SOLID GOLD DANCERS Top Legends Regatta

(San Francisco, CA)- The idea was simple and clever; invite your top sailors from your club to create a team that was inclusive of the club membership, from top sailors to women and juniors.  The idea was hatched by Russ Silvestri and friends at St Francis YC in San Francisco to encourage fun and mentorship amongst all member sailors in a fun, festive atmosphere, sailing aboard their fleet of J/22 one-design sailboats.

They called the event “The Legends Regatta of the Kingdom of St. Francis YC”.  Tongue in cheek, of course!  Here was the invitation to StFYC members that were selected as the “Legends” to pick their team of “Knights”:

“I, Jim Kiriakis, the reigning Commodore of St. Francis YC, do hereby invite you, a named and distinguished Lord and Legend of the Kingdom of St. Francis YC, to serve as Captain and to appoint your finest Skipper and Crew to enter into battle in the Legends Regatta of St. Francis YC, celebrating the honor and distinction our Club has enjoyed for four score and ten years.

The Legends Regatta and Crowning will take place on Friday, the 21st day of April in the year 2017. Racing will commence at precisely 1300 hours and no races will commence after 1551, which marks two hours before sunset on that day. The Regatta will be conducted upon the Kingdom’s J/22s with four valiant sailors per team.

On the day of the Battle, all Teams are encouraged to invite a cheering entourage clad in your Team Colors to bear witness to the Battle. The most spirited entourage will reduce their Team’s score by two points! The Kingdom’s finest Jurists will judge the Battle on the water. The Crowning will include a Proclamation announcing your conquest along with a Team photo published in Ye Olde Mainsheet.”

According to Russ Silvestri, “the weather was perfect, the racing on target and for those that stayed for the party, it was a great time! I feel fortunate to be a part of a club that has the willingness to create and try something new. I look forward to next year and the chance to improve upon the regatta!  And, we plan to have more junior sailors and women skippers and crew in the mix!”

As it turned out, there were two women’s teams- the “AMAZONS” and “MORE GIRLS”.  The Amazon’s Legend was John McNeill and their handpicked crew included Pam Healy (skipper), Jody McCormack, Betsy Weiler, and Elizabeth Little.  The More Girls Legend was Cindy Lou Delmas and their crew was comprised of Molly Carapiet (skipper), Molly Vandermoer, Helena Scutt, and Juliana Testa!

In the final tally, it was the SOLID GOLD DANCERS team of Russ Silvestri (skipper), Mario Yovkov, John Collins, Ethan Sargent (12 years old), all hand-picked by Legend Jim Cascino and Russ, that were crowned winners of the inaugural Legends Regatta.  It was pretty clear that Silvestri’s time in the J/22 doing a lot of match-racing and team-racing paid off, with their team winning 4 of 6 races to finish with 7 pts net.

Just behind them, the battle for second and third on the podium had become a three-way battle between three famous StFYC skippers- Paul Cayard, Craig Healy and Sean Svendsen.  Second was determined by a tie-breaker at 18 pts each.  Taking the silver was the HOLM BOYS team that was crewed by a bunch of famous “characters” in StFYC lore.  Legend Doug Holm had selected no less than Paul Cayard (skipper), Steve Marsh, and Norm Davant as the “holmies” to lead the charge.  Indeed, they had a great time!  Much to everyone’s surprise, no one fell overboard from laughing so hard- Norm did not want to be bow man!

The most intimidating team had the most ferocious name- the ELIMINATORS. Led by Legend Terri Anderlini, their crew of Craig Healy (skipper), Chris Smith, Seadon Wijsen, and Chris Trezzo managed to never win a race and, as a result, lost the tie-break to Cayard’s “holmies” team.  Many beers were likely paid out over that betting!  As Sir Silvestri promised, more fun to be had next year!  For more Legends on J/22s Regatta sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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