Bobbi Tosse reports on the third installment of the Berkeley Yacht Club Midwinters:

On Saturday, January 9, the 57 entries saw midwinter weather in the extreme. Down in the middle of the Berkeley Circle, the wind stayed away until close to 1300 and after that couldn’t decide what direction to come from. We sent the first of the eight divisions off at 1305 into a light wind from around 270 degrees with the first mark of the eight-mile course being GOC. All looked pretty good. Then, about four minutes later, the wind swung around to the north and the remaining seven divisions got a chance at a spinnaker start.

For a while it seemed that the northeasterly would prevail, but it was not to be. Frequent swings of 270 degrees were ‘enjoyed’ by the fleet. We on Race Committee were treated to the sight of spinnakers approaching each other from opposite directions. (A very short-lived phenomenon, to be sure.) Some boats reported a beat, a run, a reach, and a beat all during the same leg! Many different spinnakers were flown by some.

The one word that seemed to be used by many was “interesting.”

Sunday, January 10, was, as usual, quite different. It was cold. The wind was reasonably steady in both direction (northwest) and strength (about 8-15 knots). It was cold. We sent the 34 boats out on a 9.4-mile course and all finished at a reasonable time.  Did I mention that it was cold?

Results are up at www.berkeleyyc.org.

- Bobbi Tosse, BYC Race Committee Co-chair

PS: It was cold.

The next Berkeley Midwinter weekend will be February 13-14.

A footnote regarding photos: you may have noticed the lack of color in these images. We could blame the cold weather for sapping the camera of its chroma, but actually we just like messing around with our shots. If you order one of these from our store, please specify ‘color’ or ‘no color’ in the description.