Santa Cruz YC Hosts 2025 Mix and Match Regatta
The Mix and Match Regatta (AKA Jack and Jill) has been successfully rebranded to encourage more inclusivity and participation of Santa Cruz Yacht Club members. Over 35 women, many new to shorthanded and doublehanded sailing, competed in this community-building regatta that attracted family members, couples and friends.
SCYC Mix and Match, Bring a Friend Regatta attracted a diverse 19 entries, ranging from SC50s, a Farr 50, a Sydney 38, a Soverel 33, and an Antrim 27 to Moore 24s, Santana 22s, a MacGregor 26, and even a Thunderbird and a Corsair 750.
Many thanks to PRO Bob DeWitt and all of the RC volunteers who did an excellent job sending the divisions on different courses after an hour postponement.
Elizabeth Andrew states, “Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they have the heart.”
Moore 24 Division
Congratulations to Steve and Sarah Bourdow on Mooregasm (SCYC), winning the SCYC Double Handed Mix and Match (AKA Jack & Jill) Regatta! Steve, well known for his light-air mastery, won the start and led the entire race in very challenging light, lumpy conditions. Although this was Sarah’s first race of the season, she still had those winning moves on the bow and pit.
Chris generously lent Watts Moore … to John Mellnik and Phoebe Liermann, who sailed flawlessly for a second place. Although this was their first time doublehanding the Moore, they can’t wait to do it again and again!
Defending 2024 champions Mackenzie Cook and Sydnie Moore on Nobody’s Girl (SCYC) were able to rely on some favorable shifts to slide past well-sailed Penguin (SCYC), Matt Dini and Barbara Briner, in the final yards. Barbara, owner of Ripple (SCYC), drove four hours down from Sonora to meet up with Matt for the first time. It was also great to see Shana and Peter Phelan (SCYC) recover from their OCS to finish fifth.
Looking forward to seeing more mixed doubles racing on Moores.
You can find the full results for the 2025 Mix and Match Regatta here.
St. Francis Sailing Foundation Partners With America One Racing
On October 11, the St. Francis Sailing Foundation (StFSF) announced a strategic partnership with Paul Cayard’s America One Racing (A1R). Per the press release on the StFSF website, the partnership marks “a significant investment in the future of high-performance sailing in the United States. Under the terms of this new partnership, StFSF will provide both substantial financial and strategic support to A1R, supporting the development of world-class athletes in the USA.”
St.FSF president Elizabeth Little elaborates on this in the foundation’s press release, stating, “This partnership with America One Racing represents an exciting new chapter for the St. Francis Sailing Foundation and for sailors with the highest competitive aspirations. We are proud to support a program that provides comprehensive resources to our athletes, while continuing our commitment to youth and community sailing.”
Paul Cayard, the director of A1R, is a member of the St. Francis Yacht Club (StFYC), and has long been involved with the StFSF. You can find the full press release on the StFSF website here.
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One Rubber Raft Evolves Into a Small Fleet of Sailboats
When Latitude reader Paula Sunn picked up a copy of the October issue from the Chico Yacht Club, where she’s been a member for the past 19 years, she found one of our Golden Tickets nestled among the magazine’s pages. After sending us the photo below in order to claim her new Latitude 38 hat, Paula followed up with her sailing story, which makes us just want to get out of the office and go sailing …
“As a 12-year-old, I’d desperately wanted a boat, and all I could afford was a rubber raft on my meager babysitting income,” Paula begins. “My parents would take me and a friend to Lake Vasona in Los Gatos, where there was, at the time, quite a fleet of El Toros. My dad thought an El Toro would be a fun woodworking project (it turned out to be far more frustrating and difficult than he’d imagined), and after completion, we needed to learn how to sail. So we took some lessons, and eventually we both began to dream of a bigger boat we could sail on the Bay. Against my mother’s wishes, he eventually got a Coronado 25, which we sailed out of Alameda until I went off to college. After I graduated, my father gave me the El Toro, and I’ve been sailing ever since.”
Today, Paula owns three sailboats — a Capri 18, Chill Out, a Day Sailer, Chill, and a Hobie Wave; she plans to sell the Day Sailer and keep just the Hobie and Chill Out.
Paula says that she’s also owned a San Juan 21, a Pearson Triton and an Islander 32. Most recently, she tells us, she’s enjoyed sailing Chill Out on Lake Oroville, “… having downsized as we age,” she adds.
“We spent over 30 wonderful years sailing the Bay and Delta, first on our Pearson Triton, Mintaka, then moving up to our Islander 32, Andiamo.”
We also still sail our Hobie Wave,” Paula continues, “the only thing we had that survived the Camp Fire when we lived in Paradise. She now sports a new hull (one hull has blue-and-pink decals and the other orange-and-green), one white rudder and one black, new trampoline, and patches on her sail where embers burned through. She’s a real calico cat now and as fun as ever.”
“I’ve always loved being on the water, and what better way than sailing? The way the boat feels when you’ve turned off the engine after maneuvering out of the marina is so sweet. It just makes me happy!”
While crewing on the 2015 Baja Ha-Ha was one of Paula’s sailing highlights, she says her favorite times have been summer days spent sailing in the Delta: “… with all of its challenges, anchoring midafternoon, then raising the mast on our towed Hobie to just blast around amongst the tules, completely soaked and having a heck of a lot of fun. And afterwards, evenings spent socializing and enjoying another night on the water. I love it!”
Golden Ticket winners usually appear in a run. Paula is the first to claim the prize in recent months; will you be next?
Dave Wilhite Sails a Solo Long Pac
I’d just returned from Indianapolis and my 50th high school reunion when Amy asked if I was still planning to do my Long Pac. I opened PredictWind routing and conditions looked good. I could probably cover the distance in a little less than four days.
200 miles out and back, that’s a Long Pac, and mostly I just wanted to do it for me, not as any sort of qualifier for the Singlehanded Transpacific Race. Thirty-six hours later, with tanks full and Symphony provisioned for four days, I passed Point Bonita at 0900 headed west before the full-moon flood kicked into high gear.
My Dragonfly 1200 gobbled up miles, and the five times I’d been up to Drake’s Bay this year prepared me and the trimaran well. I was apprehensive the first night, but catching cat naps felt almost natural. Thirty-two hours after passing Point Bonita, sailing in 15,000 feet of water, I was rounding the self-imposed marker/waypoint and made adjustments to sail and course to make my way home.
No land in sight, the VHF radio and telephone silent, and most of all, no internet access, as long as I didn’t turn on my Elon Musk phased array antenna, felt both weird and satisfying.
Little squalls began to blow up from the south, and I could see what looked like rain, but I never got more than a few sprinkles. Blue-gray with dark gray rain streaks. The squalls were mild but provided steady power through the six- to nine-foot swells. While I was cat napping, one squall topped out at 24 knots and gave us a sustained push of over 17 knots of boat speed, which, of course, was interesting to awaken to!
The next day, Symphony passed back through the Devil’s Teeth, between Middle Farallon and SW Farallon, and later that afternoon cleared the Point Bonita waypoint a minute after 1700, a full day ahead of schedule. I’d recorded my first of hopefully many more 200-mile days on this trimaran!
Amazingly well-rested due to the mild conditions, I could have turned around and done it again, but I’m under no illusions, since this trip was about as easy as it could have been.
2025 Rolex Big Boat Series Recap
The 2025 Rolex Big Boat Series (RBBS) was sailed between September 11 and 14 at the St. Francis Yacht Club (StFYC), the 61st edition of perhaps one of the most anticipated annual events on the Bay Area’s racing calendar.
While the wind steadily built throughout last year’s RBBS, culminating with a Sunday Bay tour that saw gusts in the high 30s, this year’s Big Boat Series was much more of a light-wind affair. Thursday’s racing saw breeze around 10 knots for most of the day, building into the low teens during the Bay-tour race. Friday was even weirder, with the buoy race sailed in well under 10 knots of breeze that once again only built into the mid-teens. Both Thursday and Friday’s racing was almost exclusively in flood. With the light wind and adverse current, upwinds were long wars of attrition, where patience and focus were paramount.
Saturday and Sunday saw more classic Big Boat Series conditions, with breeze starting in the mid-teens and then building to around 20 knots. Both days saw early ebb building into flood during the Bay-tour races.
This year’s Big Boat Series featured only six classes, as opposed to last year’s seven. The Classics division didn’t make an appearance. While this was disappointing, and the Classics division hopes to make a comeback in next year’s edition, it also opened up the Cityfront course for the ORC and one-design fleets.
The regatta featured three one-design fleets (J/105, J/88 and Express 37) and three ORC fleets (A, B, and C). The race committee used two starting areas: a Treasure Island starting line and an Alcatraz starting line. Each fleet sailed seven races across the four days, with one-design and ORC fleets alternating who was at each starting area each day. The one designs started the regatta at the Treasure Island line on Thursday with the ORC fleets at Alcatraz, and then alternated throughout the regatta.
In addition to all of the on-water action, the usual off-water festivities that come with Big Boat Series were in full swing, highlighted by the Friday night Mount Gay Rum Party.
Read the full story and see more photos in the October issue.
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