Some racers called it a “fun cruise.” Others experienced such an aggressive start that multiple collisions resulted in two boats withdrawing with damage - and it wasn’t even the J/105 start! The event was the 108th Vallejo Race, with entries once again flirting with the 300-mark.

Saturday’s race sends the fleets from the Central San Francisco Bay up to the Vallejo Yacht Club on the Napa River. (On Sunday, they sail back as far as the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.)

The Islander 36 fleet, which has a non-spinnaker HDA series, chose to fly spinnakers in the Vallejo Race. On Saturday, John Melton’s Freedom Won held the kite almost the whole way to Vallejo, including in the channel, for a second place finish. Steve Zevanove’s Diana came in first.

By contrast, the Santana 22 fleet voted to sail non-spinnaker in order to accommodate more boats. Fourteen signed up, ten raced, and eight finished, led by the Buckingham-Giovacchini team on Tchoupitoulas. They didn’t finish until almost 7:00, then had a barbecue at the Vallejo Marina.

The Santana 22s, J/105s, and Express 27s tied for the fleet with the most starters, at ten each. A new division, the Cruising Cats, fielded the fewest, just three. But this group may grow in popularity for events such as Vallejo.

Three Flying Tigers, new 10-meter asymmetrical sportboats from China, competed in Party Circuit G and finished one-two-three, with Kika pulling away from the other two, and Savage Beauty covering CentoMiglia to come in second.

The sailors enjoyed medium to high breeze: 15 knots, with gusts to 20 in some downwind stretches, the winds from pretty much the usual directions, but without the usual dead spots.

So, back to the collisions we mentioned at the start. The very competitive and closely matched SF 30 fleet got their turn about midway through the 22 starts. The eleven boats winding up for their start had to split around an Islander 36 which was parked right in the middle with their sails luffing. This oddity threw some of the SF 30s off their strategy.

A Laser 28 spun around in front of an Olson 911s, which was on port tack and turned as quickly as they could to lessen contact, taking a glancing blow on their transom. Then right on the line, as the gun went off, two of the Laser 28s got headed up against each other and the committee boat. On the committee boat side, Stink Eye had nowhere to go and tried to duck Takeoff, but couldn’t turn quickly enough and punched through the Kevlar of Takeoff’s starboard quarter, suffering damage to their own bow hardware. Both boats withdrew to head for home. Fortunately no one was injured.

This was a big disappointment for the Lasers, as two newcomers had joined the fleet: Firebolt, formerly Outta Sight, sailed by Mike Holden and his wife and two small children, was looking all buffed and lovely. Ed Mattson’s MegaHurtz had sailed all the way down from Eureka. With another boat coming up from SoCal, and the late John Davis’s Peggy Sue having been snapped up by a local racer as soon as she went on the market, the Laser 28s hope to have a one design fleet for the Delta Ditch Run to Stockton on June 7.

For complete results of Saturday’s race to Vallejo, see www.yra.org/Vallejo_Saturday_Results_2008.htm. For a history of the event, go to www.vyc.org/vallejo_race_about.html. Have a look at our photo gallery and slideshow of Sunday’s start. Also be sure to check out Peter Lyons’ photo galleries at www.lyonsimaging.com. Click here to go to our report on Sunday’s race back.