Berkeley YC Midwinters

January 14, 2013

Neither RegattaPRO nor Berkeley Yacht Club were successful in getting a race completed this Saturday on the windless Berkeley Circle. Bobbi Tosse reports on BYC's midwinters weekend:

Saturday, January 12

By the numbers:
53 = the number of boats that came out to drift around in the sun.
1 hour 25 min =  the amount of time of postponement.
.75 knots = average boat speed from XOC to area near FOC, the designated first mark.
1.5 knots = average boat speed from FOC towards the Gate for those without anchors.
1 hour 30 min = approximate time for Race Committee to figure out that the situation was not working.

And thus, for the first time in my memory, a race was abandoned for no wind.

Apparently, former football star Steve Young raced with Karl Engdahl's Express 34 Helan-Gar on Sunday. ©2013 Bob Walden

Sunday, January 13

I keep telling people that Sunday is the better day to race! Maybe now they’ll listen? After only a 25-minute postponement, a light (4 to 8-knot NNW) breeze filled in. This allowed those 29 smart Sunday racers in five divisions to enjoy a brief and sunny race around the temporary G, down to C and back to X. The leaders of each division took a tad less than an hour to cover the 4-mile course and no one got wet.

- Bobbi Tosse, a BYC race person

The spinnaker run from GOC on Sunday. ©2013 Bob Walden

BYC's results are on their spiffy new website at www.berkeleyyc.org.

Raven, Motorcycle Irene and Helan-Gar on their way to the leeward mark. ©2013 Bob Walden