New Yorker, Alex Roepers has been crowned World Champion after taking 4 from 7 bullets on San Francisco Bay for the 2014 World Championships.
With just one point separating second, third and fourth place, crews were keen to hit the water this morning to fight it out for the big one but the bay didn’t deliver...boats sat on the water for hours before a race officials were fighting against the clock to get one race in and set a course prior to the 3.30PM final warning signal.
International Class President Martin Hill had another successful day on the water finishing with a 2nd place in the last race and maintaining their overall second position on 34 points.
The breeze that usually makes San Francisco such a popular place for sailors was noticeably absent for the penultimate day of competition at the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship. A low pressure system had siphoned most of the air off the Bay, and with the fleet drifting around on the Berkeley Circle for several hours, the Race Committee took the decision to abandon attempts to run a race.
In the wake of the America’s Cup, high-stakes sailing is returning to San Francisco Bay, from October 15-18, when 19 international teams will commence racing for the coveted Rolex Farr 40 World Championship title.
Aboard identical 40-foot yachts, the teams will compete on fast-paced and technically demanding courses on the Berkeley Circle – touted as the best place to sail on San Francisco Bay – with the warning signal for the first race given each day at noon. The course is off Berkeley Marina, where the breeze is steady and there is less ship traffic than the middle of this busy Bay; current is also less of a factor, although due to its shallow nature, there can be choppy water near the shipping channels and when there is an ebb tide going against the wind.
Day two of the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship was a testimonial to the tight competition in this high-caliber fleet with three winners in as many races. After an hour delay to allow the breeze to come up, the 19-strong international fleet was tested on San Francisco Bay by a building 10 to 16 knot seabreeze and a flood tide contributing to increasing chop as the day wore on.
Boat of the day honors were taken by Wolfgang Schaefer’s German-flagged Struntje light which won the first race of the day and then followed with finishes of 3-5.
On Saturday crews awoke to 41 degree temperatures and NW winds at 16-18 knots.
The six FARR 40s completed three races in challenging conditions in terms of wind and waves with large swells intermixed with converging waves.
PENDRAGON, helmed by Scott Jackman (pictured at right), won Saturday's Sheldon Clark Regatta FARR 40 class with a 2, 2, 1 score line, followed by Leif Sigmond's NORBOY (1,3,3) in 2nd and Phil Dowd's Inferno (5,1,2) in 3rd.