SSS Richmond-South Beach Race

September 20, 2010

The antidote to the Rolex Big Boat Series was another race around the Bay on Saturday. The Richmond-South Beach Race is the Singlehanded Sailing Society's sixth race in a seven-race series. No digging up a crew of 12 and equivalent sandwiches because it's doublehanded or singlehanded only.

El Raton, another Express 27, at the start. They came in second to Mike Bruzzone's Desperado in the Doublehanded Express 27 division. ©2010 Stephen Buckingham

The racing starts off of the Richmond Yacht Club race platform and finishes in McCovey Cove near the ballpark in South Beach. The course meanders around The Brothers and Little Harding buoy and into the South Bay. Sixty-eight boats started, and a good time was had by all as the fog cleared and the sun actually came out.

Meet your race committee: (l-r) PRO Jan Brewer, Rick Elkins, Rob Macfarlane, and Kristen Soetebier. ©2010 Stephen Buckingham

Rob displays his accidental shooting victim, class flag D. ©2010 Kristen Soetebier

Steve Wonner, singlehanded on Uno, alone in the Wyliecat division. ©2010 Stephen Buckingham

The Thompson 650 Flight Risk at the finish. ©2010 SlackwaterSF

Losing crew doesn't mean you have to bail. "I'm racing the series in the doublehanded division, but my crew couldn't make it this time and a last minute attempt to find a replacement wasn't fruitful, making Saturday a day for me and the autopilot to get to know each other a little better," said Dan Alverez of the JS9000 Jetstream. That's the beauty of shorthanded sailing, and the SSS is a "run what you brung" kind of group with a diverse fleet.

Dan Alvarez on the JS9000 JetStream. ©2010 Stephen Buckingham

Dan added, "The forecast for the day was for a mellow 5-15 knots of wind, possibly going to 15-25 later in the afternoon, and most of the race would be in a light ebb. The wind ended up being lighter than I would have liked." The first boat to finish was Darren Doud's F-31 trimaran Roshambo at around 1440 hours and the last was Jackie Philpott's Cal 20 Dura Mater at 1744, well ahead of the 1900 deadline.

The final finisher, Dura Mater. ©2010 SlackwaterSF

"The wind was light-medium, so the sailing is not that exciting," said Roshambo's Darren Doug. "The only exciting part was having to sail through the Melges 32 fleet during Big Boat Series. We ended up getting to the finish line before the race committee, so they gave us a horn blast while walking down the South Beach Harbor breakwater. My dad and I had a good laugh over that." See Darren's video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpY_iV9ZR-Q

See www.sfbaysss.org for results. Go here for more photos.