Rolex Big Boat Series Jams

After a gorgeous opening day, the St. Francis YC’s Rolex Big Boat Series only got better through the weekend. On Friday the fleet was treated to yet another day with breeze to the low 20s, albeit with more fog. With upper-level moisture moving into the area later that night, it was anyone’s guess what Saturday would bring.

There weren’t many people guessing there’d be breeze from the high 20s to the low 30s, but that’s exactly what showed for the 80 or so boats in the fleet. With a ripping ebb fueling a steep chop, the Bay became a carnage factory, claiming gear and sails. There was enough carnage that we even got a little desentisized to it. The conditions were such that the Farr 30s only sailed one race that day and many boats were in full-on survival mode in what was one of the most epic days of the year.

Sunday proved to be the perfect coda for the weekend with sun and breeze into the low 20s for the Bay tour and the three bouy races for the Farr 30s. By the time the boats were arriving back at the dock, some close contests had been settled.

In the Farr 30s, Santa Barbara’s Deneen Demourkas prevailed to take her first Farr 30 world championship on her ninth attempt. Trailing Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad by four points in the penultimate race, Demourkas’ Groovederci was leading with Richardson a couple of places back. At the bottom of the final run, Richardson fouled another boat and had to do a penalty turn, dropping to tenth and handing Demourkas a four-point lead going into the final race. Demourkas sailed an awesome final race to take the win.

IRC A was a landslide for Jim Swartz’ TP 52 Vesper, which proved to be the class of the eight-boat division despite being pushed hard all week by Ashley Wolfe’s TP 52 Mayhem. IRC B proved to be a hell of a battle between Brad Copper’s Tripp 43 TNT and Sy Kleinman’s Schumacher 54 Swiftsure II, with the former taking the honors by only two points. Andy Costello’s Double Trouble was the only straight-bullets winner, taking IRC C — a.k.a. the Fast 40s — with blazing downwind speed and solid crew work. Don Payan’s J/120 Dayenu took IRC D by a 16-point margin.

Scooter Simmons wrapped up a season championship in the J/105 Fleet #1 by running away with the division for his first RBBS win with his crew on Blackhawk. Chance‘s Barry Lewis had built enough of a lead that all he and his crew had to do was keep it close on Sunday to win the J/120 division, which they did. Kame Richards notched his third-straight RBBS win with Golden Moon in the Express 37 fleet.

We’ll have a lot more in the October issue of Latitude 38.