Encinal Yacht Club Hosts 2025 Wylie Wabbit Nationals

The 2025 Wylie Wabbit Nationals, hosted by Encinal Yacht Club (EYC), were sailed on Oct. 17–19. This year’s event was the 41st National Championship event for these lightweight speedsters.

This year’s event featured 12 boats. Longtime class member Aaron Sturm traveled the farthest, coming north from San Diego to compete in this year’s Nationals. The regatta was a unique three-venue format, expertly run by EYC.

The fleet has a mix of long-term and new owners. Some of the younger members point out that the older crowd has been sailing these boats longer than the new owners have been alive. This year it was the older (and craftier?) crowd that prevailed.

Friday was a long-distance race, starting just off the end of the Berkeley Pier. Due to light winds, the race committee chose a short beat to YRA Mark 8, then a long reach/run to the finish off the EYC club docks on the Oakland-Alameda Estuary. It was a moderate to calm race against the ebb current, with some boats gaining places by anchoring south of the Bay Bridge near the Port of Oakland –- shades of the Three Bridge Fiasco! The wind finally filled, and the boats made it to the finish after about three hours on the course. Following the race, EYC hosted food and drinks for the fleet around their pool.

Saturday saw five races on the Estuary in front of the EYC. The results had many mix-ups in the finish orders; during the three-day event, six different boats won one of the nine races. There was enough wind to sail, but the conditions were shifty and puffy, with both sides of the Estuary favored at times. Even the middle paid off occasionally. Once again, after racing, EYC hosted a friendly gathering, with displays of drone footage of the racing, and a regatta dinner that evening.

On the third day the three support boats towed the entire fleet out of the Estuary. The plan was to race in the South Bay, but the glassy conditions had the race committee keep the tow going, and the race venue ended up south of the Berkeley Pier off Emeryville. The first race was quite windy, the second moderate, and the final race of the regatta was again in light air. The committee shortened the course to finish at the second-lap weather mark in the final race. The race committee ran an excellent event, ready to shorten course or tow the fleet as needed.

After the final finish, two boats headed back to EYC, with 10 boats beating around the end of the Berkeley Pier and enjoying a firehose reach back to Richmond Yacht Club — the fastest sailing of the weekend. It was an exciting way to get home for these lightweight speedsters.

EYC put on a great event for our class, and we were quite happy to have a dozen boats in close racing in the three different venues. Our congratulations to team Erkelens on Jack (RYC), who repeated their win of last year and have earned the most national championship wins in our class history. Andy Hamilton was at the helm, and Zach Shapiro was the sheet hand. Second place went to Wabbit builder Kim Desenberg on Mr. McGregor (RYC), with Bart Hackworth and Liza Trombi providing excellent advice, direction and boat handling (they were polite and let Kim steer). In third was Aaron Sturm on Wild Bunch (MBYC), with Guillaume Canivet on the trapeze and Larry Schmitz at the helm.

The class is evaluating next year’s locations — Clear Lake, Huntington Lake or Tomales Bay — for their 2026 National Championships.

You can see the full scores from the 2025 Wylie Wabbit National Championship here.