The Singlehanded Sailing Society held their Vallejo 1-2 and season trophy party at Oakland YC on Wednesday evening. Awards for the Vallejo 1-2, the final regatta in the season, were handed out first. Prizes are given for the combined event, not each day separately. Among the winners who briefly addressed the crowd, Non-Spinnaker winner Roger Wise, sailing his Newport 33 Mystic, thanked the pilot of the ship around which the faster boats had to go to get to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Stephen Buckingham, sailing the Santana 22 Tchoupitoulas, won PHRF 4, commenting, “On day 2 we finished on the wrong side of the buoy and had to go back around to finish correctly.” The Multihull division was won by Bill Gardner on the F-27 Peregrine Falcon. “The second day was better for multihulls, as there was more wind.

The Sportboat winner was also the overall winner: Dan Alvarez on his JS9000 JetStream, with Mark Hadfield crewing on Sunday. “New boat, fun boat, winning boat,” said Dan. Thus we segue to the season winners, JetStream having captured the Doublehanded season. Last year’s Doublehanded season champion, Gordie Nash, teased Dan, “In the El Toro fleet, we have a tradition: we let the new guy win the first time so he’ll keep coming back!”

Greg Nelsen won the Singlehanded division for the season with his Azzura 310 Outsider. While Outsider is new to the singlehanded season trophy, Greg’s name is already all over it. He won it with his Black Soo Starbuck in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004, and he won the doublehanded season in 2005. He’s had Outsider for about three and a half years. When he brought her back from Long Island she was in sorry shape, with no rig (it had come down on the practice day of Key West Race Week). Greg put her all together over the past two and half years. He says the Azzura is actually heavier than the Black Soo (on which he also did the Singlehanded TransPac). “Outsider’s not a buoy boat, it’s a point-to-point ocean boat.”

As SSS president Bill Merrick prepared to wrap up the meeting, he asked the group, “How can we encourage singlehanded entries? About 70-80% are doublehanded. We are the Singlehanded Sailing Society after all.” No definitive answer was forthcoming, but a topic for discussion will be started on the forum.

Also mentioned was the tentative, 99%-certain schedule for 2010. “But don’t schedule vacations yet!” That schedule, the forum, the complete results for the Vallejo 1-2, and the final standings for the season, can all be found at www.sfbaysss.org.