St. Francis Yacht Club California Dreamin’ Series Through the Lens

In March 2025, our cover photo was an image of Jacob Rosenberg wing foiling underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, taken by Bay Area sailor, swimmer, outrigger paddler and all-around water guy, Bryan McDonald. Well, Bryan’s been at it again, taking some amazing photos, this time at the recent St. Francis Yacht Club California Dreamin’ Series. Bryan was on the water on official business, shooting the action as sailors made their way around the course. When we came across some of Bryan’s photos on his social media pages, we knew we had to share them. A big thanks to Bryan for allowing us to republish the following photos of the J/22s and their crews and his commentary that accompanied each shot.

First regatta of the season, and she started out with a nor’easter blowing down the course. Spectacularly sunny conditions and warm weather invited shorts and T-shirts on the race course.

Photo 1: In celebration of International Women’s Day, I love this shot of Hailey Thompson and her crew of Renee Lehto, Allie Shand and Lana Coomes, all barefoot, except for the foredeck (which was a good call). In windier conditions, sailing barefoot can be hazardous to one’s health, as wet, slippery decks and bare aluminum travelers tend to not mix well with unprotected feet. But these ladies had everything firmly under control when it came to expert boat handling and getting around the course competitively. Hailey was part of the crew that won the US Sailing Women’s Match Racing Championship.

Photo 2: This is a rare shot of Olympian Russ Silvestri and his crew Mario Yovkov, Tyler Baeder and Juniper Spinelli flying their spinnaker TOWARD the Golden Gate Bridge. Normally, the prevailing west-southwest breeze has the orientation the other way around. A rare sight to see, to be sure. But Russ on top of any regatta results is the norm as his team placed third for the event.

Photo 3: The StFYC team of Shawn Bennett, Melissa Feagin (formerly Melissa Purdy), Ben Loutit, and Connor Bennett. Continuing the International Women’s Day theme, Melissa is quite the accomplished sailor: Olympic trialist, former world champion in the Yngling class, twice all-American sailor, America’s Cup sailor, and many more amazing achievements. Always such a delight to run into Melissa. But this shot paints a Southern California-esque vision of warm-weather sailing with Ben Loutit hiking hard with shorts on, with the background distorted by heat waves emanating from the streets, confusing the native San Franciscans with the uncharacteristically warmer air temps. Karl the Fog was nowhere to be seen; neither was the prevailing westerly sea breeze and steep chop that would, normally, instantly give Ben a cold San Francisco Bay shower on his bare legs to make him think twice about wearing shorts on the race course (They ended up fourth for the weekend.)

The invitational regatta was held March 7–8. Overall winners were the crew of Cameron Feves, Lukas Kraak, David Alexander and Jackson McCoy from the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club. You can see the full results here.

Here’s a small selection of Bryan’s photos from Day One of the California Dreamin’ Series. Click on the image for a larger view.