San Francisco Yacht Club Hosts Annual Elite Fleet Regatta
On May 16 and 17, the one-design keelboat fleets of San Francisco Bay resumed their regular racing season at San Francisco Yacht Club’s (SFYC) Elite Fleet Regatta. Six classes raced across the two-day event, with 62 boats competing in total.
Most of the fleets that were racing had not been on the water competitively in longer than would be normal for mid-May, but as St. Francis Yacht Club’s (StFYC) April Spring Fest regatta was canceled due to the West Marina harbor dredging, many fleets hadn’t raced since mid-March.
The event was sailed in unseasonably light to moderate, albeit shifty, conditions, with sun shining down all weekend. The wind only got as high as the mid-teens while boats were competing.
Moore 24 Fleet
Sixteen Moores showed up for the regatta, which was also serving as the class’s 2026 Pacific Coast Championship. The regatta was won by Firefly (RYC), sailed by Joel Turmel, Karl Robrock, Noah Barrengos and Rob Duboc. The Richmond-based boat finished outside the top two only once, and ended the event with a net total of six points from five races (Firefly’s drop was a third in race four). Turmel and team won races two and three.
Second behind Firefly was Rowan and Vikki Fennell’s PARAMOUR (SFYC) with a net total of nine points. Peter Schoen, Roe Patterson and Erica Ryan rounded out the podium aboard Mooretician (RYC) with a net total of 10 points, and won the final two races of the event to jump onto the podium.
J/105 Fleet
J/105, the biggest one-design fleet on the Bay, was back in action with 23 boats on the starting line for the weekend. Randy Hecht’s three-time defending North American champion Niuhi (SFYC) won the event with 12 points (the J/105s were not afforded any drops). Hecht and team won races three, four and five, including a few horizon jobs, and finished fourth and fifth in races one and three, respectively.
Tim Russell’s Ne*Ne (SFYC) was second, just two points behind Hecht. They had been leading the regatta going into the last race, but finished fourth in race five while Niuhi won. Though Russell and team didn’t win any of the races, they were never outside the top five. In third was Nicole Breault aboard Arbitrage with 32 points. Breault was sailing with an all-women team in preparation for the 2026 New York Yacht Club Women’s International Championship in September. The She-Wolves leapfrogged their way onto the podium with a strong day two, finishing fourth and second in races four and five, respectively. (You can read more about Breault and the She-Wolves in Latitude 38’s June issue, out on June 2.)
This racing editor was also competing among the J/105 fleet, and our team aboard Peaches had an uncharacteristic regatta. It was one of those weekends when our wonderful sport has a way of humbling us and reminding us that it’s important to have fun with the process, even when the results don’t go the way you want them to.
Other Fleets
The other four fleets that were competing in the regatta featured between four and eight boats. The biggest of the non-Moore or -J/105 fleets was the Melges 24 fleet, won by Duane Yoslov aboard Looper (SFYC). Yoslov recorded a picket fence for a perfect score of five points from five races. Six J/88s competed, with 2025 Rolex Big Boat Series winner Brice Dunwoodie’s team aboard Ravenette (StFYC) taking the win with eight points and wins in races two, three and five. Brandon Mercer’s Tenacious Cuttlefish (RYC) won the five-boat J/24 fleet with seven points, never finishing outside the top two. The smallest fleet — four Olson 25s — was won in picket-fence fashion by David Gruver’s Sketch (SFYC).
All of these fleets will now turn their eyes to June, and the peak of the windy season on San Francisco Bay. You can find the full scores for SFYC’s 2026 Elite Fleet Regatta here.