IRC San Francisco Bay Area Championship series

by Talbot Wilson on 17 Jan 2008 The time had come for IRC to organize in the San Francisco Bay area and this winter an interested group of self-proclaimed ‘big boat’ sailors did just that. John Siegel, recently named sailor of the week by US Sailing, started an email campaign to call a meeting of people interested in organizing a San Francisco Bay IRC Owners group in order to improve big boat racing in Northern California.

The group met in December and hammered out a charter and established a governing board consisting of IRC owners and charterers John Siegel (Scorpio), Jim Gregory (Morpheus), Gerard Sheridan (Tupelo Honey) Brad Copper (TNT), Gary Gebhard (Infinity), Peter Stoneberg (Flash) and technical advisors Dick Horn and Pete McCormick.

Their first business was to plan a five-event, twenty-race series to name the first San Francisco Bay IRC Series Champion. Racing starts with the Stone Cup Invitational Regatta in May and concludes with the Rolex Big Boat Series in September. Seventeen races are buoy courses and three are offshore

The series open only to members of SF Bay IRC Owners Association. There will be four discards after 16 races; otherwise only three races may be discarded. The total schedule includes: the Stone Cup May 17-18, the Spinnaker Cup May 23, the Santa Cruz Yacht Club Anniversary Invitational May 31-June 1, the Aldo Alessio Perpetual Trophy Regatta August 1-3 and the Rolex Big boat Series September 11-14.

Scoring will be patterned after the East Coast Gulf Stream Series. The Aldo Alessio Perpetual Trophy Regatta is also the 2nd annual West Coast US-IRC Championship. For details go to http://www.sfbay-irc.org/.

John Siegel spoke about the need for the organization and said, 'Big boat sailing in Northern California needs a shot in the arm. While individual high-level events are well attended, an organized series should add some ongoing interest among big boat sailors.'

'With very few exceptions, IRC is working nicely on San Francisco Bay' he noted. 'Dual-scoring the San Francisco-Monterey Spinnaker Cup (PHRF and IRC) should validate that it not only works well in the Bay, but also the Ocean.

Siegel concluded, 'We have at least six new boats coming to the bay this year and they are all IRC candidates. This will be the fifth year of IRC racing out of the St. Francis Yacht Club and other clubs are starting to take notice.'

At the organizational meeting the governing board identified 57 potential IRC boats in the bay area. Yacht owners interested in participating in the series should contact John Siegel jasiegel@sfbay-irc.com or any of the board members listed on the above web site. For all the news from US-IRC sign up at http://www.us-irc.org/emailupdates.cfm

Interested in using IRC?

Owners and Organizing Authorities wishing to adopt IRC for their events should contact US-IRC Executive Director John Mendez for help with the process info@us-irc.org.

The US SAILING Offshore Office administers the IRC rule in the US. Yacht owners should contact Nathan Titcomb at irc@ussailing.org for help with certificate application or with rating questions.

For all US-IRC latest news, events and seminars check out the US-IRC web site at www.us-irc.org and go racing with us.

About US-IRC

The US-IRC Foundation, Inc. (www.us-irc.org) works in cooperation with US SAILING (www.ussailing.org) to support and develop the use of the IRC rule in the USA. US SAILING is the authorized body that issues IRC certificates under the auspices of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) (www.rorcrating.com).

The US-IRC's mission is to promote and enhance inshore and offshore yacht racing throughout the country by expansion of the use of the rule. An IRC certificate is, in effect, an international passport for a yacht, enabling it to travel across national and international borders using the same certificate wherever it goes. The supporting partners for the US-IRC rule are Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc., New York Yacht Club, Storm Trysail Club and St. Francis Yacht Club.