The pursuit race has a reverse-handicap start, the idea being that your PHRF is taken care of at the start, and everyone is even at the finish. You don’t race in a division, you race against all the other 133 boats signed up. Sound kinda crazy? Well the craziest is part is you get to decide which direction and which order to take the two marks on the course - Alcatraz Island and Angel Island. That’s the Richmond YC’s Big Daddy Race.

The majority of boats chose to go for wind and head for Alcatraz Island first, a clockwise direction. A few braved the calms of Raccoon Strait first, but that didn’t seem to be the ‘right’ way for most.

We’re reasonably sure that almost all boats that started were able to finish before the 1700 time limit, and racers gathered back at Richmond YC for free beer, free champagne, free hors d’oeuvres, and trophies. Saturday’s buoy racing prizes were handed out first followed by the pursuit race prizes. And the top finishers in the order announced were:

10- Swiftsure II, Sy Kleinman

9- Sorcery, John Walker

8- Double Trouble, Andy Costello

7- Synergy, Simon Winer

6- Mintaka4, Gerry Brown

5- E-Ticket (E-Scow)

4- Seesaw, Tim Cordrey

3- Kwazy, Colin Moore

2- Desdemona, John Wimer

26- Queen Bee, Rick Gio (A prize is given for the place corresponding to the anniversary of the regatta.)

1- E-2, Bill Erkelens, Sr.

“As soon as it’s 6-12 and not too rough,” said E-2’s Marie Roehm. “that’s a really good range for that boat. We looked up the Strait and saw it was slack, a few boats working the edges, and we don’t do that well in really light air. We definitely don’t do well short-tacking.” So the Tornado catamaran went for Alcatraz first. “We started behind everybody, and we thought we could catch about half the fleet, but we had some good wind angles and some good opportunity.” Congratulations to Bill and Marie!