Some responses to our story on the Silver Eagle Race:

“In the spirit of history,” writes Staff Commodore Lucie Mewes of Island Yacht Club, “the split from the Silver Eagle 67 nm course to add the shorter Silver Eaglet for boats of PHRF 150 and above was in 2002.

“In 2007 we took a break since the old courses weren’t convincing enough new boat owners how much fun the long distance race would be. We promised to come back with new courses and did last year.”

Greg Nelsen filed this report of his race aboard the Azzura 310 Outsider: “We had a lot of everything. There was no ebb (we expected a bit of current help from Alameda to Golden Gate YC) for the ride to the Cityfront start. We killed the motor and had to sail the remaining distance to the start - we were 14 minutes late! I just wanted to head home as our starting group was already near Blackaller buoy.

“We decided to at least give it a go and had quick ride to Blackaller, then set the kit to Little Harding. Many others tried to jibe and carry, but it was too close so we dropped and reached up a bit. Got the reaching kite set and made it to Blossom Rock. Again, we many tried to carry the large kite after Blossom but sagged way into the Berkeley Circle. We went with the jib and reached up toward Angel Island, and were the first to hook up with the flood on the other side.

“We crossed right behind the two Flying Tigers at Red Rock. We stayed with them until the turning mark near the Petaluma River. Then we sailed, well, better (even with  only four onboard) upwind than all the other boats. We worked the north shore and left the FT10s behind. The three multihulls (in our division by the way - never seen that before) couldn't point as well, so they kept sticking their boats too far toward center into the flood and we soon picked them off and left them behind as well. We had quite a large lead going over to Richmond.

“Cutting across the Circle it was full on 25 knots+ and we got the shit beat out of us. We got over to TI and after a spell of sitting still past the Bay Bridge, we headed into the South Bay. We rounded the Army Street, NAS, and Mission Rock race marks and then sat for what seemed forever at the Bay Bridge again. This time one of the FT10s made back up quite a bit while we sat becalmed. We finally got some breeze and headed to the finish. We were first to finish and first on corrected time.

“Then we got a radio call that we were chucked from the race and got a DNF. Turns out that even though three of us had read the instructions several times, we all missed the same thing under the ‘Radio Check-In/Withdrawal' section. It should have read ‘Radio Check-In/Withdrawal/ROLL CALL’. Crazy but for a 47 nm race, in the Bay, IYC needed to put in a roll call during the race? Also in that section it says that the RC will only be on station until 7 pm for a race that ends at midnight with "Yachts withdrawing from the race shall be required to contact the Race Committee on channel 72." Even though the RC won't be on station?

Anyway, we proudly took our DNF and went home knowing who had really dished out a beat down of the entire fleet - even the multihulls!”

The Race Committee were impressed with Outsider’s feat and listed their finish time and corrected time even though they had to give them the DNF. The part of the instructions that don’t make sense to us is this:

“Please call the Race Committee on channel 72 as you approach the finish line. Identify your boat and sail numbers. Illuminate your sail numbers after sunset.” However, in another paragraph of the same section: “Yacht finishing after 1900 hours shall take their own time and report it to the Race Committee...” (keeping in mind that sunset on July 11 was at 2034).