After two days of racing in the 111-boat 44th edition of St. Francis Yacht Club’s prestigious Rolex Big Boat Series, some fleet leaders are beginning to emerge.

A counterpoint to last year’s regatta, which featured fall-like sunny, mild, calm weather, we’re seeing typical San Francisco summer conditions: fog in the morning and wind in the afternoon accompanied by ebb chop.

As the media sit here typing in the press room, we hear that a 15-minute postponement may be planned for the start of Saturday’s first race. At the moment, we are seeing gray skies, high fog, no breeze, and a moderate flood. We expect this all to change dramatically within 2-3 hours.

So now you’ve got the picture. Back to the leaders. Last year tended to favor some of the SoCal boats, especially in the J/105 fleet, as the conditions were more what they’re used to than what our local fleet had trained for. This year in that fleet, the top SoCal boat is in 7th place, (Gary Mozer’s Current Obsession 2), which the top six spots are dominated by Bay Area boats. Leading the pack are last year’s winner, Good Timin’, followed by current North American champion Donkey Jack, then Blackhawk and Aquavit. Only one point separates the first two boats. The J/105s continue to field the biggest fleet by far, with 31 boats.

Mario Yovkov’s Great Sensation leads the 1D35 fleet, followed by Jazzy and Diablita, both with 11 points. The Japanese entry Ebb Tide (actually the borrowed Double Trouble) is doing a lot better than the real Ebb Tide did last year. Masakazu Toyama’s Kamakura-based team won the first race and are currently in fourth place, tied for points (15) with Gary Fanger’s Sweet Sensation.

The venerable but durable 10-boat Express 37 fleet is led by Bartz Schneider’s Expeditious. Kame Richards’ Golden Moon is six points behind. The newest fleet, the exciting Melges 32s, have the highest percentage of out of town boats. Michael Illbruck’s Pinta, from Germany, currently leads the little pack.

Chance and Mr. Magoo are trading the lead in the eight-boat J/120 fleet, with Desdemona a distance third. Not surprisingly, Ed Durbin’s Mistral has comfortable lead in the six-boat Beneteau 36.7 fleet.

The glamor boats, putting the ‘big’ in Big Boat Series, IRC-A is led by Chip Megeath’s Criminal Mischief, a Tiburon-based R/P 45. One one point separates the top three boats: John Kilroy, Jr.’s SF/LA-based TransPac 52 Samba Pa Ti is in second, with Vincitore, an R/P 78 hailing from Georgetown, New Zealand, in third.

TNT, a Tripp 43, leads IRC-B. TKO, a J/122 in her sophomore year, has taken over the top spot from the Wylie 42 Scorpio in IRC-C. A trio of San Francisco boats lead IRC-D: Mike Garl’s Beneteau 40.7 White Dove, Gerard Sheridan’s Elan 40 Tupelo Honey, and JY Lendormy’s Sunkiss 45 Acabar.

Now we’re hearing a postponement won’t be needed. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, start your cameras!

For complete standings and more, see St. Francis YC’s site at www.stfyc.com.