Dinghies Descend Upon St. Francis Yacht Club for Elvstrom-Zellerbach
On May 16 and 17, over 60 dinghies made their way to the St. Francis Yacht Club (StFYC) for the annual Elvstrom-Zellerbach regatta, one of Northern California’s premier dinghy events. While normally a given on the annual calendar, whether the regatta would take place was up in the air until almost the last minute, due to the much-needed dredging at the Marina West Harbor entrance.
Seven different divisions raced, with three doublehanded classes and four singlehanded. Conditions were sunny, with relatively moderate breeze for San Francisco Bay in May. By far the largest division was the 20-boat C420 class, made up entirely of junior sailors. Six races were sailed, with San Francisco Yacht Club’s (SFYC) Beckett Kern and Elsie Schroeder coming out victorious. The winning duo won races one and two, and finished second in races three, four and six for a net total of eight points (they were OCS in race five, their drop). The StFYC/SFYC combination of Mark Xu and Oscar Melet finished second with a net total of 11 points, winning races three and four.
Another type of 420, the I420 (International 420) had six boats participating and saw a sibling duo victorious. The Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation’s (PYSF) Francisco and Sofia Dias tallied a net of six points from six races, winning four and finishing second in two, one of which was their drop. The adult doublehanded class, 5O5s, saw the winners — StFYC’s Eric Anderson and Nic Baird — record a nearly identical scoreline to that of the Dias siblings: four bullets and two second-place finishes.
In the realm of singlehanded racing, only eight ILCAs competed. Josh Gutow, representing Alameda Community Sailing Center (ACSC), won the four-boat ILCA 7 fleet with a net of seven points, and won the final three races of the event. Ian Adamson (StFYC) won the ILCA 6 series with eight points, just one ahead of ACSC’s Alan Sun. Adamson won three races, while Sun won one.
Two different Tera fleets saw the youngest competitors go head to head. Twelve boats competed in the RS Tera Pro fleet, with Richmond Yacht Club’s Skylar Dubuc earning a net total of 14 points from eight races, with three bullets and finishing outside of the top three only once (his drop, a fourth in race six).
Eight boats competed in the RS Tera Sport class, with StFYC’s Trey Roost putting on a dominant showing: a net total of eight points from seven races. Roost won four of the first five races, and finished outside of the top two only once.
You can find the full scores for the 2026 Elvstrom-Zellerbach regatta here.