“One of the more frustrating aspects of Saturday was being able to see the RegattaPRO boats racing merrily up and down in a mild northerly a mere three-quarter mile away. Their wind never really got down to XOC. Most bizarre,” said Berkeley Yacht Club’s Bobbi Tosse of Saturday’s racing.

Three different regattas stack up in the Slot between Berkeley and Treasure Island on the second Saturdays of the winter months - from east to west: the Berkeley YC Midwinters, RegattaPRO’s Winter One Design, and Encinal’s Jack Frost. Somehow they all fit and manage not to bump into each other.

The Winter One Design is put on by Jeff Zarwell and his RegattaPRO for J/120s, J/105s and Beneteau 36.7s. That series wrapped up under pleasant sailing conditions, much like those it enjoyed the previous two months. Our thanks to Laura Watt aboard Chance for taking pictures while racing.

The Berkeley YC’s separate Saturday and Sunday series also wrapped up this past weekend, Race Chair Bobbi Tosse reports, “Again, we were lucky to be able to go racing with sunshine and no rain.

“Saturday: We started 78 boats in strange conditions after a postponement of almost two hours. One racer motored by during the postponement and decided the race should be named the ‘three wind fiasco’. I said, ‘Only three?’ He said he hadn’t seen a south direction yet.

“Our start list has 11 divisions, and we generally run the sequence non-stop with a start every five minutes. I would venture to guess that no division’s start had the same wind conditions as another’s. The first division beat to weather to buoy BOC, and the last few divisions started with a spinnaker up. Not only that, it was reported by Bodacious that about halfway on the course, at the time of the major 180 degree shift, they saw different winds at different heights! The top of the sail saw different wind than the middle and the bottom. Bizarre! Since wind shifts of this nature rarely occur swiftly, we ended up shortening the course to a mere 3.8 nautical miles. But we did get a race!

“Sunday: I keep telling folk they should come race on Sundays. Saturday’s conditions were gone and we were left with a 5-10 knot steady breeze from the NNW. It was warm and sunny with flat water. The 27 racers started on time and romped around the 8.8 nm course to GOC without too many wind holes.

“Sunday, February 24, will be the Champion of Champions. This is the race for all the trophy winners. Look on the BYC website in a few days for the Sailing Instructions and list of entrants.” You can check out the results there too.