.”

In the ORC C division, Zach Berkowitz’s J/100 Feather prevailed for the second consecutive year at RBBS. “We have a great mix of young and old sailors on our crew, which makes it really fun sailing,” Berkowitz said.

Also repeating their win was the crew aboard Loca Motion, who came out on top of the Express 37 class after a close, back-and-forth battle with Spindrift V. “The key to doing well is to have good boat speed,” added Loca Motion’s skipper Mark Chaffey. “Our tactician put us in the optimal place on the course.”

ORC A was won by the visually stunning Infinity 52 Zeus, the only international entry in the fleet visiting the Bay Area from Australia. “We are thrilled to be here at Big Boat Series and to be based on the US West Coast for the coming year,” said skipper Simon Fenwick.

The race management team brought some creativity to course selection, presenting fresh challenges for sailors who know the Bay well.

“It was great to get back to running races on the western face of Alcatraz after a long multi-year break, which required us to rewrite a new set of courses,” said Gerard Sheridan, Deputy Course Race Officer. “The racers also loved the new course out the Golden Gate Bridge to Point Bonita.”

This year’s RBBS also served as the ORC Pacific Coast Championships, and next year’s event has been selected as the 2026 ORC North American Championship.

“The rating and scoring system developed with input from St. Francis Yacht Club definitely contributed to producing close racing under handicap, with even the longer races often won or lost by only a few seconds in corrected time,” reported ORC’s US Communications Manager Dobbs Davis.

He noted that the 24-mile course raced by ORC B saw a two second margin of victory for Skeleton Key, and the top three finishers were within 34 seconds after nearly three hours of racing. “It does not get any closer than this!”

The 62nd edition of Rolex Big Boat Series and the ORC North American Championship will be September 16-20, 2026.

Event information – Race details – Results

Source: BBS