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StFYC Moves Forward With New Race Director Felix Weidling and ORC Rule
The St. Francis Yacht Club continues to move forward in the world of racing. They recently opened registration for the 2023 Rolex Big Boat Series with a continued commitment to the ORC rating rule. To help sailors get on board with the rule the StFYC is inviting interested racers to join them on Friday, April 7, for a presentation with Dobbs Davis from Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) and StFYC’s new race director, Felix Weidling. The evening will open at 4:00 p.m. with a social hour and no-host bar, followed by the presentations at 5:00 p.m. and Q&A until 6:30 p.m. This event will be in the Starting Line Room and also be available via Zoom. For more information and links to Zoom click here.
Continuing to move forward includes bringing Felix Weidling aboard to lead StFYC’s Race Department and serve as race director. Weidling comes to San Francisco from Kiel Yacht Club in Germany’s north, where he served for a decade as race secretary and organized various world and continental championships, in addition to Kiel Week. Kiel Week is an annual nine-day sailing event that draws 4,500 sailors, 1,800 boats and 300,000 spectators, plus millions of visitors to the city for the festivities. An event of this scale hasn’t ever been seen on the West Coast, and would bring impressive new event opportunities to the StFYC and the Bay.

The StFYC has one of the busiest regatta programs in the world, with over 140 days of on-the-water activity each year. On top of all the regularly scheduled StFYC events, in 2023 Fiedling will be hosting the inaugural Wingfoil Pacific Coast Championships, the Women’s World Match Racing Tour, the 5O5 World Championships, and Rolex Big Boat Series — the West Coast’s pinnacle regatta.

In addition to bringing top-notch regatta planning and logistics skills to StFYC, Weidling will also be exporting his expertise in working with a team to develop and launch app-based technologies for registration and race monitoring, and management used at Kiel Week. Hundreds of European yacht clubs now use an app for race information tracking systems that improved and expedited race operations during Kiel Week.
A native of Kiel, Germany, Weidling grew up competing in dinghies, eventually graduating to larger ORC boats and crewing on an IMX 38, Farr 40, and 12-Meter. During his racing career, he competed in the 2007 America‘s Cup in Valencia for United Internet Team Germany, crossed the Atlantic from Newport, RI, to Hamburg, Germany, in the HSH Nordbank Blue Race, was Vice European Champion in the 12mR class in Barcelona, and was world champion in the X-99 one-design class. He enjoys cruising and sailing recreationally, often with his family, who will be relocating with him to San Francisco. “I’ve participated in and managed regattas all my life, and I’m looking forward to the challenge of doing what I do well in a new city, a new country, and at a club with such an exciting history and future,” he said. “I am very thankful for the Executive Race Committee at Kiel Yacht Club. Without their support, I would not have had the opportunity to be here.”
Weidling started his new role in March, so he is already busy running the active StFYC race schedule.