September 27, 2013

New this year at Rolex Big Boat Series: small boats. Breaking the tradition of allowing only boats of 30-ft and up in boatlength, this year's regatta has welcomed the budding J/70 class and the Melges 24 Pre-Worlds. Jim Cascino, commodore of host club St. Francis will skipper his new J/70 Eos. “You could say that much of the ‘big’ in Big Boat Series for 2013 is about big fun and big speed coming in small packages.”

The new class of new J/70s got seven entries, including J/Boat legend Don Trask's new Smokin' J. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Regatta Chair Norman Davant, who is also the local J/Boats dealer, reflected that in sailboat racing as a whole there has been a migration from one-off designs in the 50-60-ft range to smaller one design boats and light displacement production boats. A dedicated, spectator-friendly race track has been set up for the J/70s and Melges 24s. “It will be fast, exciting, racing along essentially the same track as the America’s Cup race courses, with the starts and finishes in front of the club and major viewing areas,” said Davant, adding that the regatta’s two other popular courses have undergone a complete overhaul, featuring a mark just outside the Golden Gate Bridge and another starting area off of Alcatraz Island. So far in the J/70 class, Eos is tied for points with Frank Slootman's Little Hand.

Caption. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Putting the "big" in Big Boat Series this year are two TP52s, Vesper and the Japanese entry Beecom from Yokohama. The two boats have IRC-A to themselves. On Thursday, Jim Swartz's StFYC-flagged Vesper won both races. The biggest entry of all, Orion, also sports the most hulls – it's a MOD 70 trimaran. Urs Rothacher's SL33 cat BridgeRunner is leading that division.

The HPR class returns this year, vying for their National Championship. Included are two Tahoe boats which have already made their fall migration down to sea level, Richard Ferris's J/125 August Ice, and Richard Courcier's Farr 36 Wicked, a midwinter regular on the Bay. Dan Thielman's Tiburon-based R/P 44 Tai Kuai has already scored two bullets.

Thirteen countries are represented in the Melges 24 Pre-Worlds. Their standings from yesterday may shift, as protest results are being appealed. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Replacing the J/105 fleet as the most contentious and most numerous this year, 38 Melges 24s are currently following Franco Rossini's Swiss Blu Moon. Scooter Simmons' Blackhawk is leading the 22-boat J/105 fleet. In J/120s, Desdemona is trailing Chance by just one point, and guess who is leading the Express 37 fleet? If you didn't say Golden Moon you haven't been paying attention.

In IRC-B, Sy Kleinman's Schumacher 54 Swiftsure has two bullets, and in IRC-D, David Halliwill's J/120 Peregrine and Tad Lacey's Archambault 35 Mirthmaker are tied for points. See www.rolexbigboatseries.com for complete standings and much more.

Although the racers had fine wind, mostly in the teens, on Thursday, Friday started with a long postponement, waiting for the westerly to fill in through the Golden Gate and overpower a light easterly. As of 12:30, the wind pressure on the Cityfront is still light, but the direction has shifted to the northwest. Saturday's forecast is for even warmer temperatures and less wind. Welcome to autumn in San Francisco!