race report
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 The last day of October; the first day of winter conditions. ©2010 norcalsailing.com |
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Great Pumpkin Regatta November 1, 2010 The two days of the weekend's Great Pumpkin Regatta looked and felt very different. For Saturday's buoy racing, gray skies persisted and intermittent rain kept the crews in foulies. On Sunday, the only moisture onboard was sweat, and the sky was persistently sunny. But they were identical in the only way that really mattered: light wind. Winter light. In that way, the Great Pumpkin was the first regatta of the winter season.
Put on by Richmond Yacht Club and famous for its semi-serious buoy racing on Saturday and a barely serious pursuit race on Sunday, the Great Pumpkin is even more famous for its parties. The Saturday night party rocked the house, with a packed dance floor and too many Halloween costumes to count. When was the last time you saw Rocky Horror Picture Show? A recent viewing helped with theme costumes.
But back to the racing. Despite the tight set-up of three short windward-leewards on three courses, the fleets spread out because of the shifty, puffy conditions. Dave Rasmussen, Commodore of RYC, commented that although he enjoys the super windy conditions of the summer, he liked Saturday's light air racing for a change of pace because it was so tactical. Almost 150 boats raced on Saturday in 21 - yes, 21 - divisions.
While their classmates spent the week in France, half a dozen guys from Cal Maritime Academy practiced on the school's J/105, One Trick Pony, and raced her to a respectable mid-fleet finish. It was the first time the crew had raced together.
The racers woke up to bright blue skies on Sunday morning. The monohulls from Saturday were joined by a pride of cats. Ian Klitzka had quipped on Saturday night that, "There's going to be a cat fight tomorrow." Ian and Bill Turpin borrowed Brendan Busch's D-class cat Rocket 88. The cats ranged from Hobie 16s to Formula 40s Shadow and Tuki. Some of the local BAMA trimarans joined the fun too.
In case you're not familiar with the course, Sunday's pursuit race starts in the Southhampton area and goes around Angel Island and Alcatraz - in either direction - finishing just outside the entrance to Richmond Harbor.
The sticky part of the race on Sunday was the east portal of Raccoon Strait. It was hard to get into for boats going counter-clockwise, and hard to get out of for those sailing clockwise. Most of the boats that dropped out did so here. Of 176 monohulls, 85 were able to finish. Multihulls were scored separately this time. Twenty-five raced and fourteen finished.
Winning the monohull division was Scott Easom on 8Ball, which has grown from a Moore 24 to a Mumm 30. He went counter-clockwise. Finishing second was Richard Courcier's Wicked, a Farr 36 OD, which migrates seasonally between the Bay and Lake Tahoe. Wicked went clockwise. Bill Erkelens' D-class cat Adrenaline beat the other multihulls.
Distracting the racers on Sunday were a generous portion of pumpkins dropped in the water from chase boats. If you've just set the spinnaker, do you drop it so that you can head up and try to capture a pumpkin? Further distraction and entertainment was provided by the Donald Crowhurst trivia contest, won this time by George Neill.
The results of all this light air madness can be found at www.richmondyc.org. Our photo galleries and slideshows from Saturday and Sunday's racing and Saturday night's Halloween party have now all been posted.
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