Sausalito Tuesday Night Race

May 21, 2012

Sausalito Yacht Club is now two races into their Tuesday night Spring Sunset Series. The racers showed up as scheduled on May 1, but someone forgot to notify the wind. A strong flood showed up play however, and in the end the current held the winning hand, carrying the boats toward Angel Island and Raccoon Strait instead of around the race course. The race committee abandonned and hoped for better luck next time.

Next time in the every-other-week series came on May 15, and the winds were more typical of this series, with a 20-knot westerly at the start. Unfortunately, the breeze at the windward mark (Yellow Bluff) behaved bizarrely, especially to the north (the Richardson Bay side) of the course. The vortex/wind hole claimed unwary victims, who kept tacking on 90-degree shifts in frustration.

Doug Ford (main trimmer) and Nick Sands (owner/driver) on the Sabre 402 Escapade. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

The weird wind even knocked down an Open 5.70, Revenge from Mars. Dave Peckham, new owner of the 5.70, wrote, “Everyone is okay. We were sitting in a bizarre hole up near Yellow Bluff – zero wind and in the washing machine. Then whammo, a burst came down on us – mast in the water without warning.”

When the sun lowered, the wind lightened up around the leeward mark, Pt. Knox buoy, as you can tell from looking at Bob Bloom's J/35 Jarlen. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

You can find race results and reports at www.sausalitoyachtclub.org/racing/raceresults.