RBBS 2025: ‘Arbitrage’ Wins J/105 Fleet; ‘Zeus’, ‘Skeleton Key’ and ‘Ravenette’ Victorious
The 2025 Rolex Big Boat Series concluded at St. Francis Yacht Club (StFYC) on Sunday after four days of hard-fought racing across six different fleets. The breeze was a stark contrast to last year’s breeze-on and big-ebb Big Boat Series, with flood currents and light to moderate wind being the conditions during most of the races.
J/105
The J/105 fleet saw wild variance across the fleet from race to race, with a different boat winning each of the seven races throughout the weekend. When all was said and done, Arbitrage (StFYC), sailed by Bruce Stone and Nicole Breault, was the most consistent boat in the fleet. Their final tally was 29 points, 10 ahead of second-place Ryan Simmons’ Blackhawk (SFYC), the winner of the 2023 and 2024 Big Boat Series J/105 fleet.
“It really feels good when you come across the line in first,” Breault tells Latitude. “Winning that race the first day was like a moment where there was suddenly hope that maybe we’re a team that is really in this. The next day we had solid results with a three/three, and it was just a matter of avoiding anything big and disastrous that could really hurt us.”
“I think the key is just being on the starting line and being able to catch the first shift and sailing clean,” Stone adds. “In the last few regattas I hadn’t been getting the best starts, so I just said ‘OK, I’ve just got to shoot the lights out and make sure that I’m on the starting line.’”
Express 37
The Express fleet nearly doubled in size from last year, but Loca Motion (MPYC), sailed by Liam Chaffey and Heidi Hall, repeated as champions. They won the first two races, and then consistently finished in the top three to stay ahead of Andy Schwenk’s Spindrift V (RYC) in second.
“The key moment today was that we got passed by three boats and then won our position back by going in by the Cityfront,” Hall tells Latitude. “We didn’t think there was going to be much current relief there but there was, so we just had to go with it.”
J/88
Though he finished third in last year’s Big Boat Series, Brice Dunwoodie on Ravenette (StFYC) came into the regatta as the odds-on favorite in the J/88 fleet, and did not disappoint. He won all but one race, finishing eight points clear of second-placed Speedwell (RYC).
“We have really good crew work,” Dunwoodie tells Latitude. “Lots and lots of hours together that came through for this regatta … the level of competition, even though we did really well, there was a lot of dogfighting going on at places like the top of the course.”
ORC A
Michael Firmin’s Zeus (CYCA/RSYS) dominated ORC A, recording a picket fence. Notably, the ORC A fleet was sent out to Point Bonita on Saturday, marking the first time in 20 years a Big Boat Series race has gone that far out of the Bay.
“It’s a great offshore boat. We’ve been campaigning for about two-and-a-half years,” Firmin tells us. “We loved [going out to Point Bonita] … we love going offshore, so for us, cracking the sheets with a little bit of twist and driving the boat hard through heavy swells, the boat performs really well. Once we got around the windward can we went straight down and launched that puppy.”
ORC B
The only ORC division to be racing for a Rolex was won by Peter Wagner’s J/111 Skeleton Key (StFYC), besting two Cape 31s to claim victory.
“Friday was a challenging day; the Capes are always a handful for us,” Wagner tells us. “They really showed their form on that day, but it was great to be able to bounce back and get our act together on Saturday and Sunday … the boats were well sailed; there were a lot of really close races. Four of the races were decided by five seconds or less, so I think that the ORC system is working well.”
ORC C
ORC C was won by Zach Berkowitz and his team on Feather for the second year in a row. Despite having a shorter waterline than every other boat in the fleet, Berkowitz kept Feather fast and consistent, and spent long portions of races beating boats with longer waterlines than his, boat to boat.
“It’s always fun to sail against guys like Peregrine, with Tad Lacey, who was my sailing instructor,” Berkowitz says. “I’ve got a great mix of young and old people on the boat. Two guys over 60, myself and Chris Steinfeld. We’ve got two guys in their 30s, and I’ve got two guys in their 20s, and it’s the kids, Hoel Menard and Max Roth, that are very active in sailing and they’re bringing their racing experience to the team, and it’s a great gel.”
You can find the full results of the 2025 Rolex Big Boat Series here, and more in-depth coverage of the regatta will be coming out in the October issue of Latitude 38.