December 8, 2014

Winter racing often means close racing in more ways than just the score sheet. Saturday's Golden Gate Yacht Club Seaweed Soup Series race proved that. With light winds and big current, boats were fighting for space on the course and especially around marks.

With five boats, the J/111s have their own division. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

The haphephobia began soon after the starts on a building ebb and a light easterly breezethat sent the fleets off to a windward mark by Fort Mason. As the lead faster boats picked their way along the piers to avoid the current, a stronger westerly filled in from behind, causing compression. All boats found themselves mixing it up for looking for room at the marks.

Peeking under the main checking for hazards on the Wyliecat 30 Uno, with Harp in the background. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

"They were some of the most difficult roundings I've been in," said Mike Mannix, skipper of the Catalina 38 Harp. "We had boats trying to squeeze inside while others on the outside were yelling. What made your race successful or not was the mark roundings."

As the upwind leg turned into a downwind leg, some crews set their spinnakers. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

With the ebb building to three knots, the light westerly was just enough to get the boats around on either a single lap or double sausage depending on your class, and even at the formerly-leeward-now-windward mark off of St. Francis YC the roundings continued to be crowded and not clean.

Nine boats raced in the Knarr division. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

This was the second race in the five-race series, and, after a windy one in November, the conditions have proven to be variable and the winner of the coveted Manuel Fagundes Seaweed Soup bowl may be hard to predict.

For results and more, see www.ggyc.org.