The Coast Guard told the Island Yacht Club race committee on Friday that they would not issue a permit for Saturday’s Doublehanded Lightship unless everyone had EPIRBs. While the OYRA chose to require EPIRBs this year, the other organizations running ocean races (including IYC, BAMA and SSS) understood that they were being phased in and would not be required by the Coast Guard until 2011.

This change resulted in a last-minute scramble to find EPIRBs. Most racers already had them or were able to buy or borrow them, but IYC offered a non-EPIRB division to those who didn’t. Only two boats sailed in the ‘Foxtrot’ division, around Point Bonita buoy and Southampton Shoals platform. Everyone else sailed the usual Lightship course.

Before the start, a brisk easterly was blowing at the Gate, so cold that it felt like a Sierra express. The sun shone, the ocean looked flat, and it seemed like the perfect day to race on our local ocean. The multihulls started at 0920, followed in five-minute intervals by the rest. The breeze had clocked around to the north, making for a reach to the Gate. Once out the Gate, the fleet stalled about halfway between Point Bonita and the Lightship, and a big ocean swell developed. Judy Bentsen, sailing on her and husband Torben’s Beneteau 42.7 Tivoli, said that the wind picked up to 16 knots on the return leg and they flew the spinnaker the whole way back.

“Unusual wind patterns,” said Steve Sarsfield, who crewed on Ron Snetsinger’s Express 27 Verve, “we hoisted the chute after passing the South Tower on the way out, then had to jibe twice before going to white sails near Point Bonita. We rounded the ‘lightbucket’ third, but those bloodthirsty scalawags (better known as experienced sailors) on El Raton and Desperado got current relief in the south entrance bay coming in. We rode the center hard and fast (twice over 16 knots). We finished fifth, but were three minutes out of third place after six hours, and sixth overall corrected.”

Complete results are available at www.iyc.org/racing.html.