Eighty degrees, fifteen knots of wind and no fog. "It was ugly out there, Really ugly," said Jeff Zarwell, PRO for the second running of the Great San Francisco Schooner Race out of San Francisco Yacht Club. The schooners were sent off on a pursuit-style race around the Bay and back to the downtown Tiburon shoreline.

Sixteen boats signed up, a good deal more then last year. One boat, Tillicum I, came all the way from Victoria, BC, en route to New York. "But not around the Horn," owner Russ Mead emphasized. The gaff rig boats had a reaching start while the more ‘modern’ Marconi boats had to go around a temporary Yellow Bluff buoy just to windward of the Knox start. Both divisions enjoyed wind and sun throughout the race, and especially through the usual wind hole in Raccoon Strait to the finish off of Elephant Rock.

The competitors had to beat all the way up the strait, with some good tacking duels along the way. They may not point as well or tack as fast as your average Etchells, but they made it upwind just fine. "Ninety-five degrees is an elegant point of sail," remarked sailmaker Kame Richards, crewing on Paul Kaplan’s Santana.

All boats finished around 1500, with the last boat, Aldebaran, winning the Schooner or Later award for last to finish - just in time to enjoy the free keg of Primo under the late afternoon sun in Hawaii-like conditions... well almost.

Part of the proceeds from the regatta went to the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center in Sausalito. For complete results and more photos, see www.sfyc.org.