Race Chair Bobbi Tosse reports on this past weekend’s Berkeley Yacht Club Midwinters:

The weather dominated all thoughts during the weekend. Starting on the afternoon of Friday the Thirteenth, the National Weather Service began posting that Gale winds were projected to arrive sometime Saturday afternoon. All of our racers knew that we would cancel if, indeed, there was a Gale. But, what if the Gale didn’t come till 1600? Could we, would we try and get a race in? Emails flew. Then, by 2000, NWS changed to just Small Craft advisories. But they still insisted that it was going to rain and that there would be gusts of gale force. 

Saturday dawned, the forecast had been downgraded to scattered showers, and the Small Crafts were held until later in the afternoon. The race was on!

With all that projected doom and gloom, we were surprised that 72% of the fleet came out. The 48 boats were sent on an 8.2 mile course with a weather mark of “D”. Since we still have no buoys at “H” and “A”, and, besides there’s not a lot of water in those locations, the NoAH course 4 over ‘Q’ was called. This course still has beats, runs and reaches, but the order in which they occur is modified. (NoAH means that there is no “A” or “H” in the course. A ‘Q’ flag under the numeral pennant signals a NoAH course.)

The much talked about weather remained as projected that morning: SSE wind of 15 to 20 knots, gusts of about 25 and scattered showers. (Those showers were quite cold!). The results, as usual, are up at www.berkeleyyc.org.

On Sunday, the Gale finally showed up and the race was cancelled. It never really stopped raining, and there were zero complaints about the cancellation.

- Bobbi Tosse, Berkeley YC Race Chair

All that now remains of the Berkeley Midwinter series is the March 1 Champion of Champions race. We’ll have more on that next week.

Oakland YC’s Sunday Brunch race proceeded as scheduled, on the more protected waters of the Estuary. Rich Hudnut, Jr., sailing aboard Dina Folkman’s Santana 525 Gonzo, reported that conditions were “super gusty with heavy rains at times. We had our share of problems with a late start, some spinnaker pole issues, one round-up, and a major override on one of the winches, but we still got the gun. Made it worth going out in the crazy weather.” For results, see http://sites.google.com/site/oycracing/Home. One more Sunday Brunch remains, on March 1.