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18 September 2005, 09:40 am

Wild Day On San Francisco Bay

Rolex Big Boat Series 2005

San Francisco, California, USA

Wild windy weather gave most of the 1,000 plus sailors competing in the Rolex Big Boat Series on San Francisco, California, USA exactly what they hoped for: outrageously fast sailing and a day of racing most will never forget. The 41st annual regatta, where six historic Perpetual Trophies will be awarded by the St. Francis Yacht Club among the 103 boats competing in five one-design and four IRC classes, continued yesterday on San Francisco Bay.

With only one day and one race remaining, John SIEGEL's (USA) Wylie 42 Scorpio looks to have a solid lead on its IRC Class C competition. 'We're having a good regatta,' said SIEGEL, who won this regatta last year. 'Scorpio really requires a fair deal of breeze and today we had it. Even though it was pretty challenging downwind, we held on and did really well.' Scorpio's main competition in the nine boat fleet comes from Surprise, the Schumacher 50 owned by Steve CHAMBERLAIN (USA) and driven by Melinda ERKELENS with Liz BAYLIS, the 2002 USA Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, calling tactics. 'Tomorrow, we're going to go out and win the race, well, we will sail as well as we can. It's a great challenge here and we're happy when we sail well.'

There is some very close racing in the IRC divisions and perhaps one of the closest watched races is between Hasso PLATNER's (GER) MaxZ86 Morning Glory and Genuine Risk, the Dubois 90 owned by Randall PITMAN. Both boats looked spectacular on the Bay, clearly relishing the 30 knot wind and the waves outside the Golden Gate Bridge, to a windward mark at Point Bonita, some four miles into the Pacific Ocean.

In the IRC D class, Gary MOZER's (USA) J/109 Current Obsession has been racing consistently well and tops the nine boat fleet by 15 points ahead of second place Tupelo Honey, owned by Gerard SHERIDAN (USA), tied on 22 points with John CLAUSER's (USA) One Tonner, Bodacious.

The eight boat ID35 class continues to have some of the tightest competition of the regatta. Chris BUSCH's (USA) Wild Thing leads with eight points over second place Extreme, owned by Michael GOLDFARB (USA). Main trimmer Brian CAMET explained why Wild Thing is doing so well in such a competitive group. 'Vince BRUN is our tactician,' he said noting BRUN's reputation as a one-design expert. 'We have a good core team together; most of us have sailed together before and we have a lot of fun.' Mathematically, Wild Thing has won the regatta, but CAMET explained that they will still sail tomorrow as the great racing conditions on San Francisco Bay is why they come up from Southern California each year.

There were no changes in the standings in IRC B class. Robert YOUNGJOHNS (USA) continues to lead the seven boat class with his DK46 Zephyra, while Jim GREGORY (USA) is still in second place with his Morpheus and Lightning, the SC52 owned by Thomas AIKIN (USA) is in third.

One long, final race is planned for today with the awards ceremony to follow.