Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Strong Performance for J/Crews in Doublehanded Farallones Race

J/120s sailing Doublehanded Farallones Race (San Francisco, CA)- Fifty boats were registered to start the 2018 edition of the infamous Doublehanded Farallones Race, hosted by the Bay Area Multihull Association (BAMA).  This year, most of the top boats completed the picturesque, iconoclastic 58.0nm race between 9 to 10+ hours elapsed time (a not so fast average of ~ 5.8 kts to ~ 6.4 kts).

Going for it were five J/crews from various Bay area sailing clubs and most all of them completed the circuit out and around the foreboding Farallones Island and rocks.

Leading the J/fleet home was Rich Pipkin & Mary McGrath’s J/125 CAN’T TOUCH THIS, with an elapsed time of 8:54:20, taking 5th place in Class 4 ULDB <42.  Top banana distinction went to Howard Turner & Jay Crum’s J/111 SYMMETRY, going around in 9:06:16 to take the bronze on the podium.  Just behind them in 4th place was Roland Vandermeer & Andy McCormick’s J/111 BIG BLAST with a circumnavigation time of 9:06:26! Yes, just TEN seconds behind their J/111 classmate!  Wow, talk about a close, close, “hair by the chinny chin chin” finish, eh??

Similarly, but not quite as close, were the trio of J/120s sailing in Class 6 ULDB >42.  Taking those honors was Ludovic Millin & Mark Scott’s SAETTA with a time of 9:16:03 to grab the silver in their class.  Second J/120 was Sean & Jeff Mulvihill’s JAMANI crossing in a time of 9:18:42, just over 2 minutes behind their buddies on SAETTA, taking 4th in class.  Then, Timo Bruck & Fraser Novakowski’s TWIST crossed in 10:02:43 to take 6th in class.  Sailing photo credits- Chris Ray/ Pressure-drop.us.  For more BAMA Doublehanded Farallones Race sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.