It’s technically called the 18-Foot Skiff International Regatta, a series for the little boats nicknamed Aussie 18s. They raced on the Cityfront Monday-Friday of this past week. Once again, Rich Roberts reports from race HQ - St. Francis YC:

Howie Hamlin, 56, of Long Beach, and his NorCal crew of Paul Allen, 34, and Matt Noble, 23, won the hard way Friday by coming from behind in the 10th and last race to finish one point ahead of Australia's John (Woody) Winning. They did it by keeping their Harken-sponsored skiff right-side-up as everyone else around them was doing tumbling acts in the toughest conditions of the five-day event.

 

When it's blowing a solid 20-25 knots with gusts to 28, as it was Friday, sailing an 18 is a high-wire act in a hurricane, and capsizing is part of the game. But Hamlin's team remained the only one of 13 that never flipped.  

 

Hamlin came into the day with a one-point lead, but Winning had two advantages: an edge in the tiebreaker by having won more races, plus a one-point edge on the second discard that would take effect after the ninth race.

 

So Hamlin almost needed to win both races of the day, because Winning likely wouldn't be far behind in either. Hamlin's was the first boat on the course, checking currents as well as wind directions, and he led by 30 seconds at the first mark near the Golden Gate Bridge, with Winning third.

 

For awhile Hamlin appeared to be running away, but Winning was flying away from everyone else into second place, and as the fleet approached the leeward mark Hamlin's lead vanished.

 

"They got a puff behind us and sagged down underneath us," Hamlin said. "There was really nothing we could do."

 

He slipped to third and soon regained second, but all he could do was to chase Winning’s Yandoo around for the next two laps, cutting a one-minute gap to a final 20 seconds as Winning covered him tenaciously, putting the Australian one point ahead.

 

Now Hamlin needed not only to beat Winning in the last race but put one boat between them, at a point when there weren't many boats left. Only seven out of 13 started, and only three of those finished: Hamlin, Trevor Barnabas and Winning, in that order.

 

On shore Hamlin said, "I've got to go over and thank Trevor," which he did.

 

Otherwise, all he could do was sail his own race as most of the others flipped out of contention. Finally, Winning lost it while bearing away as he set his blue spinnaker after the last windward mark.

 

"We were quicker than him downhill," Winning said, "but [the wind] was probably just too fresh for us. It was a couple of sensational rides."

 

"That's why we do it," Hamlin said. "It's always tough here . . . the ultimate in skiff sailing. You wake up in the morning stoked, like going to war."

 

"Like turning on a switch," Allen said.

 

Noble said, "The fact that we went through the whole week without flipping is incredible."

 

On the final downwind run before finishing upwind that was on their minds all the way. With all of their competition then far behind, Allen over-trimmed the spinnaker to slow down and maximize stability.

 

So how does one avoid flipping an 18-ft Skiff when the wind gods crank up the steam?

 

"Mostly hard work," Hamlin said. "Any one of us could make it flip by doing the wrong thing. I've been doing it 12 years, and these guys grew up [in San Francisco] sailing in big breeze. They don't freak out, and we have good coordination and choreography and confidence in one another."

Top finishers (10 races; two discards):

 

1. Harken, Howard Hamlin/Paul Allen/Matt Noble, Long Beach, Calif., (5)-1-3-2-1-3-2-(4)-2-1, 15 points. 

2. 2.Yandoo, John Winning/David Gibson/Andrew Day, Australia, 1-3-(5)-1-3-(9)-3-1-1-3, 16.  
   

3. Appliancesonline, Herman Winning/Tim Austin/David Ewings, Australia, 4-2-1-(6)-6-6-1-2-3-(DNF), 25.  

4. 24hrRoadService, Trevor Barnabas/Aaron Links/Daniel Phillips, Australia, 3-(6)-2-3-4-1-5-5-(8)-2, 26.   

In Thursday's Ronstan Bridge to Bridge, which pits the skiff sailors against kiteboarders and windsurfers in a run from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge, the Aussie 18s dominated.

 

As a brisk breeze abandoned the kiteboarders, John Winning's Yandoo came from behind to seize first place overall in 19 minutes 54 seconds, followed by John’s son Herman Winning's Appliances Online 38 seconds later, Micah Lane's Macquarie Group in fourth place and Hamlin's Harken in sixth. Frank Wittke of France was third overall and the first kiteboard

to finish the 7 1/2-mile downwind charge.

 

There was a new class of entry: ocean racing keelboat, consisting only of Chris Welsh's legendary Ragtime, a 45-year-old wooden Spencer 65 from Newport Beach, that within the past year was overall winner of the race from Los Angeles to Tahiti and won its division of the Sydney-Hobart Race. In town for the Rolex Big Boat Series, Ragtime finished 16th overall in 28 minutes 4 seconds.

 

"I thought the race was to bring your best and go for it," Welsh said happily. "It was great. We hit 18 knots in flat water, and we passed all the kites when the wind died."

 

For the 18s, the race counted as the eighth of 10 in the regatta. Until Hamlin won it last year, no 18 had finished first overall.

- Rich Roberts

 

For complete results and more on the 18-Ft Skiff Regatta and the Bridge to Bridge, see www.stfyc.com.