Sailing: Local sailors gear up for 55th Big Boat Series
As summer begins to wind down on the Bay, all eyes in sailing circles are turned to the season’s last hoorah – the Rolex Big Boat Series (RRBBS), hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club (StFYC) and now in its 55th year. For some sailing teams, it’s the culmination of a year’s hard work on the water, the benchmark by which to check off improved boat performance and crew skills; for others it’s a time of pure camaraderie and getting together with old friends on and off the water. Either way, it’s an event that’s endeared itself to sailors near and far for many years, and one of a few regattas organized on the Bay which is a full four-day event packed with a social program to go with world-class racing on the water.
“It’s lots of racing in ultimate conditions,” Chris Kostanecki commented. A Ross resident and owner/skipper of the J70 Jennifer, Kostanecki will be racing his fifth RRBBS event. “Each time I drive home over the Golden Gate Bridge after a day’s RRBBS racing, I feel like I’ve been on a full adventure, like I do after a great powder day, it’s epic!”
Kostanecki’s on a roll after winning the 2019 J70 Corinthian National Championship this summer in Harbor Springs, MI. Kostanecki will be helming his boat with Matt Sessions (Mill Valley) on main and tactics, Pete Schoen (Corte Madera) on bow and Alex Higby (Strawberry) on trim. He’s got tough company to contend with including Scott Sellers, co-owner of the J70 1FA. Sellers took second at the J70 Corinthian National Championship so will be looking to level terms with Kostanecki this week. Other Marin boats competing in the J70 fleet include Bottle Rock, skippered by David Schumann (Mill Valley) and Pickled Herring, skippered by Tom Kassberg (Belvedere).
“The variables of sailing with all the classes out on the different courses — sometimes sailing through a course with a Santa Cruz 50 bearing down on us — is just another tactical element for us smaller boats,” Kostanecki said. “The J70 class has the Worlds here next year so we’re seeing depth in the fleet right now, it’s competitive and anybody in the group can win a race.”
In the ever-competitive J105 fleet, eight of this year’s 24 entries are from Marin and if history is anything to go by, it’s a sure thing that this year’s winner will be a Marin boat – watch out for Blackhawk, skippered by Ryan Simmons (Sausalito), Maverick, skippered by Ian Charles (Tiburon), and Ne*Ne, skippered by Tim Russell (Novato).
Fresh off a Division 4 win in the 2019 Transpac, Michael Moradzadeh (Belvedere, Tiburon) is racing his Santa Cruz 50 Oaxaca in ORR A (division Offshore Racing Rule A). He’ll enjoy the company of Transpac brethren Lucky Duck, a Santa Cruz 52, and Octavia, a Santa Cruz 50, along with Merlin, the biggest boat on the scene this week. Merlin is a Bill Lee Custom 70.5 owned by Chip Merlin, from Tampa, FL, currently enjoying a west coast racing tour after taking a third in class in the Transpac.
Novato resident Will Paxton hasn’t missed a Big Boat regatta since 1996 and has won class at least three times – he’s a RRBBS veteran for sure. This week he’s calling tactics on the J/125 Velvet Hammer, which made its RRBBS debut in 2018.
“The event has big depth, it’s the one everybody marks on their calendar,” Paxton said. “The best teams spend at least an entire weekend prior to the RRBBS practicing, which is what we did. You show up with your best effort.”
Paxton and crew on Velvet Hammer will be looking out for a team that’s coming from the east coast — Flying Jenny, an IC37.
“They’re an unknown which makes it exciting,” Paxton said. He’s fortunate to often enjoy podium places and confirms that teamwork is the key to success on the course. “I’m racing with the same team I have sailed with for years – we have sailed together on many platforms so every time we show up it’s not that hard to get our team to work together.”
A new Classics class will grace the Bay this year with five pre-1955 designed and built beauties including Water Witch, the recently restored 56’ P Class Cutter owned/skippered by San Francisco Yacht Club members John and Gena Egelston. The classics will sail one race a day, starting and finishing from the StFYC race deck.
This year’s 80-strong RRBBS fleet can look forward to improved ORR handicap racing, and a greener, more environmentally sustainable experience.
“StFYC spent months undergoing an extensive evaluation and improvement process that included working with the ORR rating office, hosting an ORR information session at StFYC with interested owners, and incorporating this feedback,” Susan Ruhne, Regatta Chair. “This year, we’ll have three course configurations plus two wind ranges giving us six correction-factor options to apply to each boat’s elapsed time in each race.”
Ruhne added that as part of a dedicated sustainability push, Rolex will not be doing bow stickers for the first time ever this year. As well, two mobile water filling stations outside the club will make it easy for teams to use refillable water bottles while reusable beer cups will be provided by US Sailing under their #sailgreen initiative.
Racing specialists Peter Isler and Chris Bedford will do their best to fire up the competition on day 1 of racing with their ‘Expert Knowledge’ briefing on weather and racing strategies at the St. Francis Yacht Club Starting Line Room at 8 a.m. Thursday morning. Spectating opportunities will be fabulous along the city front and Crissy Field. Daily reports and results: rolexbigboatseries.com.