Posted by 
The 5O5 Class Championships in 2023 will be hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, California. The two-day 5O5 Pre-Worlds and North American Championship will be on September 23-24. The 5O5 World Championship will be sailed September 26 through October 1, with five days of racing plus one lay day for a total of six days.
Initially slated to be held in Santa Cruz, CA, the event was moved due to damage from the winter storms which impacted harbor access.
“There is no boat like a Five-O,” said said Beau Vrolyk, 2023 Commodore of St. Francis Yacht Club. “The extraordinary levels of skill in the fleet, and the tremendous camaraderie, make this one of our favorite fleets. Our Race Committee has been testing course options and working closely with the local fleet leadership, including a few World Champions, to ensure the best possible racing and parties.”
For three-time 5O5 World Champion Mike Holt, to be able to participate in a World Championship event on his own turf is exciting—particularly in a fleet as competitive and challenging as the International 5O5.
“It’s great to have the regatta in California. It’s an amazing venue in an iconic spectacular piece of water,” Holt stated. “It was very gracious of StFYC to step in at the last minute to host the event. It’ll be fun and I’m looking forward to it.”
The depth of talent in the 5O5 class is impressive, including sailors like Holt who started sailing the boat in 1985 when he was 16 years old.
“I’ve pretty much done only 5O5 sailing all those years. I’ve maybe taken a few years off here and there and sailed other things—keelboats, dinghies, 49ers, 18s—but it’s what I keep coming back to,” said Holt, who resides in Santa Cruz. “When you live on the West Coast it’s really the only good high-performance sailing that you can do safely, and it is a great fleet.”
Holt will be racing with his two-time World Champion crew Carl Smit (Annapolis, MD), and the pair have a long-time friendly rivalry with Mike Martin, “the evil other Mike,” Holt noted with good humor. Martin, who lives and trains in the Bay Area with crew Adam Lowry, is a four-time 5O5 World Champion and twelve-time 5O5 North American Champion…
Follow Us!