Hi everyone,
By now everyone has seen a number of notes about the 2026 Elvstrom-Zellerbach regatta at St Francis on May 16-17. And we all know that the regatta is the pairing of two long time running events at St Francis - the Zellerbach going all the way back to the early 1960s, the Elvstrom the brain child of Don Trask and first run in 1975 with Paul Elvstrom himself finishing second (having never sailed a Laser before then). So lots of great history in this event!
This year the race office has tried to keep the number of fleets lower in order to improve the quality of the racing so we are looking at only 4 fleets racing on the City Front: 505s, i420s, ILCA 6 and ILCA 7. There is no ILCA 4 fleet (which traditionally has struggled to materialize anyway) but we hope that with the introduction of the new ILCA 4 sail this year the situation changes for the Fall Dinghy Regatta!
Of course we are also planning to have plenty of food and beverage for post race socializing at the club, always a good highlight of racing on the City Front!
NOTE: the early registration deadline is THIS Thursday (April 30) by the end of the day. After that the registration fee will increase by $40. Save yourself the pain and get registered ASAP!
Finally, I am sure plenty of you have seen the fun pics and videos on social media about the entrance to the harbor at St Francis. At this point it is only just passable at high tide... at low tide an ILCA could get through with board up (I think rudder down) but, obviously, in the current situation it would likely be challenging to get the RC fleet out on the water. The good news is that a new dredging company has been contracted (one with a good record of doing what they are contracted to do) and will start operations early next week. They anticipate the channel to improve daily and it should be possible for the RC to pass before the weekend of the regatta. In addition we should be in a high tide cycle making transit possible.
Hope to see a lot of you at this year's E-Z!
Tracy