Big Boat Leaders revel in classic Bay conditions

by KPMS on 12 Sep 2008
The 44th annual Rolex Big Boat Series kicked off with classic San Francisco Bay conditions of early fog and building breeze. Over 1,000 sailors on 111 boats completed the first of four days of racing in nine classes -- four for IRC-rated boats and five one-designs, 1D35, Beneteau 36.7, J/105, J/120 and Melges 32.

Highlighting a number of regatta improvements, regatta host St. Francis Yacht Club unveiled a new web cam where fans around the world can go to view racing live at www.stfyc.org.

In IRC A, where the largest boats are racing, the Reichel/Pugh 45 Criminal Mischief is leading. Owned by Chip Megeath (Tiburon, CA), the boat was last seen on San Francisco Bay as Sjambok when Larry Ellison chartered it for the 2007 Rolex Big Boat Series and finished third. John Kilroy's (Los Angeles/San Francisco) TP52 Samba Pa Ti is in second, with Bill Turpin's (Santa Cruz, CA) Reichel/Pugh 78 Akela - the largest boat entered -in third.

For Jim Mitchell (Zurich, SUI), who chartered the Reichel/Pugh IRC 52 Vincitore, being in fourth place in IRC A is fine with him. 'It was an awesome day,' he said moments after returning to the dock. 'It was my first day sailing in San Francisco. Our first race was really competitive with Samba. It was great.' He went on to explain that although they finished third in the first race, the second race was more challenging. 'We had some dramas as the Kiwi boys onboard would say. We cleaned the boat bottom with the spinnaker. If we would've gotten it onboard we would have been the second boat to finish.' They finished fourth.

Defending class champion Bartz Schneider (San Francisco) on Expeditious leads the 10-boat Express 37 fleet with Mark Dowdy (San Francisco) on Eclipse. 'I'm happy with a 1-2 and it's a great start,' said Schneider. 'However, I have to caution my crew to be careful because last year Kame Richards started out with three bullets and we overtook them. So it's not in the bag for us.' The Rolex Big Boat Series has served as the class' national championship for the past 18 years.

'Eclipse won three years ago, but they missed the past three years and allowed the rest of us to collect the silver,' continued Schneider. 'So Dowdy returned this year with Mike Maloney's boat and some of his crew, and he's doing very well.' Dowdy's Eclipse is in second overall after posting a 5th and first.

'One thing I would like to do,' continued Schneider, 'is give my respects to Brown Sugar. They led the first race to the weather mark and went around the wrong mark, as they misread the Sailing Instructions. They noticed the rest of us and then went back and rounded the right mark. They were leading convincingly before that happened. They are Southern California sailors and today we had Southern California conditions, with 20-22 knots most of the time.'

The largest fleet competing is the J/105 with 31 entries. Defending champion Chris and Phil Perkins on Good Timin' (San Francisco) posted a 1-3 to narrowly lead Donkey Jack, co-owned by Rolf Kaiser and Scott Sellers (San Francisco), the recent class North American champions.

For Advantage 3, owned by Pat Benedict (Danville, CA), being in 13th overall is satisfying. 'It's pretty good,' said Tony English, pit man onboard. 'I don't think the rest of the crew knows we did so well. We thought we were closer to 20th in the first race; we really thought we were in the tank, so things are looking good. We liked both our starts. The first race we didn't think we did well because we seemed to be on the wrong side of the shifts every time. In the second race we got a great start and stayed in clear air. We wanted the right side and got pinned on the left, but when we broke free we were in a pretty good spot. We hung onto it and did well.'

Brad Copper's (Point Richmond, CA) Custom Tripp 43 TNT leads the 9-boat IRC B class; John Siegel's (San Francisco) Wylie 42 Scorpio leads the 8-boat IRC C class; and Mike Garl's (San Francisco) Beneteau 40.7 White Dove leads the 13-boat IRC D class.

In the 1D35 class, Masakazu Toyama (Tokyo, JPN) leads, while Mistral, owned by Edward Durbin (Richmond, CA), leads the 6-boat Beneteau 36.7 class.

Steve Madeira (Menlo Park, Calif.), the perennial favorite in the J/120 class, leads with his Mr. Magoo followed by Chance, owned by Barry Lewis (San Francisco). The Melges 32 class leader is John Porter (Lake Geneva, WI) on Full Throttle, with Pieter Taselaar (New York, NY) tied and in second place on the points countback.

This evening competitors celebrated the first day of racing at the Rolex Party where the first daily video was shown. The regatta ends with Sunday's final Rolex Trophy Ceremony where specially engraved Rolex timepieces will be awarded to the St. Francis Yacht Club's six Perpetual Trophy winners.

Regarded by sailors as one of the world's premier sailboat racing events, the Rolex Big Boat Series joins the list of other prestigious Rolex-sponsored events in 2008: the Rolex Fastnet Race, the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, the Rolex Swan Cup and the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

For more information about the Rolex Big Boat Series, including entry lists and results, please visit www.stfyc.org.

Rolex Big Boat Series 2008
Sept. 11-14, 2008 - Day 1 of racing, two races completed

Top 3 in each class
Position, Boat, Skipper, Hometown, Race 1-2, Total points

IRC A (9 boats)
1. Criminal Mischief, Chip Megeath, Tiburon, CA, 1-2, 3
2. Samba Pa Ti, John, Jr. Kilroy, Jr, San Francisco, CA, 4-1, 5
3. Akela, Bill Turpin, Santa Cruz, CA, 2-3, 5

IRC B (9 boats)
1. TNT, Brad Copper, Pt. Richmond, CA, 1-2, 3
2. Rancho Deluxe, Michael Diepenbrock, Newport, RI, 2-3, 5
3. Swiftsure, Sy Kleinman, Saratoga, CA, 5-1, 6

IRC C (8 boats)
1. Scorpio, John Siegel, San Francisco, CA, 2-1, 3
2. TKO, Dave Kirby, Manhattan Beach, CA, J/122, 1-3, 4
3. BustinLoose, Jeff Pulford, Monterey, C, 5-2, 7

IRC D (13 boats)
1. White Dove, Mike Garl, San Francisco, CA, 2-1, 3
2. Tupelo Honey, Gerard Sheridan, San Francisco, CA, 1-4, 5
3. Acabar, Jean-Yves Lendormy, Camden, ME, 3-2, 5

1D35 (7 boats)
1. Ebb Tide, Masakazu Toyama, Seabonia YC, 4-1, 5
2. Diablita, Gary Boell, Brickyard Cove, 1-4, 5
3. Great Sensation, Mario Yovkov, San Francisco, CA, 3-2, 5

Beneteau 36.7 (6 boats)
1. Mistral, Edward Durbin, Richmond YC, 2-1, 3
2. Bufflehead, Stuart Scott, Richmond YC, 1-2, 3
3. Summer And Smoke, Pat Patterson, Angwin, CA, 3-4, 7

Express 37 (10 boats)
1. Expeditious, Bartz Schneider, San Francisco, CA, 1-2, 3
2. Eclipse, Mark Dowdy, San Francisco, CA, 5-1, 6
3. Golden Moon, Kame Richards, Alameda, CA, 2-4, 6

J/105 (31 boats)
1. Good Timin', Phil Perkins, San Francisco, CA, 1-3, 4
2. Donkey Jack, Rolf Kaiser, San Francisco, CA, 2-4, 6
3. Blackhawk, Scooter Simmons, Belvedere, CA, 8-1, 9

J/120 (8 boats)
1. Mr. Magoo, Steve Madeira, Northeast Harbor, ME, 3-1, 4
2. Chance, Barry Lewis, San Francisco, CA, 1-4, 5
3. Dayenu, Donald G Payan, San Francisco, CA, 5-2, 7

Melges 32 (9 boats)
1. Full Throttle, John Porter, Lake Geneva, WI, 1-3, 4
2. Bliksem, Pieter Taselaar, New York YC, 2-2, 4
3. Pegasus 32, Philippe Kahn, Santa Cruz, CA, 5-1, 6