Skip to content

A Trio of West Coast Races

Byron Chamberlain’s 1930 Burgess-designed 51-ft LOA Rose of Sharon in the America’s Schooner Cup.

© Cynthia Sinclair

In San Diego this weekend, Silver Gate Yacht Club’s America’s Schooner Cup will feature a fleet of 14 vessels ranging in size from two 30-footers to two 96-footers. Those measurements are length on deck. "With the bow sprits and boom overhangs we’re looking at up to 142-ft," writes Paul Mitchell.

Witchcraft (left) and Maid of Kent. Carl and Brian Eichenlaub built Witchcraft in San Diego in 1993-1994. Maid of Kent was designed by William Atkins in 1930 and built in 1962. She was the last wooden boat built by Willard Marine of Costa Mesa before they converted to fiberglass production.

© Cynthia Sinclair

Among the schooners signed up is the John Alden-designed Mayan, which was owned by musician David Crosby from 1968 to 2014. Beau and Stacey Vrolyk of Santa Cruz are her new custodians. Dennis Conner will sail the 1910 two-masted schooner Fame. Fans of San Francisco’s Master Mariners Regatta will recognize the names of the schooners Dauntless, Rose of Sharon, Regulus and Maid of Kent. From Sacramento, the official California tall ship, the Californian, is entered, and Martha hails all the way from Seattle.

Newport Harbor YC’s Newport to Cabo Race is now complete, the final finishers having arrived yesterday. Correcting out to first place overall in ORR was Roy P. Disney’s Andrews 70 Pyewacket. In the three-boat ORCA (multihull) division, H.L. Enloe’s ORMA 60 trimaran Mighty Merloe held onto its time over the two Gunboat 66 cats, Lloyd Thornberg’s Phaedo and Pat Benz’s Extreme H2O. Ross Pearlman’s Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 52 Between the Sheets took corrected time honors in PHRF. All but two of the 26 starters finished the 800-mile race.

The first start in the first ocean race of 2015 out of San Francisco Bay is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. "Conditions for BAMA’s Doublehanded Farallones are going to be fast and maybe heavy," predicts Mike Dvorak of Sail Tactics. "Some initial weather routing I’ve done using the Sail Tactics Outlook wind and tide forecast shows an Express 27 being able to finish in about nine hours, give or take. A building ebb at the time of the start will push boats out the Golden Gate into a slowly-building breeze in the shipping channel."

 As this 9:00 a.m. Sail Tactics current forecast near the Golden Gate shows, a building ebb should make up for any light winds at the start of tomorrow’s Doublehanded Farallones.

© Sail Tactics

"A NOAA small-craft advisory is in effect through most of the weekend — winds offshore will be strong with gusts over 20 knots." The swell forecast is also looking strong, so Dvorak recommends that all but the saltiest of sailors indulge in their favorite seasickness preventative. "On the way home, a building flood in the late afternoon should calm the waters approaching the Golden Gate and make for a nice finish back at Golden Gate YC. Sail Tactics will have a fresh wind and tide forecast out just before the start of the race tomorrow morning."

We’ll have more on these races in the May (not April — that’s already gone to press) issue of Latitude 38.

Leave a Comment




Posters such as this have been put up all around the island. A large and festive crowd is expected.