Bridge to bridge

Change of pace for the 18 foot Skiff fleet at their International Regatta in San Francisco

Out of the cold, gray mist and fog they came late Thursday afternoon, Howard Hamlin's blue-spinnakered Pegasus White 18-foot skiff on the right and Anthony Chavez kite board on the left, both flying at nearly 20 knots toward the finish line of the Ronstan Bridge to Bridge Race.

Hamlin was farther downwind as they approached the Oakland Bay Bridge, but he had to jibe to make the finish line, while Chavez had set himself up for a straight shot under the span and crossed just in front.

"Ten feet, I think that was all he got us by," Hamlin said.

Chavez, wary of the long bowsprits the skiffs carry downwind, said, "I thought I was gonna get speared at one point."

The five-mile race from the Golden Gate is a change of pace feature of the annual 18' Skiff International Regatta. Chavez, 28, is one of the lead competitors in the Thursday night summer kite board series on San Francisco Bay. Only six skiffs started the race, joined by 12 windsurfers and 21 kite boards.

The wind was about 20 knots, but Chavez said, "I thought either the skiff on my right or the windsurfer on my left were going to beat me if the wind went light, but we had good wind all the way to the finish."

The windsurfer who finished third was Seth Besse, who finished first overall last year.

Hamlin, sailing with Mike Martin and Trent Barnabas, was not terribly disappointed. It was the first time in four years he had beaten all the other skiffs between the bridges, and with a second place to John Winning in the day's first romp around the buoys he increased his lead to six points over the defending champion from Australia.

Only the ninth and tenth races remain Friday, with Hamlin enjoying the luxury of a second discard to give. Only a disastrous day could deny him the championship.

"It was a great race," he said of the bridge event, "a real adrenaline rush all the way."

Australia's Jack Young, sailing Pegasus Gold, nosedived out of contention with two DNF (did not finish) results when he flipped in the first race while running third and broke his headstay in the bridge race.

That opened the door wide for 16-year-old Shark Kahn, sailing with Cameron MacDonald and Paul Allen, who climbed to third place overall with a pair of thirds. They were looking at second place right to the finish of the bridge race when local favorites Chad Freitas, sailing Skiff Sailing Foundation White with Dana Jones and Matt Noble, out-jibed them to cross the line about a boat length in front. That capped Skiff White's best day so far with a fourth and a second.

Freitas' only regret was that skiffs didn't sweep the first three spots.

"If we had all picked an ideal angle [turning toward the finish] all three of us might have beaten [Chavez]," Freitas said.

The regatta is one of the class's three international events, along with the European International Championship and the JJ Giltinan Trophy Championship, the class's premier event contested annually in Australia since 1938.

Results so far:

1-Pegasus White - Howard Hamlin, Mike Martin and Trent Barnabas, 11
2-Yandoo - John Winning, Andrew Hay and Geoff Bauchop, 17
3-Pegasus Black - Samuel (Shark) Kahn, Cameron MacDonald and Paul Allen, 24
4-Pegasus Gold - Jack Young, Euan McNicol and Casey Smith, 25
5-Fisher & Paykel - Andrew Cuddihy, Brent Dennis and Gerard Smith, Newton, 39
6-Skiff Sailing Foundation White - Chad Freitas, Dana Jones and Matt Noble, 41
7-Rag & Famish - Grant Rollerson, David Cunningham and Chris Cleary, 48
8-Fernside/Skiff Sailing Blue - Patrick Whitmarsh, Kevin Richards and Ben Glass, 49