race report
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| Out past the middens on Bair Island into the South Bay. ©2010 norcalsailing.com |
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Redwood Cup March 29, 2010 If you ever wanted to run a race without RC boats, guns, flags and a Principal Race Officer (PRO), then Sequoia Yacht Club in Redwood City has the answer. The Redwood Cup is a five-race series in a pursuit format with all the marks south of the San Mateo bridge. The boats have a time sheet to tell them when to start for each variable length course announced at the skippers meeting at the club.
The RC sends them off with a fixed start line and finish (channel daymarks in the harbor). No yelling for room, as the starts are leisurely and calm with the slow boats starting first. You take your own finish time and since it's a pursuit it's easy to know who beat you.
On Sunday the club sent the boats to a semi-windward mark near the bridge and then back home. Semi-windward meaning you still have to negotiate the channel that winds around the point then out into the Bay. Also semi-windward because the 10-15 knot breeze clocked around in the late afternoon to make it a beat/tight reach back. Paul McCarthy, on Lucky Duck a Wylie 34 summed it up, "It turned out to be a really nice day with a good but short downwind run from the windward mark. The big ebb was tough though, and coming back in we were doing three knots over the ground. I think our boat speed was six." The tides are one more thing to throw into the mix. "There's nowhere to hide as you have to stay in the channel or you are in the mud."
The mixture of boats is a who's who of Bay racing, and it's likely you've seen them on the line up north in the Slot. Phil Macfarlane on the Ericson 35 Sail a Vie does the SSS singlehanded series and stays over in the City before races. "I used to anchor in Clipper Cove on Friday night but got tired of all the mud on my foredeck before the race so I stay in a slip now."
Just remember it's a long haul from Redwood City to San Francisco for a Saturday of racing for these guys, and they have some damn good racing at the Sequoia YC all year round. Maybe we should visit. For now you can visit their website at www.sequoiayc.org.
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