West Coast Sailors Race in the 80th Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
Christmas Day in the United States will be Boxing Day in Australia, and therefore the start of the 80th installment of the historic Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. One hundred forty-two entrants are signed up for the 628-mile race, with the start scheduled for 6:00 p.m. PST on Christmas Day.
Three boats will be competing under the American flag, two of them California-based boats (the other will be sailing under the NYYC burgee). Two boats sailing under the New Zealand flag will feature at least some West Coast crew. Here are the Californian competitors (or at least boats with Californian ties) for the 80th Sydney Hobart Yacht Race:
Bacchanal
Bacchanal, owned by Roy Epstein and sailing under the Corinthian Yacht Club (CYC) burgee, will be making her second appearance in the Sydney Hobart. Epstein’s boat was forced to retire from last year’s edition of the race due to a broken boom.
“Brand-new last December, this JPK 11.80, Bacchanal, is named after Bacchus — the Roman god of wine, hedonism and joy,” the official Sydney Hobart website says of the boat. “Bacchanal retired after her boom broke in last year’s race, but in the lead-up, Epstein and crew produced some promising results, including third in the 2024 Cabbage Tree Island Race.”
Palm Beach XI (formerly Wild Oats XI)
Mark Richards, skipper of nine line-honors victories in Wild Oats XI, is now the owner of the boat, and has renamed it. The boat has two “triple wins” (line honors, race record, and overall win) in her history. California’s Stan Honey will be one of the co-navigators on board the boat, along with Alice Tarnawski.
“Palm Beach XI is the legendary Wild Oats XI that has been extensively upgraded to be a partial foiler by her longtime skipper Mark Richards, aka Ricko,” Honey tells Latitude. “The upgrade has been extensive, with new keel, new daggerboards, new C-foils, new PLC and new instruments. The crew is made up of a terrific group of friends that I’ve sailed with in the past. It’s an honor to be involved and fascinating given the innovative technical approach being pioneered by Ricko and Palm Beach.”
The official race website adds to this, stating that, “She is renamed for the company Ricko founded in 1995 and is undergoing major modifications, led by Richards, including a new deeper keel fin and bulb, advanced upwind daggerboards and radical C-foils. This will be an interesting race for Line Honours.”
Callisto
James Murray’s Pac 52 Callisto boasts an impressive offshore racing record, and will include Bay Area sailor Bill Colombo among her crew.
“A proven performer, Callisto won Overall Honours in the 2021 California Offshore Race Week and secured third place in Division 3 of the 2021 Transpacific Race,” the Sydney Hobart website says of the boat. “Callisto has competed in two editions of the Caribbean 600, finishing second and third in IRC Zero. The team won divisional Line Honours and its class in the 2023 Newport Bermuda Race and notably, claimed victory in that season’s Pineapple Cup from Miami to Jamaica. Its sistership, Warrior Won, has already demonstrated strong potential in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on a similar platform, when it finished fourth overall in 2022.”
Perplexity
An Express 37 owned by John Wilkerson and sailing under the burgee of Port Madison Yacht Club (PMYC) in Washington, Perplexity is a newcomer to the Sydney Hobart. Though new to the Sydney Hobart, the boat is no stranger to offshore racing.
“She has done three Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Races, one Pacific Cup and three Canadian Swiftsures,” the Sydney Hobart website says of the boat. “Wilkerson sailed her solo from Port Madison, Seattle, for the Rolex Sydney Hobart, doing a [Singlehanded Transpacific Race] along the way. The crew, three each from San Francisco and Seattle, plus one from Idaho, are thrilled to compete in the Rolex Sydney Hobart, Wilkerson says. Among them is Jim Quanci, whom Wilkerson normally competes against — and they are very competitive — both have wins on the board.”
Good Jibes #224: Laura Muñoz on the YRA and Racing, With Host Fritz Baldauf
In this episode of Good Jibes, we chat with Laura Muñoz, the executive director of the Yacht Racing Association of San Francisco Bay (YRA).
This week’s host, Latitude 38 racing editor Fritz Baldauf, makes his Good Jibes debut as he and Laura talk about how she found the YRA after working in the equestrian world, the behind-the-scenes work the YRA does with the US Coast Guard to get regattas approved, the YRA Women’s Series, how the organization is growing opportunities for beginning racers, and the story of breaking her ankle on the water.
More details here.
Here’s a sample of what you’ll hear in this episode:
- Launching the YRA Women’s Circuit in 2025
- How to obtain a PHRF certificate
- Why to join YRA and support Bay Area sailing infrastructure
- Rule number one: Don’t hit anything. No touchy.
- Working with clubs to expand women’s racing opportunities
Learn more at YRA.org.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast spots — follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re feeling the Good Jibes!
Visit Antioch Marina, the Gateway to the Delta
Local Surveyor and Circumnavigator Jim Jessie at the Oakland Yacht Club
Jim Jessie’s daughter, Jill Facciolla, sent a note and photo to catch us up with the Bay Area surveyor, sailor and cruiser. She reports, “At 93, Jim is still active in Oakland Yacht Club. For the second month in a row, he has attended the Wednesday lunch.”
“Jim was an active contributor to Latitude 38 during both of his trips circumnavigating the globe. Jim recently donated Nalu IV, his Alaskan Grand Banks, and is living his best life at Elders Inn in Alameda with his new 93-year-old girlfriend, whom he met there. He is living only two miles from his beloved marina.
“Much to Jim’s surprise, two of his very longtime friends showed up to see him. John Buestad has been friends with Jim for over 60 years. They had many years of racing on his Bird Boat, Falcon. Mike Kelly has known Jim even longer. Mike has been sailing and worked with Jim 65 years ago.”
Jim Jessie and his wife Diana, who passed in 2011, circumnavigated from ’85 to ’92 aboard their 48-ft cold-molded Lapworth sloop Nalu IV, then went on to circumnavigate the North Pacific in the late ’90s. All told, the Jessies sailed more than 120,000 miles aboard Nalu IV. Diana wrote quite a few stories like this one from 1986 over their years of cruising.
Jill also let us know that anyone is free to visit Jim at Elders Inn in Alameda. He will remember all of his famous sailing stories.
A Boat Donation Helps BAADS
In this month’s issue of Latitude 38, we share John “Woody” Skoriak’s report on boat donations around the Bay Area. Woody writes, “After more than four decades of observing vessel donations, I’ve seen nearly every misconception about how the process works, and why it often benefits both the donor and the nonprofit far more than people realize.” The story prompted reader Teri Shore to share her story of how Believe became a donated boat, sailing in the BAADS fleet.
Dear Latitude 38:
After my partner Stan Pawlak passed away out beyond the Farallones on his beloved Beneteau Oceanis 41 Believe in May 2021, I donated the boat to the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors (BAADS). Stan wanted that. The “Boat Donations” article in Sightings, December 2025, provided accurate information about what’s involved. At the time, I had no idea.
BAADS gave Stan the skills he needed as an “alter-abled” sailor. He bought his boat in 2017, and in 2018 sailed with a crew and his Canine Companions dog Ming to Mexico as part of Baja Ha-Ha XXVI in 2018, earning the “Spirit of the Ha-Ha” award. (See Latitude 38 December 2018, page 62). He and another crew sailed it back up the coast in December that year.
What exactly happened on board is unknown, but Stan was offshore getting ready to race in the Singlehanded Transpacific Race to Hawaii in June 2021. After I lost contact with him and called the Coast Guard, he was found onboard unresponsive and evacuated by helicopter to Stanford, but it was too late. His boat sailed on down the coast and was finally recovered and taken to Ventura.
The Singlehanded Sailing Society posted this about Stan in June 2021: “Stan was fastidious and methodical in his preparations by ensuring his Beneteau 41.1, equipment and procedures could face the challenges of an offshore passage. His sailing vessel Believe was modified to accommodate the additional challenges of a disabled sailor. Additionally, Stan made sure it was fully compliant with the offshore equipment requirements set by International and San Francisco bodies for racing and ocean passage making. The ideas that Stan developed like easier life raft deployment and a better deck layout to minimize time on the foredeck could serve as a template for both abled and disabled sailors.”
Stan worked with Scott Easom and his team to customize the boat to make it more or less “push button.” Capt. Paul Amaral of Channel Watch Marine was so helpful and understanding when retrieving the sailboat from nearly 200 miles off the coast and bringing it safely into port at Ventura Harbor. Afterward, the folks at KKMI were so kind and helpful in getting the boat fully seaworthy again.
Today Believe is still sailing the Bay with BAADS, and his dog Ming is now my life partner.
Teri Shore, Sonoma, CA.
See Woody’s story and learn more about donating your boat here.
The Famous Project Women’s Circumnavigation Record Attempt
While we’d rather be sailing, when we’re not, we love tracking boats that are racing around the world. One tracker we’re watching is that of the all-female crew currently looking to break the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe, and in doing so become the first all-women team to do so. The current record of 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds was set in 2017 by Francis Joyon aboard the same boat, the IDEC SPORT maxi trimaran.
Eight women from around the globe are aboard the 100-ft (LOA) trimaran representing the The Famous Project CIC: skipper Alexia Barrier, Dee Caffari, Annemieke Bes, Rebecca Gmür Hornell, Deborah Blair, Molly LaPointe, Támara Echegoyen and Stacey Jackson.
The crew crossed the official start line (between the Créac’h lighthouse off Ouessant and Lizard Point, UK) at 01:40 UTC on November 29, 2025. From there, they’ve sailed past the Cape of Good Hope and then will turn south, taking Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn to port before heading back up the North Atlantic for the finish.
The team is currently tackling the Indian Ocean, heading toward their next big milestone, Cape Leeuwin, the most southerly, western point of mainland Australia, where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. They’ll be crossing to the south of West Coast racers sailing in the Sydney Hobart race. Then it’s on to Cape Horn.
To date, no all-female crew has ever made it around the world nonstop and unassisted. The crew of IDEC is looking to rectify that in addition to setting a female nonstop, unassisted circumnavigation reference time.
Skipper Alexia Barrier stated, “The Famous Project CIC is bringing together the best female professional sailors from around the world, with the boat that holds the current record. We’re aiming to make history and disrupt this all-male legacy.”
You can follow them on the tracker here.
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