(San Francisco, CA)- The latest edition of the J/Fest San Francisco is
taking place from April 5th to 6th on San Francisco Bay. The teams are
looking forward to excellent sailing conditions with sunny skies, 15-25
kts winds and an amazing party hosted Saturday night by St. Francis
Yacht Club. Perhaps the best part about this regatta is that all the
racing takes place right along the StFYC city-front, should be fun and
games for all!J/Fest has expanded the one-design program this year, welcoming in two new fleets that have grown significantly on the Bay- the J/70s and J/111s. They’re joining long-time supporters of the regatta, the J/24s, J/105s and J/120s. A good turn-out of thirty-plus boats are expected to participate in the weekend-long event.
Like their J/70 colleagues, the inaugural participation of six J/111s in J/Fest are bringing together many teams that are racing each other for the first time. Howard Turner’s SYMMETRY just won their division in the Double-handed Farallones Race. Dorian McKelvy’s MADMEN have some good racing under their belts from last year (good YouTube videos, too!). Joining them are AEOLUS (Rob Theis), BIG BLAST (Roland Vandermeer), DOUBLE DIGIT (Gorkem Ozcelebi) and TOPZY TURVY (Warren Konkel). How this fleet plays out for top honors is anyone’s guess. In any event, they too will be looking forward to some fun, fast “planing mode” rides if the breeze hits 17-plus kts!
The weekend forecast looks like it could shape up to be “classic” San Francisco Bay weather. According to Bruce Stone, “it looks like we’ll have some nice weather this weekend, and initially a counterclockwise course (of course wind dependent), heading out for the late ebb and down the city front on the early flood – sure beats short tacking the city front! That will probably switch for the third race on Saturday and we’ll go up the shore once the full flood is established and we want to head upwind in lessening flood inside. The fleet will likely split on this routing during the second race as the heavy rains we’re experiencing might create an earlier than normal ebb.” For more J/Fest San Francisco sailing information
