Pac 52s: Big Boats, Big Shots
© Sharon Green / ultimatesailing.com
San Francisco Bay is one of the world’s cradles of sailing, surrounded by rugged shoreline and iconic backdrops. Add in the Bay’s big breeze, chop, and tides, and the venue delivers a venue which is both exhilarating for sailing and shooting.
© Sharon Green / ultimatesailing.com
Offering one of my annual highlights is the Bay's signature event, the St. Francis Yacht Club's Rolex Big Boat Series, and the Pac 52 is, in turn, its signature class.
Born of a desire to return a concept back to its roots in California, the Pac 52 Class pursued the premise of promoting dual-purpose inshore/offshore boats, launching a rule which makes for craft similar to the inshore TP 52 but features increased stability and sail area.
© Sharon Green / ultimatesailing.com
While seen as the ultimate in grand-prix inshore racing, the TP 52 circuit in the Mediterranean came from a new class launched in California near the turn of the century as the TransPac52. The advent of the Pac 52 marks a revival of elite custom boat competition to the west coast, and for last year’s Rolex Big Boat Series, drew boats from opposite ends of the earth.
The Bay corrals the biggest of the big boats like the Pac 52s, compressing the competition to deliver electric action, while occasionally allowing them to stretch their legs beyond the confines of the Golden Gate Bridge. This is all what I live for, framing the energy on the water amid the Bay's dynamic backdrop.
The February images capture the enormity of the bridge, offering scale to the clash below, while the backdrop of the Sausalito hills provide rural texture to what is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California.
September 11-15, 2019 will mark the 55th running of the Rolex Big Boat Series and the Ultimate Sailing Team will be thereto capture all the action.
Rolex Photo/Video Team: Tom Day, Sharon Green, Peter Lyons
If you haven’t picked up your 2019 Ultimate Sailing Calendar yet, go to www.ultimatesailing.com and get yours!
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We have excitedly shared Gilles’ exquisite work before in the Ultimate Sailing Calendar, and this month focus on the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo. Here an impressive fleet of more than 40 behemoth, majestic maxi yachts battled their rivals and the seas, off the blustery coast of Sardinia.
Make mine a double
The January pages of the 2025 Ultimate Sailing Calendar: in Luca Butto’s featured image the crew hikes hard, defying the explosion of spray buffeting the maxi yacht Cannonball, as it plows to weather at the Tre Golfi Sailing Week in Naples. In the inset image, at the bottom, Stefano Gattini captures the Club Swan 36 Farstar in hot pursuit at the Swan Croatia Challenge.
+About Ultimate Sailing
Sailing is a magnificent, colorful and dramatic sport. This unique sport has many variables with the constantly changing elements, sea conditions, boats, events, competitors and locations. The challenge is to capture on film electrifying moments that take your breath away. Those moments and opportunities are very few, but when they happen... it is ultimate sailing." ~ Sharon Green
Sharon Green has been capturing electrifying images of performance sailing for more than 40 years. Her annual Ultimate Sailing Calendar, featuring the highlights of competitive sailing, is eagerly anticipated by yachting and photography enthusiasts worldwide. Sharon has been published in major boating publications, both locally and internationally, since she first took up a camera while still in high school.
The pursuit of 'Ultimate Sailing' images never seems to grow old. Four decades and I still love the challenge of creating memorable images for my clients and the calendar."
Sharon is happiest when she is on the water or hanging from a helicopter in search of the elusive image that can be called 'Ultimate Sailing'. "My greatest satisfaction is when it all comes together: the anticipation, planning, organizing, traveling and epic conditions that combine to create a thrilling photograph.
The passage of time eludes our grasp: we can only look back in awe and look forward in anticipation. Never did I expect, 40 years ago, that my vision of creating the Ultimate Sailing Calendar would endure and provide such an extraordinary life experience. boundless advancements in sailing, and concurrently radical developments in camera and photographic technology, have kept me on my toes and the years have swept by! I find myself at this landmark anniversary: humbled by your patronage and inspired by your support. To my many friends, colleagues, clients, and subjects who have sustained and fueled this endless passion for capturing the ultimate Sailing image, I extend my deepest love and gratitude.
View the images by clicking the 40th button
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