Three ORC West Coast Champions crowned

16 September 2024 - San Francisco, CA, USA - Three new ORC West Coast Champions were crowned in the 60th edition of the Rolex Big Boat Series: Dave MacEwan’s Rogers 46 LUCKY DUCK in Class A, Drew Freides’s Cape 31 PACIFIC YANKEE in Class B and Zach Berkowitz’s J/100 FEATHER in Class C. For winning Class B, Freides also won a Rolex timepiece for his team’s victory in the 7-race series.

In what was a relatively windy four days of racing, today’s conditions had the most wind and waves of any, with 24+ knots of westerly breeze at the Golden Gate coupled with a west-flowing ebb current that created impressive chop to steer through upwind and surf over downwind.

As is typical of the Big Boat Series format, each class sailed a long course in the day’s only race: Class A raced 19.2 miles, Class B 14.8 miles and Class C 14.2 miles. The tough conditions prompted reefed mains in some entries and the smallest headsails and hardiest spinnakers in most others. Here is where the most experienced and polished teams rose to the top of the ranks in these conditions, which showed in the results.

For example, The LUCKY DUCK team is based in the Bay area and came off a 2000-mile Pacific Cup race to Hawaii this summer. Peter Wagner’s J/111 SKELETON KEY is a perennial champion in the competitive J/111 class both here on the West Coast as well as at other class events around the US, and in these conditions, they managed a 7-second corrected time win in Class B over another seasoned local team - Andrew Picel’s J/125 ARSENAL. Both finally defeated the stronghold the Cape 31’s had on this class over the past three days.

In Class C the FEATHER team is also local and well-versed in these challenging conditions, and had it not been for their scoring penalty imposed in the first race yesterday they would have had the lowest points total of any team in the three ORC classes.