“It would have been hard to imagine a nicer day to sail, in a world class venue, in a world class fleet,” said one of the leading skippers in the Jack Frost. Encinal Yacht Club’s Midwinter race was blessed with the best wind of three regattas in the Slot on Saturday: a steady 10-15 knots, northerly for the first race and northwesterly for the second. The only hole we found was just a brief dip to eight knots of breeze. The more closely matched the fleets, the more they seem to enjoy the two short up-down races.

Check out the results and series standings at www.encinal.org/2008_racing_program.html. Unfortunately, next month’s final race in this series on March 8 conflicts with Richmond YC’s immensely popular Big Daddy Regatta. Even in March, it’s a crowded race calendar!

Speaking of busy racing days, up in the North Bay Tiburon YC held the second of their three-race midwinter series in light northerlies.

Thanks to race co-chair Gary Proctor for allowing his race boat to be used as a photo platform, and to ‘Paulie the awesome trimmer’ for taking the pictures with ‘Kate the awesome photographer’s camera’.

See http://tyc.org for more on TYC’s racing. Results should be posted soon. We know that both of the boats pictured above and more from TYC will be competing in next weekend’s Corinthian Midwinters, both for division trophies and for the Aotea Team Trophy.