HDA-ODCA South Bay Race

July 12, 2010

Usually a noon start on the Bay in summer means plenty of wind. But in the South Bay a noon start usually means light or no wind. And that's what happened to the YRA South Bay Race run by the Bay View Boat Club. They started the fast boats in Fleet 1 and Sportboats with only a ten-minute postponement and what looked like a promise of wind filling in. But then the race committee delayed the other fleets' starts by two hours after they discovered there was no wind after all. And so we watch the lucky first starters try to make it around the windward mark.

The Fleet 1 and Sportboat fleets got started after only a 10-minute postponement. They had a drift-fest to the first mark. ©2010 norcalsailing.com

Bodacious, John Clauser's Farr 40 1-ton, was first around the mark. The gull finally had enough. ©2010 norcalsailing.com

Mintaka 4, a Farr 38. ©2010 norcalsailing.com

The Viper 640 Ilex looked like it was the Express 34 Two Scoops' tender for a bit. ©2010 norcalsailing.com

"Spent some time in no air on the way to W1," said Steve Sarsfield, foredeck on Two Scoops. "Then the westerly filled in. We wound up back with the fleet going to NAS1 sailing out ahead of the westerly, searching for puffs. It finally filled in from north to south. Three times around NAS1, and we always had a difficult time finding it. Long race. Fun day."

The Santana 22s and Islander 36s, racing in ODCA, were actually able to get in two races. Results and series standings are available at www.yra.org.