The North Tower was the boat to beat.

The Yacht Racing Association re-opened the racing season with their Second Half Opener, a two-day event traditionally held on the last weekend in July. Historically, July was considered too windy for racing on the Bay, and so a break in the schedule was created, but not all divisions adhere to it. The last couple of years, the Second Half Opener has become the middle weekend in the well attended and vastly entertaining Party Circuit.

The weekend begins with a 22-mile race from the Berkeley Pier out into the ocean to Point Bonita buoy, back into the Bay and down the Estuary, for a finish at Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda. The long-distance race is followed by shoreside celebrations, dinner, dancing and ‘sleeping’ (or not so much, depending on your neighbors) in the raft-up. Some race boats bypass the Saturday night part and go straight to part three, the racing on Sunday, which consists of a much shorter Bay race beginning and ending near the Berkeley Pier. This Sunday, most fleets were sent around Alcatraz to port or starboard - skipper’s choice - making it a game of strategy.

The main course of this three-course meal is really the first race out to Point Bonita and back. The windy first leg consisted of a port-tack drag race from the Berkeley Pier to Sausalito. That’s where things got interesting.

An aggressive flood current created a magnetic force field at the Golden Gate Bridge. In order to find a lane to get by to the north side of it and into some current relief, racers short-tacked along Horseshoe Cove, where the wind turned on and off like a light switch, and along the North Tower of the bridge, where the wind was strong but the water was all swirly and weird. Some crews got through on the first attempt, while others had to try numerous times, watching their competitors slip past through holes in the force field. The trick for many seemed to be to tack out to about mid-span before tacking back into a lift.

High tide hid rocks littered along the cliffs of the Marin Headlands, and some who flew too close to the sun got their wings burned - or rather their keels scraped. Though no sailors were lost, one boat was. See ‘Death of a Beauty’ for that story.

The southwest swell out in the ocean was not as forecast, and those looking forward to surfing waves and pegging the knotmeter coming back in were disappointed. In dock talk overheard at 0700 Sunday morning, one small-boat sailor said they’d been expecting “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” coming back in - instead they got it going out. Nevertheless, racers had a fast ride into the Bay, and though let down by the swell they were entertained by all the harbor porpoises on both sides of the Gate.

As boats emerged into the Bay, the overcast parted and they enjoyed toasty sunshine for the remainder of the trip to the Estuary, where crews stripped off their foulies while avoiding departing ships and more rocks, and on down to the finish and the party at Encinal YC.

On Sunday, some racers were confused by the combining of divisions at the starts. The RC did an excellent job of communicating on the VHF, and the burden was on the competitors to assign a crewmember to pay attention to the radio and the flags.

Like on Saturday, the breeze on the Bay was a brisk westerly. Clockwise around Alcatraz seemed to be the favored choice, with many racers using the cone of the island to get out of the worst of the flood and the wind. Again, the windward leg was followed a fast downwind run. After an upwind finish, crews headed home to get some rest.

Complete results are in, and series standings are also available. Javelin, a new Santa Cruz 37 sailed by Pat Nolan and Norman Davant, won the Schumacher Cup for best overall performance by a monohull. See www.yra.org. The next and last Party Circuit weekend is the Season Closer on September 26-27, hosted by Corinthian YC.