The J/105 fleet got the first start in the first Corinthian Friday Night race of the season. They were sent to Little Harding and back, not a very long course. The four 105s that showed up to play all made it around the course, led by Steve Stroub’s Tiburon, followed by Walter Sanford’s Alchemy.

Very light winds and a short evening prompted the Race Committee to send the rest of the fleets on the second shortest course in their playbook, 4.6 nm, to Pt. Knox Buoy and back. (The shortest possible course, to Pt. Stewart - the closest point of Angel Island - and back, is only 3.7 nm.) Unfortunately, not one boat besides the 105s was able to finish within the time limit.

Did the wind start to die after that first start? “There was no significant difference in the starting times in terms of wind for the 105s and the next start,” opined RC Chair Donal Botkin, “But there were many more boats sailing in the vicinity of the line, perhaps spoiling the wind.”

Sailing in Non-Spinnaker 1, Bob Bloom’s congenial but competively-sailed J/35 Jarlen went from dead last to the front of the pack - and then time ran out on them before they could finish.

Pat Broderick's 'new' WylieCat 30 was out for her maiden race. Pat renamed her for his wife, Nancy. Hull #1, she used to belong to Fred Soltero of Paradise Cay and Tiburon Yacht Club, who had named her Carlene for his wife. (Fred has a Yankee 30 III, Deadeye, so he hasn’t dropped out of the sailing game.) A cat-rigged, giant-main-only boat, the WylieCat sails in Spinnaker 2 Division. Pat hasn’t even had the boat a month, and is looking forward to lots of practice in the CYC Friday nighters and the Sausalito YC Tuesday nighters. He’s also hoping the WC 30s will have a one design fleet for the Vallejo Race.

As per the instructions, at 15 minutes past sunset (according to the “local tidebook”), the Race Committee on the clubhouse deck blew the horn of death signaling the end of the race. Many boats had by then made it around Knox and were struggling against a light flood in the vicinity of Elephant Rock, where the Corinthian always sets a turning mark. The RC got on the VHF radio twice to announce that the race had ended. The persistent sailors still kept trying to finish. On the race deck, RC volunteer Eric Artman asked Donal, “Did you tell everyone that the race is over?”

Donal replied, “Yes, I told them twice.”

“Well, that's not going to work.”

They apparently weren’t listening to their radios. So Eric cupped his hands in the direction of Elephant Rock and yelled, “It's over!” Only then did the racers start their engines.

The policy for Friday nights at CYC is the more the merrier, so if you’re interested in joining in this fun series, check out www.cyc.org/race/friday.html. Some more beer can series start this week: Bay View Boat Club’s Monday Night Madness (hey! that was tonight!), Coyote Point’s Wednesday nighters, Encinal YC’s Friday nighters and South Beach YC’s Friday nights (this week featuring a practice race to help us get in the groove). We’ll have more reports on beer can races as the season goes along.