The sun was out, the fog was receding, and wind was piping up. The end of October marks the beginning of short days, long nights and Richmond Yacht Club’s Great Pumpkin Regatta. Nineteen classes showed up on Saturday's three drop-mark courses. A record 201 boats entered Sunday’s pursuit race. All with a rip-roaring Halloween party in between.

On Saturday, the race committee generously allowed some very small fleets to race, including three boats in the Farr 36 division and the 99ers) and had some very diverse boats in the handicap divisions. The Fox 44 Ocelot in PHRF A took on the challenge of windward-leeward buoy racing on Saturday. The boat was not designed for this even when she still had her Wyliecat rig. "We used the asymmetric kite on the spinnaker pole for the first two races, AC style,” remarked crew Daniel Alverez. “But on the third race we changed to the sprit and it made life much easier. It didn't seem to slow us down either." The battle with the J/125 Double Trouble was  fierce and close quarters racing, but in the end this was PHRF and Andy Costello's Double Trouble came out ahead on corrected time.

One of the nice things about a big weekend regatta is it tends to draw in new one design classes. And this year the ‘new’ fleet was the older J/22s, with seven boats racing. And they were a tight pack going up and down the course with only seconds between the finishers. Other one design fleets that enjoyed good turnouts were the Ultimate 20s, Wylie Wabbits, Express 27s and of course the Moore 24s. Saturday's race is a counter for and the last for their Roadmaster series.

The start of Sunday's pursuit race around Angel and Alcatraz Islands was postponed for 40 minutes to wait for wind, while crews enjoyed a steel drum band, the merciful delay helping to cure lingering hangovers. The massive fleet was then sent off into a light westerly that filled in nicely throughout the afternoon.

The fast boats passed the slow boats and then the slow boats passed them as everyone slowed down emerging from Raccon Strait at the end, and 200 boats tried to finish at the same time. Somehow everyone made it back safely with minimal yelling, and the only angst you could see was on the poor committee boat volunteers trying to figure it all out. Racers at the top of the bell curve said the RC gave up on them - no writing, no whistles, and lots of incorrect DNFs on the score sheet. Maybe it will all be sorted out - or maybe not. You can see the results - such as they are - at www.richmondyc.org.

Most years it’s a toss-up as to which way will be the “right way” to go around the islands (clockwise or counter-clockwise, skipper’s choice). With no wind visible in Raccoon Strait at the start, all but a few went clockwise, to Alcatraz first, and contrarians were the last to finish.

For more from the Slackwater-SF/RYC/BAMA photo gallery, see www.pbase.com/slackwater_sf/2009_greatpumpkin. Please check out our photo galleries (now complete at four) and our one-minute time-lapse video of the pursuit race.