Synthia Petroka

Eyrie

Hawkfarm

#21

San Francisco, CA

I was first introduced to sailing in high school when my father bought a 14’ Sunfish. His approach was “learn by doing”; my impression watching him and my brother capsizing was “nothing doing!” A few years later I got a summer job and my boss happened to own a Columbia 24. “Learn by being taught” was more effective, so upon returning to college I joined the sailing team and began racing Lasers and Flying Juniors.
After graduation, my sailing was just the occasional San Francisco Bay day sail and warm water vacation charters with friends. But during a two-week charter in Belize, I had the premonition of the software bust and returned seeking a career change. Sally Lindsey-Honey took me in and developed my skills in sailmaking and my passion for sailboat racing. Sally would later hire another young woman seeking a career change who would affect my sailing future, Sylvia Seaberg.
Since then, I’ve raced around the buoys in San Francisco Bay, up and down the coast of California, and to Hawaii. With the encouragement of Antarctic sailor, Ornaith Murphy, I sailed my first singlehanded Farallones race on Ornaith’s Cal 39 in 1998. A few months later I sailed my first Pacific Cup aboard Grey Ghost, winning our division and placing 3rd overall. After several years of crewed racing, I later somehow cajoled Sylvia into racing the 2003 OYRA Ocean Series doublehanded on Sylvia’s Hawkfarm 28. After a dozen races, we had developed a successful racing formula that won us the season and would further my secret plan to race in the doublehanded Pacific Cup. Or was it Sylvia’s secret plan? Our racing formula continued to work and we succeeded in winning the 2004 doublehanded race with the largest winning margin over our competitors and to earn the honor of being the first doublehanded women’s team.
My ties to the Singlehanded Sailing Society began back around 1996 when I raised my hand at a skipper’s meeting seeking a crew position for the upcoming race. When not crewing I volunteered to help with the race committee, and from 2000-2002 I served as Vice Commodore of the SSS. Getting ready for my first SH Transpac has not been daunting as Eyrie was so well prepared for the Pac Cup with the help and advice of so many good friends and sailors. All I really needed to do was replace Sylvia with a good autopilot! I might be singlehanded between the start and finish line, but getting to the start and getting home after the finish is by no means a singlehanded effort.
Self-Steering: “Leona Helms-a-lee” Raymarine ST6001+/S1G tiller mounted
Communications: VHF, ICOM IC 706, Iridium Phone
Navigation: Two Garmin GPS, Barometer, Laptop with a chart plotter
Food: no refrigeration, so Sylvia’s expertise with dried and simple
Special Thanks: Sylvia, Tom, Rich & Skip for your help and advice; my husband Terry for your encouragement; and Ornaith, wherever you may be.