George Gurrola reports from Oakland YC on the Rites of Spring for single and doublehanded boats: “It was another banner year for sign ups with 71 boats registering. We had been afraid that we might be hurt because of Easter occurring on the next day.

“Because many of our racers are inexperienced at shorthanded sailing, the spinnaker fleet courses are designed to require only one spinnaker set (11.8 miles this time). The non-spinnaker boats get courses of about the same length, but get a course with more mark roundings.

“Out of the 71 registers, 64 boats actually started. For once, we have no near-disasters to report - darn it. Only two boats reported breakage serious enough to drop out. Three others dropped out for course violations (we use a couple of marks on the Berkeley Circle - they are sometimes hard to see). In a rare happening for the Rites of Spring race, the 12:30 first gun had to be delayed for forty minutes to wait for some wind. The starting conditions were beautiful, warm, 12 knots, kind of eerie. Later, the Bay remembered who it was and provided us with the usual afternoon white caps and 25-knot gusts.

“Unlike previous years, the finish was on the east side of TI - we were tired of race committees getting sick while anchored off the Berkeley pier for starts and finishes.”

Thanks for the excellent report, George! Readers can view all the results and lots more photos at http://mundialnetworks.com/oycrace/2008/Rites_of_Spring/Rites_of_Spring.htm.