California Dreamin' Match Racing in J22s, St Francis YC, San Francisco. Image copyright Chris Ray.
by Rich Roberts
It's a long reach right now, but Shawn Bennett and San Francisco may be a match race made in heaven ... the latter being the 2013 America's Cup in his hometown on the Bay.
Who knows? Bennett, who won the Prince of Wales match race regatta in Michigan in 2010, might be racing for the Auld Mug on one of those 72-foot catamarans in a couple of years. For the moment, his test is the California Dreamin' Series, which finds him unbeaten after the first six round-robin races among seven other ambitious rivals.
California Dreamin' Match Racing in J22s, St Francis YC, San Francisco. Image copyright Chris Ray.
The event will wind up Sunday and be followed by the Butler Cup at Long Beach next weekend and the finale at San Diego March 12-13. The overall winner of the series gets a pass to the Ficker Cup at Long Beach March 17-19 to determine that contest's traditional entry into the Grade 1 Congressional Cup against the world's top pros March 22-26.
John Horsch, another local from Treasure Island Sailing, stands alone in second at 5-1, followed by veteran Russ Silvestri of San Francisco and Dustin Durant of Long Beach at 4-1, Saverio Ramirez of Italy and Bruce Stone, San Francisco, at 2-4, David Storrs of Long Beach, 1-5, and Nick Dugdale, San Francisco, 0-6.
California Dreamin' Match Racing in J22s, St Francis YC, San Francisco. Image copyright Chris Ray.
This weekend's competition is being sailed on J/22s with crews of three. Saturday may have caught some off guard with light winds of 3-knots not from the west through the Golden Gate Bridge but from the northeast. Worse yet, it was such a challenge sailing against what little breeze there was plus the notorious 5-knot ebb tide that boats were sailing backwards under full sail.
California Dreamin' Match Racing in J22s, St Francis YC, San Francisco. Image copyright Chris Ray.
So the St. Francis YC race committee decided to wait about an hour until conditions returned closer to normal, and everyone enjoyed a modest 8-knot westerly until sundown.
Click here for live video streaming of the match racing on Sunday, California time
California Dreamin' Match Racing, St Francis YC
