The clever race organizers at Corinthian Yacht Club have already written this story for us: "East Coast Freezes . . . West Coast Breezes. Now that Old Man Winter has the Eastern Seaboard firmly in his grip, the sailors out there have put away their boats and are busily spending the next five months arguing about which of their snow-locked sailing venues is the center of sailing. Meanwhile, we on the more favored coast are out sailing every darned day. One of our favorite winter events is the Corinthian Midwinters. 2018 is our ‘Back to School’ edition, so we invite you to sign up for a ‘master class’ in boathandling, current prediction and wind watching." The CYC Midwinters will be held on January 20-21 and February 17-18. On tap are daily trophies and kegs, and Friday and Saturday evening events, guest speakers and more. Timely entries will be named on the official race shirt.

Farther up the Tiburon Peninsula, Tiburon YC’s Bob & Esther Mott Midwinters, a three-day, six-race series, will start on January 6. Most Midwinter Series got underway in November or December; you can see a long list here.

Although it’s limited to singlehanders and doublehanders (with well over 300 entries), the Singlehanded Sailing Society’s Three Bridge Fiasco has been the largest yacht race in the USA for several years. In 2018, the Fiasco will be held on January 27. Which way to round the three marks and how to cope with the huge ebb will no doubt be burning topics of conversation at many a yachtie New Year’s Eve party.

Three Bridge Fiasco is a bucket-list item for many sailors; unfortunately, another bucket-list item will not be held in 2018. If you were saving up your pennies to go to Key West in January, be advised that there will be no Key West Race Week. However, Key West Cuba Race Week, aka the Conch Republic Cup, is on —despite a cooling of diplomatic relations — with a January 26 start.

The 73rd edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart race is drawing to a close as the remaining yachts are currently sailing down the coast of Tasmania and making their final approaches to Hobart. For the biggest yachts in the fleet however — the 100-ft supermaxis that have made the event a sensation with throngs of Australian and international spectators — their race has been over for days, as they reached Hobart in record time thanks to a nuking nor’easter. It took the Oatley family’s R/P 100 Wild Oats XI just 1 day, 8 hours and 48 minutes to sail the 628-mile course this year, nearly five hours quicker than Perpetual Loyal’s record-setting run from last year’s race. While Oats crossed the line first after a protracted back-and-forth battle with her main rival, LDV Comanche, she was eventually stripped of her line honors victory — and the course record — after losing a protest to Comanche. The new official course record, held by Jim Cooney’s VPLP-designed LDV Comanche, sits at 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes.

While all eyes were focused on the 100-footers that were on record pace, and the pending protest against Wild Oats XI, it was once again a TP52 that came in and walked off with the overall victory and the prestigious Tattersall Cup that comes along with it. Longtime contender and prominent Australian sailor Matt Allen and his Ichi Ban team sailed Allen’s brand-new Botin-designed TP52 to a victory of just 20 minutes over Paul Clitheroe and Bob Steel’s Farr-designed TP52 Quest, which won this race overall in both 2008 and 2015. Crossing the line in just 1 day, 19 hours and 10 minutes, the ‘little’ 52-footer also set a course record as the quickest ‘conventionally ballasted’ yacht in race history, an incredible feat. Rounding out the podium for overall honors is Tony Kirby’s Ker 46 Patrice.

While it was a trio of 50-odd-foot downwind flyers that filled out the podium for overall honors, we’re ultra-stoked to see David and Peter Askew’s Volvo 70 Wizard come home in fourth place overall on IRC and claim victory in the premiere IRC Division 0. Wizard was formerly named Giacomo and won last year’s Sydney Hobart race overall.

When she was new, she was known as Groupama 4 and was the winner of the 2011-’12 Volvo Ocean Race in the last edition that was sailed in Volvo 70s. The venerable 70-ft canting-keel yacht will now be shipped to the States where she will campaign all the major races. StFYC member Matt Brooks’ classic 1930 S&S yawl Dorade sailed to a second-place finish in IRC Division 4, navigating the course in an incredible 3 days, 6 hours, 37 minutes.

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