With dire predictions of another slow year for Saturday’s 2009 Delta Ditch Run, a lot of skippers loosened their rigs, lightened the boats and got half-ounce spinnakers ready. But then they ended up with a nice windy run from Richmond YC 67.5 miles to warm and friendly Stockton Sailing Club. It was not as windy as some years, or as hot, but we will take the sunny 15-20 knots any day.

A record 162 boats entered, “a 26% increase,” said DDR Chair Bob Doscher, especially gratifying “in this down economy.” Many classes had tight competition, plenty of passing lanes, and the usual amount of crashes and carnage. The Moore 24 leaders got way ahead of the majority of the 27 boat-fleet dicing the whole way up the river. The fastest boats finished in good time, the first being Bill Erkelens’ D Class Cat Adrenaline at in at 4:43.

The last boat to cruise in was Dog House, a Bristol 29, at 10:29. Even the mid-fleet boats finished well before sunset, with flooding current the whole way. “If it flooded any more, it would flood,” said a bowman on one boat, noting the water level on the San Joaquin River levees.

Among the stuck-in-the mud victims was Brooks Dees’ still-new GP 26 Salt Peanuts. When a rudder problem caused a round-up into a levee, the crew thought the worse. ”We had a bad hum going down about half way into the race, I was thinking it was something falling apart, but we couldn’t determine what the problem was until we hauled out. It turned out to be just a bunch of weeds wrapped around the keel and rudder.” Just one of the hazards of the Ditch Run.

A big crowd celebrated their accomplishment at the post-race party. Most of the boats were comfortably on their trailers and headed home by midnight. Some racers slept over, leaving at first light, and yet others stuck around long enough to enjoy excellent custom-made omelets  and the awards ceremony before leaving.

Teufi, a Melges 24, was packed up by nightfall on Saturday. They planned to leave Stockton at 7 a.m. and estimated that they’d arrive home in Bellingham, WA, at about midnight. They’d arrived at Pt. Richmond’s Brickyard Cove at 7 p.m. on Friday after leaving Bellingham at 2 p.m. on Thursday. On Friday night they slept aboard. For the race, “We were heavy with five people aboard, but we didn’t break any gear or wipe out,” said owner Jeff Vernon. Teufi is Cam Lewis’s former Tinseltown Rebellion (remember Cam’s all-girl crew?).

The SSC race committee has already announced that next year’s race will be on June 12 and they hope to continue to grow this great event. See www.stocktonsc.org.

Continue on to Part II, featuring photos taken by other racers on the course and photographers on shore. The movie’s done now too.