The Etchells Worlds wrapped up on Saturday with the ninth race for the 51-boat fleet — it’s one of the larger and more congested starting lines we’ve seen on San Francisco Bay in some time. And the Etchells — a simple, ubiquitous boat — is one of the most competitive fleets in the world. East Coast sailor Steve Benjamin, an Olympic silver medalist, 5o5 and Fireball World Champion, and 2015 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, finally claimed the championship after numerous attempts. Crewing for Benjamin on Stella Blue were  Dave Hughes, Ian Liberty and Michael Menninger. Benjamin got a bullet on Friday — which saw up to 25 knots of breeze — to pull ahead of Senet Bischoff (who would take third overall). Stella Blue had previously won the Easom Founders/Pre-Worlds Regatta (both regattas were hosted by San Francisco Yacht Club on the Berkeley Circle).

On Sunday, the Pac52 class wrapped up the three-day Pac52 Cup at St. Francis YC, concluding their inaugural season. Tom Wilson’s Gladiator joined the five boats that had competed at Rolex Big Boat Series in mid-September. Echoing their dominance of RBBS, Karl Kwok’s Team Beau Geste took all but one of the seven races (they finished second in Race 6) to win the regatta, but Tom Holthus’ Bad Pak topped the season.

Sharing the Circle with the Etchells fleet on Friday and Saturday, but farther south, Express 37 Nationals fielded 10 boats for three days of racing hosted by Berkeley YC.  Bartz Schneider’s Expeditious won the title, edging out Mark and Heidi Chaffey’s Monterey-based LocaMotion by virtue of a tie-breaker. The second race on Saturday sent the fleet out to Point Bonita, just as the YRA Season Closer fleet was returning from the buoy off the point three miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge.

On Saturday and Sunday, the YRA Season Closer, hosted by Corinthian YC started and finished off the race deck of that club in downtown Tiburon. Saturday’s jaunt out to the ocean was followed by a Sunday in-the-Bay race. The racers got a good view of the Pac52s, especially on Sunday. Conditions inside the Bay on both days were absolutely stellar, with wind into the mid- to high teens and gobs of sunshine.

We’ll have more coverage of all of the above in the November issue of Latitude 38.

Jeanne Socrates has been hospitalized less than a week before she was to begin an attempt to become the oldest person to sail solo nonstop around the world. She fell from the top of a ladder while climbing down from Nereida, her Najad 380, in a boatyard in Victoria, British Columbia.

According to a report on her blog, Jeanne, a retired math professor, was "sore and in pain, although her limbs and nerves are all intact." We presume she fell some 10 or 15 feet.  

Much admired by the Wanderer and many others, the indomitable and affable Socrates completed a solo nonstop circumnavigation in July 2013, making her the oldest woman to sail nonstop around the world. The trip took 259 days.

Socrates had previously made it to within 60 miles of completing a circumnavigation, when a dead battery caused her autopilot to fail and drove her boat to destruction on a beach in Mexico.

It’s unclear how long Socrates will be in the hospital, but she promises to provide details as soon as possible.

This is a terrible blow to her plans to become the oldest person to sail solo nonstop around the world, as there is a rather narrow seasonal window for rounding Cape Horn, and it will soon be slipping away. And when you just turned 75 years of age, there realistically aren’t that many years left in which to make an attempt.

After Jim Stitt picked up his monthly issue of Latitude 38 at Grand Marina in Alameda, he realized it was his lucky day. How come? As Jim was flipping though Latitude’s pages, a flyer fell out, announcing that it was in fact, "Your Lucky Day." Jim had won a Latitude 38 t-shirt or hat by serendipitously grabbing one of the ‘Golden Ticket’ issues and snapping a photo of himself.

Jim sent a note saying, "Thank you in advance for the T-shirt, large please. Also, thanks for the great magazine I pick up every month at Grand Marina. I hope all is well with you. Your favorite Southwest Airline Pilot."

Is it your lucky day? The October issue of Latitude 38 has just been distributed up and down the coast of California, and inside a couple are more ‘Lucky Day’ notes. So pick up a copy for more than just the great stories, because there might just be another bonus inside. Shirt or hat for you?