News Beat

Week of August 21-27, 2011

Open 5.70 West Coast Invitational

Golden Gate YC hosted the burgeoning West Coast Open 5.70 fleet on August 20-21. Their eight rivals were green with envy as Boracic dominated the seven-race series. The complete story is available at www.open570usa.com. For photos, see Ellen Hoke's photo gallery, Marc Finot's Picasa album and Pressure-Drop. The fleet is following up with their West Coast Championship at the Sarcoma Cup.

St. Francis YC Wins Hinman Trophy at NYYC

A San Francisco team led by Russ Silvestri defeated 11 other teams from around the country to win the New York YC Masters Team Race for the Commodore George R. Hinman Masters Invitational Trophy. Each boat's skipper at least 45 years old and crew members must be at least 40. An amazing 126 races were sailed in Sonars over three days, August 19-21. For more, see www.nyyc.org/hinmanmasters.

Tiburon's Kristen Lane Wins 29erXX National Championship

The Columbia Gorge Racing Association in Cascade Locks, OR ('The Gorge') hosted the 2011 Zhik US 29erXX National Championship on August 5-7. Seven teams braved the high winds, which averaged at 20-25 knots for nearly every race of the three-day event. The racing was fiercely competitive with all teams rounding the weather mark within 45 seconds of each other by the last races of the event. Kristen Lane and Charlie McKee of San Diego dominated the event, winning 9 of 11 races. For results, photos and more see www.29erxx.com.

Kites Rule at Ronstan Bridge to Bridge

The kiteboarders outran the Aussie 18s and the windsurfers on Thursday. ©2011 Erik Simonson/www.h2oshots.com

Kiteboarders Brian Lake, Chip Wasson and Andrew Koch were the top three finishers in the dash from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge on Thursday. Next up was the Aussie 18 Thurlow Fisher Lawyers sailed by
Trevor Barnabas and Michael Coxon. The first Formula windsurfer was Seth Besse in 14th place. The Ronstan Bridge to Bridge is a crowd-pleasing feature of the 18-ft Skiff International Regatta, hosted last week on the Cityfront by St. Francis YC. See www.stfyc.com for complete results and lots more.