Billed as the oldest long distance windsurfing race in the World, it is a marathon endeavor putting competitors in some of the roughest spots on the San Francisco Bay. The history of the race is almost more legendary than the race itself with the likes of windsurfing icons like Robby Naish, Ken Winner and local pioneers Bard Chrisman, Steve Sylvester, and Mike Zajicek all putting the names on the trophy over the years.

For a very interesting read on history of the event as well as development of the sport in it’s peak years –

http://homepage.mac.com/sailing/classichistory.pdf” target=”_blank”>check out the article Paul Henekin wrote about a mid fleet perspective of the race from 1979-1989. These were the real iron men, crossing the bay with no harnesses and wooden dagger boards swinging over their shoulders into their shins! The modern formula gear is much easier to use and get around the course compared to the unstable and small rigs back in the day.

With 15 mark rounding from outside the Golden Gate Bridge, across the Bay 8 times and finally through the Berkeley pier AND BACK- there’s always something that’s gotten the better of me year after year.

That is until this year. Surprising even myself, I led around the course at every mark and took both the SF Classic and the UN Challenge- for the best upwind time from Berkeley to the finish line at the St. Francis Y.C. Total round trip time: 2 hours, 26 minutes, 35 seconds. We had spend the previous week preparing for the Classic by running the top half of the course- getting down to Pt. Blunt and finally coming back home in winds exceeding 30 knots. I knew the voodoo chop at the south tower like the back of my hand.

That training really helped me push the entire race- knowing to take each leg as its own race and concentrating on the feat in front of me. Of course, when you’re racing across the entire Bay- you cant forget about the big picture. The tides played a huge factor in both the upwind and downwind legs of the course.

The kites were not so lucky and never got further than the Presidio shoal wind line and had their race abandoned on Saturday. Sunday,after 3 formula course races, the kites ran a modified SF Classic course with 1 less triangle at the top but managed to pull it off, making it to Berkeley and back in a big flood tide. The kite development is nearing what windsurfing was 20-25 years ago with huge gains every week as racers build new quad fin boards, new canted fins and new kites in prep for this years inaugural Kite Boarding Course Racing World Championship in San Francisco.

Regatta report and photos at www.stevebodner.blogspot.com

Results: www.stfyc.com

Steve Bodner

USA4

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www.stevebodner.com