The trend for very light air midwinter racing continued on Saturday with South Beach Yacht Club’s Island Fever. Although the tide flooded in at less than two knots, it was still too much for most boats to get around the two shortest courses in SBYC’s palette of choices.

After a 40-minute postponement the zephyrs reached the starting area - inside McCovey Cove! Each division is welcomed into the Cove one at a time, and racers are allowed to motor until one minute before their start.

The first division, for faster spinnaker boats, went on a 3.9 mile, three-mark course. Most were stopped dead before reaching even the first mark, the green and red separation buoy ‘SC’ that marks the shipping entrance to the South Bay. One boat, anchored a quarter mile from the buoy, bailed when a tanker appeared out of the haze headed for the area. The ship’s pilot courteously called the race committee on the VHF, inquiring about the entries, many of whom had no way on.

A bit of breeze did fill in, and several boats on the shortest course, a 2.8 nm one-mark trip out and back, did manage to finish. Only one boat in the first division made it around. The two Flying Tiger 10 meters on the Bay, Centomiglia and Savage Beauty, had a slow-motion match race, with Centomiglia closely trailing Savage Beauty the whole way. When the wind shut down again just after four, Savage Beauty, in her maiden race, was the only one who made it all the way.

“It was great being out there for the first time, with the two Flying Tigers sailing together,” said Savage Beauty’s owner, John Lymberg. “I can’t say the conditions were awesome, but it will only get better. The boat proved it can perform in light air.”

The division with the most finishers, Spinnaker 180 (all Catalina 30s except one Newport 30), had only one DNF out of six boats. Dancin’ Bear finished first by five minutes. Right around 4:30 a bunch of boats finished, with the last, the Newport 30 Mutual Fun, coming in at 4:44, to the relief of the Race Committee shivering on the seawall at the entrance to McCovey Cove.

Like many other midwinters this season, December’s race opened the the series, due to the cancellation of racing in November. South Beach will run a make-up race on March 22. For the complete schedule and the complete results, see www.southbeachyc.org/racing/index.htm.