Richmond Small Boat Midwinters

January 3, 2011

Just about everyone raved about the upwind work with the shifts and puffs during Sunday's Small Boat Midwinters at Richmond Yacht Club. "Not quite as bad as Pinecrest," said Gordie Nash, "and better than Lake Merrit." (Pinecrest is a short, narrow, intensely fickle Sierra lake. When you get screwed up there by a shift, you get "pinecrested.") In Keller Cove, the breeze of about 8-10 knots shifted 15 degrees to the right as the day wore on.

Five Snipes raced on the middle course. ©2011 Richmond YC

A Lightning crewman racing the Bride of Pumpkinstein delighted in the sailing: "The committee kept us going. It was something other than a westerly. I like that we have to do tactics - something other than just boat speed."

Laser sailor Mike Bishop called it, "Probably one of the nicest midwinters I've
done." The Laser fleet is currently lead by Pineapple Sails employee Christine Neville with a six-point lead over Mark Halman.

Christine Neville and Simon Bell racing Lasers in Keller Cove. ©2011 Richmond YC

There were some intense personal competitions. In the first mixed metaphor the El Toros had a dogfight twixt Gordie Nash and Mike Quinn both getting more than their fair share of bullets.

In the second and more horrible mixed metaphor, who better to dogfight than the Wabbits? Only three showed up and it was Weckless (Tim Russell, the current leader) battling Jack (Melinda and Bill Erkelens). The pair were attached at the hip the entire day. No quarter was asked or given as they dragged each other to one side of the course or the other. This left Erik Menzel free to play the shifts and work his way into the lead, which kept the other two Wabbits honest. Incidently, Melinda now works for the Paul Cayard AC campaign, Artemis Racing (Royal Swedish YC).

Wylie Wabbits joined at the hip. ©2011 Richmond YC

Erik Menzel's Wabbit is in second place in the series. ©2011 Richmond YC

More tight Wabbit wacing. ©2011 Richmond YC

Tim Russell's and Erik Menzel's Wabbits intersect. ©2011 Richmond YC

Still the tightest racing was in the six-boat Ultimate 20 fleet. Most sailed
doublehanded, which was fine for setting the asymmetrical, but left most
torsos a couple hands short for the douse. The leeward mark was very close
to the start-finish line, which acted like an enormous barrier and forced a
quick jibe-douse-round and tack to avoid the double whammy of current
coming off Keller Cove and down the Richmond Channel. Tom Burdon and friend Erin had some wonderful weather legs but some disastrous douses. San Diego's Michael Eisenberg had a 2-1-2-1 day and leads the series.

The Opti kids had two 20-boat fleets out on Saturday. Results are up on the Richmond YC website.

The second start was a tight one for the Snipes plus two Bytes. ©2011 Richmond YC

Former RYC juniors Max Fraser and David Liebenberg are in the top ten at the 29er Worlds in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Looks like the Argentinians are going to be hard to beat.

- Seymour Dodds