Keeping Watch for August Regattas
Notes from St. Francis Yacht Club
Planning to race in the Rolex Big Boat Series on September 16-20? If so, now would be a good time to register. Host St. Francis YC advises that registration fees will increase by $275 after this Friday, July 31.
This week, Thursday-Sunday, StFYC is hosting the US Wingfoil Championship and Summer Wingding. “This will be the third consecutive year that we have hosted this event,” says race director Felix Weidling. The regatta will include multiple races daily plus one long-distance event — the S.F. Bay Challenge — on August 1, open to kiteboards, parawings and windsurfers in addition to wingfoilers.
StFYC has scheduled the Ronstan Bridge to Bridge for Saturday, August 22. “First run in 1998, the event was conceived to settle a friendly bet between windsurfers and skiff sailors over which watercraft could get from one bridge to the other the fastest,” reports the club. Olympic sailors Jonathan and Charlie McKee won the first race on a 49er skiff with a time of 27 minutes and 18 seconds. “Since then, it’s been contested in everything from a Formula 40 catamaran to a MOD 70 trimaran, early-generation kiteboards and foiling windsurfers, and even a hydropter.”
“It’s ‘bring what you got’,” says Mike Martin, chair of the event and a frequent competitor — he won it in 2008 racing an 18-ft skiff with Howard Hamlin and Paul Allen. The event attracts sailors using the latest in board sports technology. Johnny Heineken clocked several wins on kiteboards and hydrofoil kites. The current race record is nine minutes, set by Markus Edegran in 2024, who was fresh off his Olympic campaign in the Formula Foil Kite. This is a fun one to spectate from the Golden Gate Bridge or from the nearby shoreline. The warning signal will be at 3 p.m. to take advantage of peak wind and a flood current.
Elsewhere in the Bay Area
Three women skipper regattas on San Francisco Bay come to us in August:
- Encinal YC’s Gracie & George Regatta on Sunday, August 9, is for coed doublehanded teams. “Gracie” takes the helm, with “George” crewing. “Lady skippers, grab your sailing gloves and put on your sunscreen because you’re at the helm for this one,” says EYC. The race area starts in the South Bay off the old Naval Air Station and finishes at EYC down the Estuary. Register by this Sunday, August 2, to avoid a $10 late fee.
- Sequoia YC’s Rock the Boat will also serve as the YRA’s Women’s Championship Series #2 on August 22.
- Sausalito YC’s Women Skippers Regatta will be on Saturday, August 29, with awards for mixed-gender and all-female crews.
Inverness YC will welcome the International 110 Nationals on August 9-14, with racing on beautiful Tomales Bay. The club will also host the Day Sailer PCCs on August 21-23.
San Francisco YC’s Great San Francisco Schooner Race and Belvedere Classic will grace the Bay with nautical loveliness on August 22. Then, SFYC will host the C420 PCCs on August 29-30.
On the Ocean
The Yacht Racing Association’s Drake’s Bay Race 1 will take place on Saturday, August 22. Sailors will start off the Cityfront and finish in pastoral Drake’s Bay. Boats anchor out, often forming rafts with one another. On Sunday the 23rd, they sail Race 2 back to the Cityfront. For many years, the Singlehanded Sailing Society has joined the YRA for this two-day event, the only one we can think of in Northern California with an overnight anchor-out destination. (There are no docks or moorings in Drake’s Bay.) The YRA’s version is part of their Offshore Series; the SSS version is part of their 2026 season. You can access both via Jibeset. Yes, you can race in both series simultaneously. And yes, you can sign up for this event as a one-off rather than entering the whole series. Both organizations require AIS for offshore races.
Rollin’ on the Rivers
On the Deep Water Channel of the Sacramento River, dinghies will race and cruise from Rio Vista to Lake Washington Sailing Center in West Sacramento on August 8 in the Delta Dinghy Ditch Race & Cruisers’ Rally.
Also on August 8, but for bigger boats, there’s Hood River YC’s Double Damned on the Columbia River Gorge. The course runs from Cascade Locks to the Dalles, OR.
“The Columbia Gorge Racing Association is pleased to welcome our friends from the ILCA Masters and Tasar classes to the Skamania Coves Invitational Regatta,” says CGRA. “We will again be setting up base camp at the Resort at Skamania Coves, a beautiful 30-acre waterfront property on the Washington side of the Columbia River, one mile east of Stevenson, WA.” The regatta will start this Friday, July 31, and run through Sunday, August 2. The other name for this event is the “ILCA Gorge Masters Championship & NW Tasar Gorge Palooza.” For the ILCA Masters, Laser sailors must be 30 or older. Registration is still open.
As always, and especially at the height of summer, you have way more regattas from which to choose than we could possibly list here. Find many more in Latitude’s monthly Calendar pages; the August issue will come out this Friday, July 31. And square away plans for the reminder of 2026 with the assistance of our annual Sailing Calendar.
Harry Anderson’s Arctic Circumnavigation Aboard ‘Phywave’
This is not your typical summer cruise. West Coast sailor Harry Anderson is underway on his attempted circumnavigation of the Arctic polar icecap. Having left from Annapolis aboard his Allures 40.9 Phywave, out of Bellingham, WA, he is currently sailing along the northern coast of Norway. From there he intends to sail over the northern coast of Russia before crossing the Bering Sea, and to finally finish up doing the Northwest Passage over North America before returning to the North Atlantic in the late fall.
Before his extreme adventure attempting this nautical first, Harry sailed to all seven continents aboard Phywave. We had a conversation with him about that multi-year exploration on our Good Jibes podcast.
Harry recently had to take a tow into port to repair a problematic autopilot, but he was able to make repairs and is now continuing on his way. You can follow his voyage on his blog here.
Phywave is joined by Matt Rutherford from Annapolis, who is attempting the same route this summer. Follow his voyage here.
Modern Sailing Now at Clipper Yacht Harbor
International 110 Action at Inverness Yacht Club
Michael Sporer recaps the International 110 fleet’s participation in Inverness Yacht Club’s (InvYC) Bender Series #8.
I write this report from the perspective of a participant. Keep in mind none of this could happen without our dedicated race committee and safety volunteers, to whom we racers are eternally grateful.
Just look at June 28 this year — the breeze was strong and forecast to increase. Two races were planned that day, and small-boat sailing as well. Around 3 p.m. the InvYC weather station on the end of the pier registered a sustained 19 knots of breeze with gusts to 25. Out on the bay it was certainly higher. How much? No one really knows.
After the small boats were all tucked away in their beds, only four intrepid teams chose to go out again for the second race in light of the building breeze. Three teams racing 110s, and one really crazy guy on the Hobie 20 Jasmine, ventured out. This was not a race to win (unless you actually won), but rather a race for survival, one where finishing the race was the goal. Sort of like the Race to Alaska, but on an infinitesimally small scale. Finishing is enough, and winning is the foamy head on the beer.
So why, you might ask, does InvYC have a 110 fleet? One word: safety. A 110 will never stick the top of the mast in the mud and pin itself there. A 110 shouldn’t sink, although the author has come close. The 110 is a keelboat, but no ordinary keelboat. The 110 is “the world’s original sportboat™”, a lithe 900 pounds in a 24-ft coffin-like package. Capable of planing in a moderate breeze, but when the wind picks up, watch out, because you are either flying over the wave tops ahead of you (fast), or trying to plow through them (not fast at all). I leave it to my crew Daniel Maloney to describe.
“Alas, I didn’t have a video camera running, nor even turn on my phone GPS tracker. The fastest I’ve ever clocked my boat was 15 knots, and that was 10 years ago. But I swear this day we went even faster, and watching that old video of the younger version of myself, I’d say it was a lot faster.”
“That spot off Shell Beach where the bay necks down, it funnels and accelerates the wind for a turbo experience. After we stuffed the nose of the boat into the wave ahead up to the partners, it was time to reconsider our strategy, and for weight aft. Lifting the nose and steering around the peaks was like carving down a ski slope.
“Even then, every once in a while you missed avoiding a wave and plowed into it instead; you were slamming on the brakes, and you felt it. When the boat was planing it responded to the slightest movement of the tiller, but when the bow was under water it was unclear if it would ever respond, or by how much. Wipeout was a real possibility, and as long as you kept the crew on the wire you should be able to recover; if not, I have a story to tell you about my experience in Lake Michigan. So, if this sounds like your kind of fun, come join us.”
Fair Winds — Jack Van Ommen
We’re sorry to note the passing of Jack Van Ommen, 1937–2026, one of the most unique and inspirational characters we’ve ever run into in the world of sailing. Surrounded by family, Jack passed away on June 8 in Virginia. He was 89.
Jacob Van Ommen was born in Amsterdam in 1937. He immigrated to the United States at age 19, did a stint in the Army (including a non-combat role in Vietnam), and spent most of the next four decades as a West Coast lumber broker. When the business went bankrupt in 2000 (an event Jack later called “one of the best things that ever happened to me”) he sold everything except Fleetwood, his Naja 30 and — to the consternation of family and friends — announced at age 68 that he was going sailing.
His first little jaunt was in 2005, when he sailed 3,000 miles from Santa Barbara to the Marquesas, solo. Since then, living on little more than his $1,450/month Social Security payments, he visited more than 60 countries — with a few misadventures along the way.
He lost Fleetwood in 2013 after going aground in Ibiza. Aboard a sistership, Fleetwood II, he completed a solo circumnavigation in April 2017 — at age 80. Three months later, he hit one of the barrier islands off Virginia. Jack got the boat off and repaired her. In 2022, the boat hit a reef off Cuba and was gone for good.
“Three marriages, two shipwrecks and one ‘wrecked ship’ better remain my limits,” Jack noted in a Changes in Latitudes article in our April 2025 issue (one of several pieces he wrote for us over the years). Unable to find another Naja, and after an unfortunate encounter with the dishonest seller of Fleetwood III that cost three years of boat work and legal proceedings (he ended up selling that boat), he was back aboard Fleetwood IV, a mid-’80s Elan 31, his first-ever fiberglass boat. “I am very pleased with the choice I made,” he said at the time, marveling at such luxuries as a mechanical anchor windlass, roller furling and refrigeration.
Jack was always looking forward to new adventures. The last time we heard from him, he was seriously thinking about taking a crack at becoming the oldest solo circumnavigator, hoping to better the late Harry Heckel, who completed a westabout circuit at age 89.
It hurts our hearts to know that won’t happen. But we take solace in imagining Jack will always be out there somewhere, reeling off the miles, that big smile spreading across his face as the next landfall peeks above the horizon.
***
Jack wrote a book about his circumnavigation. Soloman, published in 2015, is available at www.SoloMan.us. He also kept a running journal/logbook of his life ashore and afloat at www.cometosea.us. Our sincere condolences to his family and loved ones.
San Francisco Bay Area Yacht Clubs and Sailors Dominate the Mac
The 117th edition of the Chicago Yacht Club’s (CYC) Race to Mackinac presented by Wintrust, and the Bayview Yacht Club’s (BYC) Port Huron Race to Mackinac Island, were as different as the two great lakes they’re raced upon. Yet the familiarity and familiar faces between these freshwater dashes are strikingly similar.
San Francisco Bay Area sailors including Scott Sellers’ No Surprise, Elliott James’s Bloom County, Marc Belloli and Todd Jones’s Shinebox, and Nick Gibbens, who oversees Sic Parvis Magna for Wintrust, all fared quite well, taking home several section victories, podium finishes and banners.
Chicago lies at the bottom of Lake Michigan, with Mackinac at the top, 333 miles away. Even though the turtle-shaped island is actually on Lake Huron, the bodies of water are invisibly separated to the naked eye. But in 1957 it became easier to create a dividing line when the massive Mackinac suspension bridge was built.
Both lakes can rage like an angry bathtub. The late Ted Turner joked that racing on Lake Michigan was probably like a mill pond until he chose 1970 as his first attempt — that race was hit by ferocious gale-force winds that decimated half the fleet. Turner took line honors on the 12-Meter American Eagle, with the legendary Bruce Kirby on board. But this year it was Lake Huron that provided the fireworks. Thankfully there were only a few minor scrapes and bruises, as race officials in both races did a fantastic job preparing the teams in advance of the coming weather.
CYC’s Lake Michigan course challenged the fleet of 252 yachts with an entrée of multiple offshore sailing conditions, from upwind and downwind racing to heavy air and tactical light winds as powerful overnight thunderstorms popped up seemingly out of nowhere. Sailors reported winds exceeding 35 knots with several teams experiencing moderate damage, including one report of a broken rudder and another of a mast failure.
As the race unfolded, teams navigated rapidly changing conditions. Early upwind sailing pushed much of the fleet toward the Michigan shoreline. The wind later shifted nearly 180 degrees, transforming the race into a downwind contest and rewarding teams that had anticipated the change and positioned themselves to take advantage. In all, 17 boats retired from the race. All crews are accounted for and safe.
The CYC’s presenting partner Wintrust Bank brought back S.F. Bay Area sailor Nick Gibbens to once again organize a team to charter and sail the J/145 Sic Parvis Magna. Gibbens and his trusted longtime sailing companions were rewarded as they finished with an elapsed time of 1d 18h 41m 19s for a second place in Section 2, and 32nd overall.
Tiburon’s Elliott James raced the 1984 Vallejo driveway-built Mancebo 31 Bloom County, which he and his dad brought to Chicago on a trailer. James and his crew finished second in Class 8 with an amazing sixth overall for the Mackinac Cup. “We struggled a little bit upwind; we only had four people on board [his college buddies], and it is ridiculous how many people some of the teams put on these tiny boats,” James said after just his second Mac Race. “It finally lightened up and we started passing boats left and right. If we’d had another 50 miles we definitely could have captured first!”
In the Bayview Mackinac Race (Port Huron to Mackinac Island), crews are divided into 14 Sections and can choose from two courses. The Shore Course (204 nm) hugs the eastern Michigan shoreline, and the Cove Point Course (259 nm) takes the fleet into Canadian waters before tacking west through the Straits of Mackinac.
Storms swept across Lake Huron shortly after the start. As the fleet faced the dark skies ahead, the wind at the start was a healthy 14–18 knots from the SW before it spun around from the west with intermittent gusts into the 20s. Heavy rain and wind arrived shortly thereafter; the fleet took a pounding. Eighty-five of the 193 starters dropped out in quick succession with blown-out sails, snapped shackles and at least three broken masts, but thankfully no serious injuries.
In the Doublehanded Section the J/111s No Surprise and Utah engaged in a furious duel. It was a busy three weeks for Scott Sellers from Larkspur and his “captain,” teenage daughter Merritt, as No Surprise got off to a challenging start in the Port Huron to Mackinac, having to unravel a knot in the spinnaker amid heavy seas and gusty winds — with just the two of them onboard. In the CYC Race to Mackinac, Sellers said, “We pushed hard the entire race; no one left the deck for the first 12 hours as we worked through the squalls.” No Surprise finished third in the J/111 Class out of 12 teams in 2d 8h 32m 49s.
Father and son duo of Bradley and Ian Faber crewed Utah. The duo know No Surprise like the back of their hands, with the two yachts frequently exchanging leads back and forth across the same patch of water. This time, though, it was Utah who relished line honors and came out on top by just nine minutes and 46 seconds to finish in just 1d 14h 52m 49s. The stinging pain for No Surprise was short-lived as they bounced back this past weekend to claim first place overall in the Ugotta Regatta, hosted by the Little Traverse Bay Yacht Club. (The club will host the Melges 24 Worlds this September.)
It was a family affair for the Briedens, as multiple brothers and dad Geoff Brieden out of St. Francis YC raced the Farr 40 Shinebox to finish second in Class 3 at 1d 20h 8m 17s. (Unfortunately she retired from the Port Huron Race with broken rigging.) Eric Brieden, 19, is the “youngling” on Fast Tango, and the only one who actually finished the Port Huron race. Eric’s older brothers Bryan and Thomas raced on Trim, which also retired. “I’ve never seen waves that big on the Great Lakes,” Eric Brieden said after his fourth Port Huron to Mackinac race.
Year in and year out, the Mackinac races are the most competitive events of their kind and are on every racing sailor’s “bucket list.”
See full results at CYC Race to Mackinac and Bayview Mackinac Race.
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