February 16, 2015

It was Valentine’s Day
In the year twenty fifteen
The air was warm and
The sun was shining.

The water was flat
The sky was blue
The breeze was delightful
And sailboat boat racing, too!

Saturday, February 14:

Sailors in San Francisco Bay are the luckiest people on the planet! 

The Sydney 32 Relentless, the Olson 34 Baleineau, and more, at the start of Division B. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

Fifty boats showed up on the Berkeley Circle to enjoy the super-fine spring conditions… in winter.  During the pre-start maneuvers, a few of the racers sailed by and showered the race committee with Valentine candies. The breeze had enough oomph that we able to start on time at noon. The longest course (8 miles) available was chosen and the last Cal 20 was finished before 1430.

The Santana 35 Ahi at the start of Saturday's race. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

The only ‘flaw’ was we all wished we could stay out in the sun a bit longer.

The Soverel 33 Flexi-Flyer and Baleineau on the run. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

Sunday, February 15:

It was still warm and sunny, but there was no breeze in the morning. Around 1130 we started getting teased with a southerly followed by a complete drop in the wind. Up went the 'Cat-in-the-Hat' postponement flag. The next hour saw a northerly wisp, a southeasterly wisp, and then back to the northwest.  We began setting up, and then a new westerly appeared. This seemed to be the ‘real’ thing, and the mark-set boat was tasked with moving the weather mark. Since it were busy, we asked our visiting kayaker to try and move our start line for us. He managed and away the 32 boats went. 

A view of Sunday's race from the Berkeley Hills. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

A short 4-mile course was chosen. Of course, after the first starters took off, the wind shifted and the lead boats ended up with less than 1 hour of racing.  But it was still warm and sunny. 

New this year for the Sunday series were two divisions of Shorthanded competitors. In fact, the biggest start group on Sunday was the 9-boat Shorthanded 2.

This weekend was the fourth of four in the series. The next event is the Champion of Champions/Trophy Winners race on Sunday, March 1. All the first-place winners of both days will vie for the perpetual trophy. In a separate division, all the second-place finishers will race for the 'First of Seconds' and a third division will have all the third-place finishers going for the First of Thirds. Trophies for all will be awarded at Berkeley Yacht Club around 1700 that day.

Left to right: the Olson 911S Heart of Gold, Schumacher 30 Shameless, Relentless and Ahi. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

Full results can be found at www.berkeleyyc.org/racing.

— Bobbi Tosse, the pirate human