In lighter-than-usual conditions, Good Timin’, skippered by Chris Perkins, won the 2009 Rolex Big Boat Series at St. Francis Yacht Club. With no finishes out of the top 7, he put on a very impressive show in his first regatta of 2009. Rounding out the top 5 were Arbitrage, Mojo, SWOOSH, and Aquavit.

Richmond Yacht Club hosted the Sarcoma Cup on August 22-23, 2009 with the J/105’s racing on the “deep water” Berkeley Circle. There were three races on Saturday with the wind initially in the 19-20 kt range and building to 32 kt by the third race, with appropriate carnage around the course – shrimped kites, torn sails and a couple of boats retiring. Racing was tight among the top boats with the lead in each race changing several times, and Arbitrage ending the day with a 2, 2, 1, followed by Mojo with 3, 1, 3. On Sunday, the wind was slightly lighter at 16-22 kt but there were still some breakdowns in the fleet. Arbitrage seemed to have nailed the top spot on the podium with a 4 in the first race, but blew out its main outhaul at the first tack of the second race and fell back to 13th by the first windward mark. A jury-rigged repair blew out again, but the team fought back to a fifth place finish and secured the regatta win with 8 points over second place Blackhawk, who had an impressive day with two bullets. Mojo finished third, a point behind Blackhawk. Jam Session was fourth, and LuLu was fifth. Full results here.

St. Francis YC hosted 19 J/105s at its annual Aldo Alessio Perpetual Trophy Regatta on Friday July 1st through Sunday August 2nd. On Friday, a modified Ocean race course, including windward leg out the gate to the Pt Bonita Lighthouse buoy followed by several long windward leeward legs in the bay. The fleet enjoyed an unusual case of good pressure on both sides of the bridge making a long but very enjoyable 5 hour racing day. Saturday featured two buoy races on the city front concluding with Phillip Laby’s and Rich Pipkin’s Racer X (8 points) one point ahead of Adam Spiegel’s Jam Session (9 points including two bullets), and the tightly contended third position 7 and 8 points behind, leaving the final race on Sunday for a showdown; whoever beat the other likely takes overall win.

On Sunday, the final race sent the fleet on a bay tour crisscrossing the city front with several tight reaches and then a run down below Alcatraz for a final windward leg and a finishing run. Lighter winds and shifty conditions saw several locations with significant shuffling of fleet position including the classic random gusts and doldrums around Yellow Bluff and some less than obvious current effects along the city front. Working the shifts and finding the pressure was the key for the day. In the end consistency paid, with four top five finishes, Racer X earned the number one position.

Final results: First Place: Racer X (13 points), Second Place: Jam Session (16), Third Place: Scooter Simmons driving Blackhawk (18), Fourth Place: Rolf Kaiser driving Donkey Jack (24), Fifth Place: Woodley / Whitney / Titchener on Risk (25). Full results here.

San Francisco Yacht club hosted 19 J/105s at its annual Summer Keel Regatta on June 20th and 21st. Saturday’s racing seemed more like a mid-winter event, as the fleet was plagued with deteriorating light and shifty conditions. Saturday’s final race concluded in an easterly, with boats sailing back from the Berkeley Circle most of the way to Raccoon Straights under spinnakers. In the light and shifty conditions, consistency was nowhere to be found. At the end of the day on Saturday, with three races completed, more than half of the fleet (12 boats) were within 10 points of each other. Jeff Littfin and John Case’s Mojo (16 points) held a slim lead over Natural Blonde (20), Alchemy (21), Strangelove (21) and Jam Session (22).

On Sunday, the fleet was treated to more typical “light air” SF Bay conditions and two races were sailed in 15 – 18 knots from the southwest. Strong performances by Adam Spiegel’s Jam Session (2-1) and John Horsch’s Father Lovers (1-3) (it was Father’s Day, after all) caused as shakeup in the top five. Final results: First Place: Jam Session (25 points) Second Place: Mojo (28) Third Place: Father Lovers (30) Fourth Place: Blackhawk (34) and Fifth Place: Arbitrage (35).

Jeff Zarwell and the rest of the race committee did an outstanding job of getting races off in very mixed conditions.

Blackhawk ran away with the St. Francis Stone Cup, showing unstoppable upwind speed en route to the victory. Congratulations to Scooter Simmons and team!

Photos are available here: http://www.rockskipper.com/Sailing

The ocean race started with a very light northeasterly breeze and an ebb tide. Strangelove got pushed over early and painfully struggled to get back to the starting line as the rest of the fleet drifted out towards the bridge. Soon a nice 10-12 knot westerly filled in and the fleet tacked out by the headlands and into the fog. At the weather mark the first boats around the lightship were Mojo, Donkey Jack and Wonder. On the way back it was still ebbing so the big decision was to go North or South. This year the North paid as those who came in at Point Bonita and took advantage of the early flood ended up ahead. Alchemy sailed the hottest angle and got to the relief first followed closely by Blackhawk. Alchemy managed to hold them off and got the bullet.

The top five boats were Alchemy, Blackhawk, Wonder and Lulu; see full results.