Vallejo Race Sunday

May 3, 2011

This report continues our coverage of the 112th Great Vallejo Race.

With Sunday's weather prediction a repeat of Saturday's drift-fest, a lot of the crowd at the Vallejo Yacht Club were prepared for an early start motoring home instead of racing. The race committee started the afternoon with a 15-minute postponement, as extra time was needed to break the raft-up in the harbor. A very soft northwesterly filled in allowing all the boats to start even with a flood current pushing against them.

No wind on Mare Island Strait. Some boats took the opportunity to practice anchoring - again. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

It was hard going for a while along Mare Island, but those who stuck it out in the river were welcomed to San Pablo Bay with a nice 10-knot breeze around the corner and a little more flood. Those who stayed to the right short-tacking along the rock wall had the start of an early ebb.

Parking lot "A" was off Pt. Pinole, as the tide changed enough to sweep the fleets towards the finish. In fact, for a time it was quite nice. "We were drifting along in glass smooth water with two knots of boat speed and three knots over the ground towards the goal, so it wasn't that bad," remarked one racer. "We don't get much light wind conditions around here in the summer, so it was interesting to see who can handle the fickle breeze."

Leeward weight helps the Hobie 33 Akyla. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

Lot "A" turned out to be the only one in San Pablo Bay. The northwesterly filled in about 1600 hours (late again). The boats had a not so bad beat to the finish off of San Rafael in 10-15 knots and a big ebb current with no waves. Those of you who started the engine in Vallejo and didn't shut it off until home missed a nice one.

Crew weight shifted to the windward rail on the Wylie 40 Lois Lane for the last beat to the finish. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

For our story and photos of Saturday's racing, see our previous report. For results, see www.yra.org. They've corrected the erroneous DNCs, which were due to not having the starting logs yet. Laura Paul-Muñoz at the YRA office reports that 178 boats raced on Saturday, with only 46 finishers, but 140 boats finished on Sunday.