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Rolex Big Boat Series

San Francisco's prime-time regatta draws 900 sailors the 42nd time around.

The fleet off San Francisco.

The fleet off San Francisco. Rolex

The oldest trophy in the West, the St. Francis Perpetual Trophy, went to Jim Gregory (Danville, Calif.), winner of the IRC A class whose Morpheus narrowly defeated the defending champion Robert Youngjohn’s (Woodside, Calif.) DK46 Zephyra, which finished second ahead of Swiftsure II, owned by Sy Kleineman, who celebrated his 26th Big Boat competition. This win was the first-ever for Morpheus, a Schumacher 50 built in 2001. “We were second last time around and we really thought that Zephyra could not be beaten, said Gregory. Line honors in IRC A went to Lani Spund’s (Los Gatos, Calif.) Kokopelli2, which corrected to fourth overall.

When John Siegel won the IRC B class and the City of San Francisco Perpetual Trophy, he became one of very few four-time Perpetual Trophy winners in the history of the St. Francis YC. His Wylie 42 Scorpio also won its class in 2005, 2004 and 2003. Scorpio had enough of a lead going into the final race to free Siegel from worrying about the final day’s finish. He ended the regatta with five firsts and two seconds, earning a 12-point lead over Mark Howe’s (Richmond, Calif.) White Fang. “We wanted to go out and sail and stay out of everyone’s way. We had a very good race, Siegel said.

Gerard Sheridan won IRC C class on his Elan 40 Tupelo Honey, and with it the Atlantic Perpetual Trophy.

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