October 7, 2013

Seems like everyone's trying to escape Alcatraz these days. The prisoners and guards are gone, the Indians are gone, the tourists and tour guides are gone thanks to the government shutdown, and we'd be surprised if there are any flies left on the Rock. The racers in the YRA Season Closer spent so much time there this weekend, that all the flies hitched rides off the forsaken island.

The currents, first flood then ebb each day, made for seemingly endless attempts to round both Alcatraz and Angel Island. On Saturday, the course called for a port rounding of both islands, not easy in the strong current and light to non-existent breeze.

With northeasterly zephyrs whispering in Belvedere Cove on Saturday, many racers set chutes right at the start. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Hiro Minami's Ohashi 52 Leglus set the kite, then dropped out shortly after. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Barry and Sylvia Stompe's Hughes 48 Yawl Iolani went pretty far south before turning east for Alcatraz. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Don Carroll's Express 27 Take Five got a little too close to their homeport of Richmond before they could make it around Angel Island. They were among 34 starters that didn't finish on Saturday. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Only 11 boats out of 45 starters were able to make it around the whole course before the 1900 hours time limit on Saturday. The last boat finished with only 15 minutes to spare after the sun set behind Belvedere.

The Crazy Eight pursuit race on Sunday gave skippers a choice of which way to draw a Figure 8… Angel to starboard then Alcatraz to port, or Alcatraz to starboard then Angel to port, with the Little Harding buoy thrown in at the beginning and end.

Jarlen, Aeolus, and Bullet picking up stowaways at Alcatraz. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

When you go racing on San Francisco Bay, you always need sunscreen, you almost always need foulies and a PFD, but who would have thought you'd need mosquito netting? Not for mosquitoes – for the hitchhiking flies. Some boats were swarmed by literally hundreds of flies, which would not go away. Despite the hot weather and dry conditions, Mike Holden, crew on John Liebenberg's Antrim 27 Always Friday, said, "The flies were so bad I had to put on my foulies."

Trig Liljestrand and crew aboard the J/90 Ragtime were able to tolerate the flies long enough to finish tenth out of 14 boats on Sunday, while another 14 were dropping like, er, flies. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

The first group of boats, Glenn Isaacson's Schumacher 40 Q, Andy Newell's Santana 35 Ahi, Always Friday, and George Ellison's Schumacher 30 Shameless all took Angel Island to starboard first, riding the flood through Raccoon Strait. Q may or may not be an Omnipotent Being, but this weekend it was Lord of the Flies.

Q was first across the line on Sunday, winning the pursuit race. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Results are up at www.yra.org.