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Rolex St. Francis YC Big Boat Series Special Edition

September 17 - San Francisco Bay

(Click on the photo to enlarge it.)
John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti on the way to winning IRC A.
Photo Latitude / JR
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

Dear Mike, Brack, Peter and other Southern California 70-ft sled owners:

It's a real shame that you couldn't get your fleet together for this year's 43rd annual Big Boat Series, as it was the most participant-pleasing one in recent memory. Forget the strong, cold winds and big chop that you normally associate with a Big Boat Series, as the thousand or more crew on this year's 112 entries were treated to a seven-race event that was all sunshine and 10 to 18-knot winds. And thanks to it being a rare flood tide series, most of the boats didn't even get water on their decks. The weather was so Newport Beach-like that Adrian Vallera of the J/122 TKO even went swimming, foul weather gear and all. Owner Dave Kirby would have preferred that he'd not done it with just 60 seconds to go before the start of the critical sixth race but, as Shakespeare noted, all's well that ends well, and TKO did take her class. In fact, we can only think of two things that went wrong with this year's series. First, on the last leg of the last race, Dana Sack's J/105 Hazardous Waste almost became just that, ending up on the rocks right in front of the club. Ouch! And second, all three of the St. Francis YC's P.A. systems were inexplicably DNS for the awards presentations, leaving Norm 'Can You Hear Me Now?' Davant sounding like the spokesman for Verizon wireless.

John Kilroy sits on the transom of Samba Pa Ti near the 'Kilroy was here' logo famous around the world.
Photo Latitude / Richard
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

Top honors in IRC A went to John Kilroy of Malibu and San Francisco's Marina District, who was sailing in his 42nd — no typo — Big Boat Series. He drove his year-old B&C TransPac 52 Samba Pa Ti to a hard fought victory. "The Big Boat Series is the only non-tradewind sailing series I really like," Kilroy noted, "as it's got the perfect conditions, the scenic venue and a great yacht club." Second in class, and a winner in his own right, thanks to correcting out first in the last three races, was Roger Sturgeon and his Northern California and Ft. Lauderdale-based Rosebud, the first of the STP65 class. Although helmsmen Jack Halterman of Santa Cruz never did get the beautiful Westerly-built Farr design up to the 27 knots they'd hit on the Bay in practice, Sturgeon was all smiles about his new ride. It's hard to replace anything that had been as wildly successful around the world as his previous Rosebud, the R/P TransPac 52, but his STP65 seems like the one to do it. Even Larry Ellison, better known for his America's Cup campaigns, had something to cheer about, as he drove the R/P 45 Sjambock to victory in the third race.

Jack Halterman with Isobel and Roger Sturgeon of Rosebud. Yes, we made them pose that way.
Photo Latitude / Richard
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

Lani Spund's turbo'd SC52 Kokopelli2 bested the other nine IRC B boats to take class honors, but it wasn't easy. The racing was so tight with Spund's biggest competitors, Mike Diepenbrock's Sacramento-based Swan 45 Rancho Deluxe and 86-year-old Sy Kleinman's Schumacher 54 Swiftsure II, that the three boats corrected out a total of 18 seconds apart in the fifth race. Three very different boats, one very close Rolex Big Boat Series finish.

Lani Spund and Scott Easom of Kokopelli2. Scott did the starts and Lani drove the rest of the way.
Photo Latitude / Richard
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

For most skippers, a Rolex Big Boat Series win is the culmination of an entire season - if not years - of getting the crew in sync with the boat. That wasn't possible for Dave Kirby's TKO, as his French-built only-second-J/122-on-the-West Coast wasn't even ready to sail until just six days before the gun sounded to start the first race. But Kirby and crew overcame the very brief acclimatization period and crewman Vellera's natatorial ambitions to correct out first in IRC C. Mike Garl hung in to the very end with his Beneteau 40.7 White Dove, sailing a consistent series, but had to settle for second by a mere point. After an unprecedented run of ruling whatever Big Boat Series class she was in, John Siegel's Wylie 44 Scorpio finished third in the 13-boat fleet.

Dave Kirby, nephew of Bruce 'the designer of the Laser' Kirby, with Norm Davant, winners with the French-built J/122 TKO.
Photo Latitude / Richard
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

We'll have extensive coverage of the entire event in the October issue of Latitude but right now here are some snapshots of the other seven divisions. For full results, go to www.stfyc.com.

- latitude / rs

After three years of trying, Jean-Yves Lendormy and his crew were as golden as their crew shirts, winning IRC D in his Jeanneau Sunfast 45 Acabar. “Tactician Dan Nitake got us great starts and put us in the right place,” said ‘JY’.
Photo Latitude / JR
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

Andy Costello shot five bullets in seven races to win the 1D35 class on Double Trouble for the second year in a row. The year before that he won the Sydney 38 class on a boat of the same name.
Photo Latitude / JR
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

After consistently placing third in the last four BBSs, Bartz Schneider's Express 37 Expeditious (foreground) finally ascended to top honors in the 10-boat class. But Schneider's hard-fought victory over Kame Richards' Golden Moon (background) wasn't sealed until the final beat of the final race. "My crew's effort was as perfect as it gets," said the elated Schneider shortly afterwards.
Photo Latitude / Andy
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

"'There were some tough teams out there," said Chris Perkins of the winning J/105 Good Timin', "many have stepped-up their game."
Photo Latitude / JR
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

Steve Madeira’s fourth win in the J/120 class with Mr. Magoo (the green boat in the middle) was a cliffhanger till the end. The secret? “We just decided to stop making dumb mistakes,” he said.
Photo Latitude / JR
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

Winged horsemen - Philippe Kahn and his Pegasus team took first in the Big Boat Series' newest class, the Melges 32s.
Photo Latitude / JR
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

Although they fought their way to second place in the Sydney 38 fleet last year, Jeff Pulford's Bustin' Loose was best remembered for spinning out in front of the YC during a monster gust and hitting the beach. This year, however, they kept their wheels on the road and dominated the six-boat fleet, scoring bullets in five out of seven races.
Photo Latitude / Andy
© 2007 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.