Blustery SSS Corinthian

April 11, 2010

A forecast storm made its approach known a little earlier than forecast this weekend. After several weekdays of pleasant, sunny weather, Saturday dawned overcast with a brisk breeze from the south. The only Bay race that was cancelled due to weather was the El Toro fleet's Bullship from Sausalito to San Francisco (that has been rescheduled for April 24). Gordie Nash had hoped to pull off a biathlon: race his El Toro in the morning and be back in Tiburon on time for the 1100 start of the SSS Corinthian Race on his Santana 27 Arcadia.

Gordie never finished the Corinthian Race either, as the rudder cassette on Arcadia broke. Gordie and wife Ruth managed to steer the boat using the engine and the jib, and made it safely home to Sausalito on their own. Theirs wasn't the only mishap in the race.

Although 65 boats finished, about 30 dropped out, many of them during the starting sequence. A blown-up traveler, a bent boom and a wayward sheet whipping a skipper in the face were all incidents that caused early drop-outs. The reef in the Nonsuch 22 Blueberry gave way just after her start, leaving her only sail flapping uselessly. Blueberry foundered up against the Corinthian breakwater. CYC harbormaster Hans Anderson zipped out in his inflatable and pulled Blueberry free, towing her into the harbor. Singlehanded skipper John Foster noticed no significant damage at the time.

Blueberry came to grief early in the race. ©2010 norcalsailing.com

Many boats sailed with reefs in, even those we don't normally see reefed.

The J/90 Sweet Jane chases the 1D35 Dark and Stormy. ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

Expression, an Express 37, had an unfortunate encounter with the Blossom Rock buoy, but were able to finish.

Expression takes Blossom Rock a bit too tight. ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

At the extreme end of the spectrum, the IOD Youngster lost her mast about 10 minutes past Blackaller. Photographer Peter Lyons gave her a tow. "They lost their backstay when they were under spinnaker," said Peter, "and the rig came down."

Youngster's mast broke in two, but no one was injured. ©2010 Peter Lyons/www.lyonsimaging.com

Wind was mostly from the south at around 15-20 knots, with gusts in the high twenties, highest on the Cityfront when a southwesterly blew in. The ebb chop was actually less than it would have been in a westerly at that wind speed, but still pretty bouncy.

Ross Stein's Origami finished first and took first place overall doublehanded. ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

Thanks to the wind, it was a fast race. The first finisher, Origami, an F-24, completed the 18-nm Bay tour course at 1347. The first singlehanded boat to finish, Judy Bentsen's Beneteau 42s7 Tivoli, came in at 1404.

Last year's winner of the Doublehanded overall trophy, the Cal 20 Can O'Whoopass, was back for an attempted repeat. They flew a spinnaker and finished quickly at 1438. Said skipper Richard von Ehrenkrook, "There was a big hole at Blackaller. The schooner [Jakatan], the Aphrodite [Ad Lib], and some Expresses were parked there. We brought the wind with us. Approaching Blackaller, we had the pole on the wrong side, so we did a garbage set - just threw the spinnaker up in the air and reset the pole afterwards. The boat beat us up after that."

Paul and Richard on Can O' Whoopass. Richard's the one in shorts! ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

Paul Sutchek, crew on Can O'Whoopass commented, "They don't call it Face of God State Park for nothing. The San Francisco Bay was just freakin' rockin' this afternoon! 25 knots of wind; I came off the foredeck shaking from the adrenaline a few times."

He went on to elaborate on Richard's comment about the boat beating them up: "After an attempted spinnaker jibe, as the main came across it got caught up in our SFYC burgee and with the strong 20+ knots of wind turned us hard with the spinnaker still drawing. I had to climb over Richard, hang onto the backstay, and pull the burgee's rope aft, then climb back over Richard and re-trim the sails... tough! It was very rough the whole leg from Blackaller Buoy to Southampton. We were sailing DDW [dead downwind] and sometimes by the lee the whole leg, but doing 6-8 knots and sailing a shorter course than the boats in front of us."

The last boat to finish, at 1605, was also a Cal 20. Jackie Philpott singlehanded her Dura Mater, and the RC gave her a shotgun salute.

Dura Mater at the finish. ©2010 norcalsailing.com

Preliminary results will be posted momentarily at www.sfbaysss.org. For more photos of Saturday's racing, see www.pressure-drop.us.

We'll have more on Saturday's racing in our next report.