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November 9: Fifty-three boats showed up on Saturday, November 9, for the first race of the 2013-2014 Berkeley Yacht Club Midwinters. The sun was shining, the wind seemed to be steady at about 8 knots from around 270 degrees, and it looked like it was going to be an easy romp around the 8-mile windward/leeward course. Thus, the first of the nine divisions, division A, was sent off to GOC, on time at 1200.
The wind stopped. The race committee fired two guns were, the ‘cat-in-the-hat’ flag was deployed, and we waited. After just 30 minutes, the breeze was back, but still very light. We proceeded with the start sequence and gave the last two of the nine divisions a shorter course. We contemplated a long afternoon ahead of us.
Midway through the event, the situation got a bit weird. Down at the leeward mark, we saw spinnakers approaching us in a new 4-6 knot breeze coming from around 135 degrees. But there was also a new light breeze coming from around 200 degrees in the upper end of the course. This created a unique vision of two spinnakers approaching each other near XOC – a brief, but interesting appearance, to be sure.
We had been given a weather report from our friend Mike Dvorak of www.sailorsenergy.com. The product included wind maps specific to the Olympic Circle with a new map every 30 minutes. The report projected that between 1400 and 1430, the wind would go from 4 knots at 270 to 10 knots at 225. Right, – suuuure, it would! Bingo! Around 1415, there it was – the new 'real' breeze – 10 or so knots from about 235 degrees. We could hear cheers from around the whole Circle. All the starters finished, and the last one finished before 1530. Another super Day On The Bay.
As in the past bunch of years, Sunday proved to be the finer day weather-wise. After a mere 40-minute postponement, a delightfully steady 10-12 knot breeze filled in from around 225. The gang at sailorsenergy had also been projected this breeze, but it was about one hour late in arriving.
No matter. The 24 boats in 6 divisions were sent on a 8-mile windward/leeward course utilizing marks FOC and BOC. There seemed to be no holes and no shifts – an almost unheard-of situation in the winter on the Circle.
– Bobbi Tosse, BYC Race Committee
Bob Harford’s Express 37 Stewball won Division 1 on Sunday. ©2013 George Sitts
The results are up at www.berkeleyyc.org. The series continues on December 14-15.
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