The Vallejo Race is often referred to as the ‘YRA Season Opener’, but the first race put on by the Yacht Racing Association of San Francisco was actually Saturday’s Lightship Race, a 25-mile trip from the Cityfront to the San Francisco Entrance Buoy (‘Lightship’) and back.

This year’s race was slow to start but exciting to finish. Looking out over the Golden Gate Bridge in the morning, an observer would discern no ocean swell, just an even ripple of breeze.

In the afternoon, sporadic rain squalls came through, bringing gusty wind, which caused multiple round-ups at the GG Bridge’s South Tower. The South Tower Demon hasn’t changed ZIP codes or anything, but some racers were cutting in close anyway to try and escape a sizable ebb on their way to the finish at the St. Francis Yacht Club.

Finishing first and with the fastest elapsed time (3:29:41), Peter Stoneberg’s catamaran Shadow sailed in a class by herself (Multihulls).

The first monohull to finish and first in PHRO-1A was Andy Costello’s new-to-him J/125, Narrow Escape.  Click here for complete results. The OYRA will run a second Lightship race on July 18. See www.yra.org for all YRA racing info.

Thanks to Peter Lyons and Erik Simonson, plus Stephen Buckingham and  Xena, for providing the photos.