Preview: 2026 Big Boat Series

It’s the ORC North American Championship. It’s 81 boats lining up to compete in five classes, with four ORC splits. It’s every 2025 trophy winner returning to defend their title. It’s over 700 sailors, plus hundreds more friends, family and fans coming to St. Francis Yacht Club for the 2026 Rolex Big Boat Series, September 16-20, 2026.

With four days of racing on San Francisco Bay and five evenings of socials at St. Francis Yacht Club, attendees look forward to championship sailing and world-class hospitality—what they have come to expect from this storied regatta. Every 2025 winner has returned to defend their title, including Zach Berkowitz and his J/100 Feather, which also won its class in 2024.

The Classics division is back after a one-year hiatus, with several new competitors, thanks to expanded entry criteria. One veteran competitor is Ocean Queen V, which raced in the first-ever Big Boat Series in 1964, back when these were just the yachts of the day and not “The Classics.” Last raced at the 2019 RBBS with the late Dewey Hines at the helm, this 1951 55ft Rhodes-designed yawl is now owned by Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation and helps train youth sailors to maintain and race classic yachts. With Ocean Queen V as an educational platform, participants in PYSF’s Learn to Sail and Marine Trades programs, in collaboration with Redwood High School and the Boys & Girls Club, learn sailing and the electrical, rigging and woodworking skills required to maintain this 75-year-old wooden boat.

Then, they get to race her. Earlier this year, the PYSF youth sailors teamed up with adult volunteers and won the San Francisco Bay Master Mariners Regatta. “To see their faces and the weight of accomplishment—working on the boat, learning how to sail, and then racing and actually winning—it’s just really cool,” said John Vandemoer, PYSF’s Executive Director. That’s a sight he hopes to repeat at RBBS. Adult volunteers will race Ocean Queen V on Thursday and Friday while the kids are in school, but expect a full, multigenerational crew over the weekend. “It’s about family. It’s about access. It’s about getting kids involved and the path we can lead them on to have sailing be part of the rest of their lives,” said Vandemoer.

At the other end of the performance spectrum, 30 handicap boats will be vying for the ORC North American Championship, competing in four divisions. “We’re very excited to have our first ORC North American Championship on the Pacific coast. StFYC has been exceptional in the planning and organization of an event at this high level, and the turnout of competitive entries looks impressive,” said Matt Gallagher, Deputy Chairman of the Offshore Racing Congress. “We wish everyone good luck and look forward to crowning our new North American champions at the end of a hard-fought regatta.”

This year’s formidable ORC entrants include Rolex Sydney Hobart division winner Ron Epstein, racing his JPK 11.80 Bacchanal. Keep an eye out for the 2025 RBBS ORC A winner Zeus, a slippery-blue Infiniti 52 raced by Michael Fermin, an Australian who’s been enjoying this side of the Pacific. His recent Pacific Cup ended with “Fastest Passage,” and now spectators will watch to see if the speed translates around the buoys. Among the biggest boats are the 68ft Bill Lee-designed sled Merlin, the RP56 Vasara, the TP52 Fox, Santa Cruz 52 City Lights, Santa Cruz 50 Octavia and Santa Cruz 52 Rosebud.

Keeping it sporty: Rich and Tony Festa’s Melges 32 Groundhog Day, Dan Brumlik’s Beneteau First 30 Final Final, Stan Phillips’ Farr 30 Frequent Flyer, Dave MacEwen’s J/90 Lucky Duck and Gregory Winters’ J/35 Jarlen. Following her podium finish at the 2025 Rolex Big Boat Series and Fastest Passage in the 2026 Pacific Cup, the Infiniti 52 Zeus returns to vie for the title of ORC North American Champion.

In one-design racing, the 2026 Rolex Big Boat Series welcomes the J/105s, J/88s and Express 37s. The mark roundings will be tight as ever for the J/105s, with 30 boats stampeding around the Bay. Bruce Stone’s Arbitrage will be defending the title, with Ryan Simmons’ Blackhawk, class winner in 2024, 2023, 2021 and 2019, surely hot on his heels. There’s plenty of talent in this fleet to keep the pressure on, from other past champions such as Randy Hecht’s Niuhi (2022), with former Olympian Russ Silvestri aboard, to Jeff Littfin’s Mojo (2018) and Phillip Laby’s Godot 2.0 (2016).

The J/88s are a solid fleet of seven this year, including 2025 winner Brice Dunwoodie aboard Ravenette. Express 37s have eight on the line, including Bartz Schneider returning for his 38th Big Boat Series—likely a record, race organizers say.

Other numbers of note include the youngest competitor—nine-year-old Luke Kaiser, racing with his dad, Rolf, on J/105 Donkey Jack—and the longest-tenured competitor, 90-year-old Ray Lotto, racing the Solaris 47, Hypatia, in ORC. In a display of leadership in sailing, as StFYC heads into its 100th year, its membership is doubling down on their sailing bonafides, with nine former commodores competing, four directors racing or serving on Race Committee and two flag officers racing, including Commodore Susan Ruhne.

Sailors and spectators convened in the elegant Rolex Regatta Tent to hear Commodore Susan Ruhne and Regatta Chair Nadine Franczyk announce the following:

• ORC A is racing for a Rolex Submariner Timepiece and the St. Francis Perpetual Trophy, which was donated anonymously to StFYC in 1966 and meant to encourage competition between large offshore racing yachts.
• ORC B is racing for the City of San Francisco Perpetual Trophy, awarded at RBBS since 1968.
• ORC C is racing for a Rolex Submariner Timepiece and the Atlantic Perpetual Trophy, featuring a ship’s bell from the 1905 Transatlantic-record-breaking schooner Atlantic.
• ORC D is racing for the Keefe-Kilborn Perpetual Trophy, named in honor of late StFYC members Harold Keefe and Ray Kilborn.
• J/105s are racing for Commodore’s Cup Perpetual Trophy, established in 2004 to encourage competition among and between One Design yachts, preferably those representing fleets of San Francisco Bay.
• Express 37s are racing for the Richard Rheem Perpetual Trophy, named for longtime StFYC member and skipper of legendary racing yacht Morning Star.
• The Classics are racing for the Classics Cup, established in 2019 to encourage the continued growth of classic and traditional yacht racing on the West Coast.

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Source: Event Media