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.