February 3, 2014

With nothing but blue skies and sunshine, Saturday was the day to sail last weekend. The Golden Gate Midwinters started with a postponement, as the morning's easterly faded away and a westerly built. During the race, the velocity ranged from 10 to 16 knots with a very consistent direction – just about perfect. The race commitee gave the faster boats a three lap windward-leeward course, and the slower boats two laps.

The crew of the Beneteau First 40.7 Inspired Environments waits out the one-hour-plus postponement. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

Compare that with Sunday's conditions, when a rain storm blew in on a southerly that fetched up big seas on San Francisco Bay.

SYC has a nifty weather station display on their website. These were the conditions at 0930 Sunday. Which doesn't warn you about the sea state. A check of their webcam might have though. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

With no breakwater to protect it, Sausalito YC's rain-soaked guest dock was jitterbugging so much that race boats weren't able to stop even briefly to pick up crew.

The Olson 34 Razzberries ducked into an unoccupied slip in Sausalito Yacht Harbor to pick up race crew. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

Nevertheless, the SYC race committee went ahead with the race and about half the registered entries went out to sail in the fourth race of that series, and all who started finished. You can read more about the SYC race in our next story.

The Tartan Ten Gammon heads out on the white caps in Richardson's Bay to race with SYC. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

Meanwhile, over at Richmond YC, the Small Boat Midwinters were scheduled. But with a solid 20 knots of breeze with rain and white caps in the harbor, most of the assembled sailors voted "No!" when asked if they wanted to race. Still, the committee went out at noon for six dedicated Laser sailors.
By the time the boats got out on the water, the wind moderated slightly and the Lasers got in some non-counters on flat water off Screaming Parents Point in Potrero Reach. RYC volunteer Jocelyn Nash said they had more race committee members out than sailors. "We had plenty of Whalers out there for them."

A half dozen experienced Laser sailors were the only takers for some unofficial racing at RYC on Sunday. ©2014 Richmond YC

For series standings, see www.richmondyc.org, www.sausalitoyachtclub.org, and www.ggyc.com. One more day of racing remains in each series, on the first weekend in March.