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ROLEX BIG BOAT

Stakes High with One Race to Go

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A chill in the air did nothing to lessen the heat on the race course at the Rolex Big Boat Series, where 66 boats in eight classes have now completed three days of competition and look forward to the last and longest race of the event. Tomorrow’s “Bay Tour” race, which traditionally covers 20 or more nautical miles, will solidify who takes home class honors and the six special St. Francis Yacht Club Perpetual Trophies, each accompanied by a specially engraved Rolex timepiece. An IRC North American champion for 2012 also will be crowned.

While four teams have dominated their classes since day one (Vesper in IRC A, Shadow in Catamaran Class, Golden Moon in Express 37, and Double Trouble in IRC C), the decks have been shuffling in the remaining four classes.

The J/105 Class, the largest here at the regatta, has been hosting a different leader every day of the event. Donkey Kong, co-owned by Rolf Kaiser/Shannon Ryan/Steve Kleha (San Francisco, Calif.), took the top spot today with finishes of 7-1, moving yesterday’s front-runner Godot, skippered by Phillip Laby (Oakland, Calif.), down to second place.  The two teams share the same point score, so tomorrow’s race will be a gun fight.

“Different people are winning every race, and there are still three or four boats that can actually win the regatta,” said Kaiser, who skippered the boat. “Today we were really focused on boat speed and tried to make some changes to how we were attacking the races. We’ll go out tomorrow and do our best and see what happens.”

Also seeing a change of fate was the J/120 Class’s defending champion Chance, skippered by Barry Lewis (Atherton, Calif.), which ousted John Wimer’s Desdemona from the first-place position it has held all week. “In our fleet, it is like this during every Rolex Big Boat Series,” said Chance’s tactician Doug Nugent (San Francisco, Calif.). “It always comes down to the last race, and it’s always a battle.”  Chance’s mainsail trimmer Scott Kozinchik (Fairfax, Calif.) explained that his team’s mission tomorrow is fairly straightforward:  “We have to beat Desdemona.  We’re one point up on them, and they are going to come at us hard.  If they were to win and we come in second, we would tie, and they would win on the count-back (tiebreaker).”

In IRC D, Frank Morrow’s (San Francisco, Calif.) Hawkeye, which yesterday had knocked off Gerard Sheridan’s Tupelo Honey for the lead, turned in a 3-1 today to stay one point ahead of its now-closest adversary. Tupelo Honey finished 2-2 today in the seven-boat fleet, and with eight points between it and the current third-place finisher, it is simply a matter of who beats whom tomorrow that determines whether Hawkeye or Tupelo Honey wins.

Daniel Woolery’s (Alamo, Calif.) King 40 Soozal climbed back on top today in IRC B after temporarily losing its grip on the lead yesterday to Brad Copper’s Custom Tripp 43 TNT, which now stands in second behind Soozal by two points.  The final showdown tomorrow will again be determined by which of these two boats beats the other.

In Catamaran Class, Peter Stoneberg’s (Tiburon, Calif.) ProSail 40 Shadow has wrapped up the series before the last day with today’s powerful performance that added two victories to two more already posted in a thus-far six-race lineup.  Stoneberg, who is the commodore of St. Francis Yacht Club, came up with the idea of adding the new catamaran class when it became clear that the Rolex Big Boat Series would be bracketed by two America’s Cup World Series events being held here in AC45 catamarans. When eight teams entered, it was clear the concept had taken off, just as the cats have been prone to do here, mingling with the monohull yachts in a fast, furious and certainly spectator pleasing way as they make their way around courses that often hug the shore.

Sailed since 1964, the St. Francis Yacht Club Big Boat Series added Rolex Watch U.S.A. as a title sponsor in 2005. A specially engraved Rolex timepiece will be awarded to winners in the four IRC classes, the J/105 class and the Express 37 class.

For more information, live race footage, tracking, and daily video by T2P, go to www.rolexbigboatseries.com. Find us on facebook at St. Francis Yacht Club – Racing, and follow @bigboatseries.  Competitor details can be found at http://www.yachtscoring.com.

About Rolex
Leading brand of the Swiss watch industry, Rolex, headquartered in Geneva, enjoys an unrivalled reputation for quality and expertise the world over. Its OYSTER watches, all certified as chronometers for their precision, are symbols of excellence, performance and prestige. Pioneer in the development of the wristwatch as early as 1905, the brand is at the origin of numerous major watchmaking innovations, such as the OYSTER, the first waterproof wristwatch, launched in 1926, and the PERPETUAL rotor self-winding mechanism, introduced in 1931. Rolex has registered over 400 patents in the course of its history. A truly integrated manufacturing company, Rolex designs, develops and produces in-house all the essential components of its watches, from the casting of the gold alloys to the machining, crafting, assembly and finishing of the movement, case, dial and bracelet. Rolex is also actively involved in supporting the arts, sports, the spirit of enterprise, and the environment through a broad palette of sponsoring activities, as well as philanthropic and patronage programs.

About the St. Francis Yacht Club
The St. Francis Yacht Club was founded in 1927 and has been host to many of the most prestigious national and international championships in sailing. With over 40 regattas on its calendar annually, the club is widely regarded as having one of the top racing and race management programs in the country.  In 1964, the St. Francis Yacht Club’s Big Boat Series was established to take place annually on San Francisco Bay. In 2005, Rolex Watch U.S.A. became the regatta’s title sponsor (after three years as presenting sponsor), and since, the Rolex Big Boat Series has become one of the most important sailing events in the U.S.

09/09/2012 10:57:00 © riproduzione riservata

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