Tuna Takes the Singlehanded Farallones

The smallest and slowest-rated finisher in Saturday’s Singlehanded Farallones Race — Stephen Buckingham’s Santana 22 Tchoupitoulas — took overall honors by a margin of more than three minutes. Buckingham bested the 64 other starters in the 58-mile race which began in light-air and a moderate ebb, the combination of which caused some premature starts.

It didn’t take long for the breeze to fill in from the northwest and gradually build to a high of about 20 knots, accompanied by only the odd wave larger than four feet. In addition to a lighter-air zone around the island, a hole off Pt. Bonita frustrated more than a few tired sailors on the way home and reshuffled the fleet. The first finisher on elapsed time was Jeffrey Lebesch who arrived home just before 6 p.m. with his Hammerhead 54 trimaran Hecla, the fastest-rated boat in the fleet. By a little after 9 p.m. all 65 starters had finished or been accounted for. Provisional results are available at: www.sfbaysss.org