‘Bottle Rocket’ Wins Doublehanded Farallones Race With Fastest Time in 30 Years
The 2026 Doublehanded Farallones Race on Saturday, April 11, was one for the history books. The forecast showed southerly winds in the 15–20-knot range, picking up to the mid-20s in the afternoon, with potential gusts into the 30s when a forecast squall line was supposed to make its way through in the 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. timeframe. However, the sea state looked likely to be quite rough, with a wave height of five to seven feet at just five seconds. Fourteen boats opted not to start in light of the forecast.
That left us with 23 starters in beautiful conditions inside the Bay in the morning, setting off for the islands in 6 to 8 knots of wind, avoiding two humpback whales near the start line by the Golden Gate Yacht Club. Once racers got offshore, the forecast proved to be pretty much right on the mark, providing fast conditions in a rough sea state. In a testament to the high caliber of the entrants,18 of the 23 starters finished the race. With southerly winds, the fleet was able to aim straight ahead for a very fast transit out to the islands.
The Seacart 30 trimaran Bottle Rocket, with David Schumann and Trevor Baylis, made quick work of the course, passing the entire fleet and rounding the island after just 2 hours, 19 minutes. They then polished off the return to the Bay in just 2 hours, 10 minutes, finishing the entire race in 4 hours, 29 minutes, 52 seconds. Bottle Rocket secured line honors and posted the fastest time for both elapsed and corrected time by any boat in the last 30 years. They are taking home the Randy Devol Memorial Trophy for the fastest multihull on corrected time, and the Dennis Madigan Perpetual Trophy, which goes to the crew of the boat with the lowest elapsed time overall.
The Wylie 60 monohull C Cubed with Charles Ray and Zan Drejes followed more than an hour later, but still posted an elapsed time of 5 hours, 50 minutes, 27 seconds, the fastest time in the last 30 years for any monohull. They took the Stewart Kett Memorial Trophy for the fastest monohull on elapsed time and finished in second place overall for monohulls on corrected time. C Cubed was only 10 minutes, 40 seconds behind the record for monohulls set by the Santa Cruz 70 Mongoose in 1992. That record still stands, along with Zan Drejes’ fantastic multihull record from the same year of 3 hours, 30 minutes, 42 seconds with the ProSail 40 catamaran Tomcat.
The Harvey Shlasky Perpetual Trophy for the fastest monohull on corrected time goes to the Sunfast 3300 Sun Dragon, with Frank van Diggelen and Sergei Podshivalov, who finished with a corrected time of 7:11:54. They were very close to the “seven-hour barrier,” which has been breached only once by a monohull in the last 30 years (by the Mancebo 31 Bloom County in the very windy 2024 race, when they finished with a corrected time of 6:59:03).
The Cal 40 Shaman with Barton Hackworth and Ben Landon finished first in Mono 2. Absinthe, with Dan Nitake and Ryan Kata, was the winner and only finisher in the Moore 24 class. And Akumu, the B Boats B-25, with Gregory Ashby and Andrew Meyerpeter, won the ULDB 2 class as the only starter and finisher. They also took home the wooden-spoon perseverance award as the final finisher. They actually finished before 7:30 p.m. — one of the earliest finishes that we have seen for having the whole fleet back home.
Nathalie Criou and Nathan Bossett got the award for best mixed-gender boat, finishing third in the ULDB 1 class with the Beneteau Figaro Envolée, behind the J/125 Rufless, which finished second. No all-female crews started the race this year.
The San Francisco Yacht Club beat the Richmond Yacht Club for the Pineapple Sails Yacht Club Trophy, with the finish times for Bottle Rocket, the J/90 Orca, and the J/120 Jamani. Richmond Yacht Club has had a stranglehold on that trophy for many years, and it’s great to see another club taking the win this year!
Cliff Shaw and Andrew Mogg on the Crowther 10m custom catamaran Rainbow get a good Samaritan award for abandoning their race to help the Corsair 31 trimaran Papillon, who broke their centerboard while rounding the Farallones, and also ended up with rudder damage after their rudder hit the freshly-broken centerboard at high speed. Rainbow towed Papillon a good chunk of the way back, and ensured that we had both of them safely back inside the Golden Gate before sunset.
The strong squall front did indeed come through in the late afternoon, just as forecast, with absolutely torrential rain and wind gusts into the 30s. Most of the fleet had actually finished by then, but the boats finishing after 5 p.m., including the X-yachts X-332 Surf, the Olson 911 Plus Sixteen, the Moore 24 Absinthe, and the B Boats B-25 Akumu, along with retired boats Rainbow and Papillon, all saw the worst of the weather and deserve special credit for persevering through the stormy and rainy conditions and staying safe late in the day.
You can find the the full results from the 2026 Farallones Race here.
44 years ago or so, I nearly died.
The three of us, aboard the 26’ Thunderbird, departed St Francis Yacht Club’s Visitor’s berth and headed out the gate ahead of a large fleet of yachts coming after us. We turned left after clearing the heads, they carried on, westerly. A building Northerly turned surprisingly into a strengthening Southerly, we passed Half Moon Bay beating hard into 12’ seas, thinking we’d make the safety of Santa Cruz Harbor, our summer home port. At Davenport, we were getting nervous and tried contacting the Santa Cruz harbor master, wondering about getting in one of maybe the best surf breaks on the northern Cali Coast. No luck but “Break Break” and I could make out the harbor master from Monterey saying the entrances were hopeless. At the same time we were discussing returning to Half Moon Bay, the chatter from the Farallon Island Two Handed was coming through. Boats lost, crews swimming… in the dark, the yacht surfing at 15 knots, was exhilarating and the boat was kind of comfortable. My crew continued trying to convince me that getting in through the slot opening in the long jetty that protected the man made Half Moon Bay Harbor, visibility had just shut down as flying spume and heavy spray marked the jetty we were surfing towards. “We got this, Wick. See the blinking red light? Now you got the green?” As we jammed forward, only under bare poles now, I suddenly noted the red light I was aiming the boat to the left of was inside the jetty! As 10 foot waves were being thrown at the rocks by the 45 knot breeze, I yelled at Chuck to take the tiller and head up, hard over, into the wind for enough time for me to get the new Bruce and 30 feet of chain out of the fore peak. Heave it out, wrap the 3/4” three strand nylon around the cleat I’d installed with a huge pad under the deck, and the boat fell back fast, stern feet away from the rocks. The anchor came up hard -held- and we watched the bow duck dive under wave after wave as her stern seemed to dance in the yawing void of endless troughs just there crashing in to the rocks on the jetty. “Channel 16!!”
I’ll tell you, I stopped by the marina -by car- many times after he brought out his mooring placement boat and threw us a line. “Drop your anchor line now!” As he throttled that boat forward into the seas. I never let that anchor go- we drug it all the way into Half Moon Bay harbor, where I was able to yell, “ahoy, leave us here, we will come in to the marina in the morning” which gave me the time to make sure the anchor was still attached to the foredeck cleat- “good for the night!” “Well lads, would you have swum to the jetty or tried swimming down the length of the jetty to the beach?”