South Bay Yacht Racing Association Chair Larry Westland reports:

Congratulations to all who finished Summer Race #2 off of Oyster Point on May 3. I say this in that Mike Haddock on Hot Ice recorded winds as high as 32 mph on the course and I know that my own Choate 27 unsuccessfully struggled to stay balanced the entire day in spite of being double-reefed much of the time.

In the Spinnaker Division, Luther Izmirian on his J/32 Paradigm took line honors by a minute followed by his rivals Robert Hu and Keith Barker on their Beneteau First 38 Mist. 

Wired, the “boat-of-pain” to her crew, was the third finisher but disqualified herself after the race by acknowledging an incorrect weather mark rounding on the second course (#7). Thanks to John Super, the SBYRA Protest Chair out of Bay View Boat Club, for helping Dave Few and me sort out some of this.

Three boats managed to finish in the Non-Spinnaker Division led by Rob Hutchinson and Dave Few doublehanding Osprey, Rob's C&C 35 formerly of Woods Hole. Steve and Jocelyn Swanson crossed the line 13 minutes later on their Islander 36 Zingara.

Finishing third in Division B were Alan Orr and Mark Green on their Catalina 27 Spirit. These co-skippers spent almost four hours on the two courses as their track showed them rounding Channel Marker 2 way up towards Candlestick. Talk about guys who aren't satisfied with the course laid down by the RC! Even the RC went home (by mistake) before Spirit finished.

Race 2 was also an expensive outing for Alex Jeffries, a San Francisco architect, helming his Beneteau First 35 First Light. In his own words, “Our plan was a quick jibe then sandwiches.  Instead we had a quick jibe and ‘snap’ - no more boom. It split cleanly in half at the center mainsheet attachment. It was blowing about 20 knots and we had decided not to hoist the spinnaker on the second downwind leg. We were all feeling pretty comfortable with that decision after the boom snapped.  Nobody got hurt and everyone sprung into action to get the jib rolled and the main down. We were also glad that it happened so close to our marina rather than halfway through the Great Vallejo Race.” (Buzz Ballenger - are you reading this?)

So with that tale we'll call SBYRA Summer #2 a wrap and prepare for Summer #3 to be hosted by Bay View Boat Club south of AT&T Park on June 7. And lest we forget, thanks to Kevin Hartig and his RC out of Oyster Point YC onboard Truant for spending a long day on the water with us.

- Larry Westland

For results and more, see http://sbyra.home.comcast.net/~sbyra/

Vladimir Kalinin onboard Michael Domnich’s C&C 41 Nessie out of Brisbane Marina took photos during Summer #1; to check them out, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/20084383@N02/sets/72157604865881956.