Excellent conditions & competition at Sailing League Championship at St. Francis Yacht Club
by St. Francis Yacht Club 6 May 10:12 AEST
2025 Sailing League Championship © Chris Ray
On May 3-4, 2025, St. Francis Yacht Club hosted the second year of the US Sailing League West Coast Championship, an offshoot of the SAILING Champions League, an international high-level club vs. club fleet racing circuit that's been held in Europe and Australia since 2014.
Currently over 500 yacht clubs compete in the series, which is focused on spectator-friendly events. An effort to expand the league to the United States has been spearheaded by St. Francis Yacht Club, which invited seven clubs for two days of competition in J/22s.
Race times were targeted for 12-15 minutes on short courses set to optimize the building winds and classic bay currents, making for incredibly quick racing among the teams from Bay Head Yacht Club, Berkeley Yacht Club, Encinal Yacht Club, San Diego Yacht Club, San Francisco Yacht Club, St. Francis Yacht Club and Santa Barbara Yacht Club. Competitors sailed 28 races over the weekend. The use of shuttles transporting teams between the J/22s and a supporting cast of Race Committee volunteers on the water allowed racing to continue at pace each day. Racing was fast and close, as sailors brought their best to the game hoping to qualify for the Sailing Champions League Final in Kiel, Germany, July 11-13, 2025.
"It was classic San Francisco Bay racing at its best—blue skies, iconic vistas of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco City Front, brisk breezes of 18-25 knots, ebb chop in the morning, and flood relief along the City Front in the afternoons," said Regatta Chair Douglas Sloan. "The competition was fierce with the top three teams clearly dominating in their boat-handling and gear changes as the conditions changed from light breeze with chop in the ebb, to flatter water in the flood and bigger breeze."
In the end, skipper Ethan Doyle and the team of Marie Bergsund, Eric Baumhoff and Noah Barrengos from San Francisco Yacht Club prevailed, taking the overall trophy and advancing to the Finals in Kiel later this year.
"It's an honor and a privilege to be able to represent the San Francisco Yacht Club in a national level competition like the US Sailing League Championship," Doyle said. "The regatta was a real pleasure to participate in. The sailing was tight, the race management was excellent and the format with a lot of short races, short courses and boat rotations every race, was highly competitive and a lot of fun."
"The sailing was tight, the race management was excellent and the format with a lot of short races, short courses and boat rotations every race, was highly competitive and a lot of fun." — Ethan Doyle
He added: "The event format is great for building camaraderie between all the participating clubs and sailors. I have to thank the San Francisco Yacht Club for supporting us in our effort and my team for their great win. A special thank you to St. Francis Yacht Club for mobilizing all the resources required to run an event of this caliber at this scale."
The SFYC team will join Richmond Yacht Club, which qualified last year, as the two US teams representing the West Coast at the final in Kiel, Germany, this July. The next qualifying event will be for 2026 and held at Eastport Yacht Club in Annapolis, September 6-7, 2025. The new format is also supported by US Sailing, and the U.S. Youth Triplehanded Championship for the Sears Cup will be sailed in the Sailing League format on August 6-9, 2025, at St. Francis Yacht Club, with the winner qualifying for the Youth Sailing Championship Final in Spain in November.
St. Francis Yacht Club's Race Director, Felix Weidling, said, "It was a perfect event to kickoff the second year of the US Sailing League. With a second event later this year on the East Coast, we are building on the vision of creating a future 'Super Bowl of sailing'. We have inquiries now from more clubs wanting to host Sailing League events in 2026 and we're looking forward to working with them to build a successful series with a dynamic format that draws serious sailors of all ages."
Full results available here.