Wheeler Race

April 21, 2010

The wind and rain gods must have been exhausted after all their work in the past few months and decided to pause for the weekend of April 17-18 just so Berkeley YC could run the 38th Wheeler Regatta in pleasant, sunny, flat water and reasonably windy-from-the-west-almost-always conditions. It was a super weekend!

In total, 32 racers came on Saturday, spread in size from a Cal 20 to a Santa Cruz 50. They were divided into two groups: the Wheeler Group and the City of Berkeley Group, racing for two perpetual trophies. The Wheeler group was run in the deeper waters of San Francisco Bay. The two divisions sailed three races using a variety of courses, each with increasing length and each with a different weather mark. The results were close in spite of a reasonable range in handicaps with places changing with each race.  As the sun dipped into the Golden Gate, Division A saw Bob Turnbull’s 1D 35 Jazzy in first, Richard Courcier’s Farr 36 ODR Wicked in second, and Alex Farell on Alpha Puppy, a 1D 35 in third.

Division B was dominated by Gerard Sheridan in his Elan 40 Tupelo Honey, Gerry Brown in his Farr 38 Mod. Mintaka 4 grabbed second and Jeanette, Henry King’s Frers 40 One-Ton got third. The Overall Wheeler Perpetual Trophy went to Tupelo Honey.

Meanwhile, down on the Berkeley Circle, the smaller boats enjoyed spirited racing. There were three divisions, including a one design for Olson 25s. The first division was closely contested and was won on a tie breaker. George Ellison on his Schumacher Custom 30 Shameless managed to grab first, while Michael Whitfield in his J/24 TMC Racing had to be content with second. Third was taken by Steve Wonner in his Wyliecat 30 Uno. 

The Olson 25s were led by Mark Simpson’s Shadowfax, followed by Falk Meissner’s Shark on Bluegrass. Dan Coleman’s Balein got third.

The third division saw Val Clayton in his Cal 34 MkI take first, Richard von Ehrenkrook in the Cal 20 Can O’ Whoopass in second, with Laurie Miller in her Catalina 30 Starkite in third. The Overall City of Berkeley Perpetual was taken by Shameless in the a tiebreaker with TMC racing.

A Shamelessly happy crew celebrates. ©2010 Marie Fox

"We actually tied with TMC Racing for total points," said George Ellison, "but we were awarded first because of two first place finishes, the margin being 13 seconds in the second race, about two boat lengths. How lucky we are to get to sail in such a beautiful place with such great competition. No place for complacency."

The third race of the City of Berkeley ended at Berkeley YC. This put them in front of the horde at the party at BYC. Thus they were first at the margaritas, oysters Rockefeller and other scrumptious goodies.

Sunday dawned with zero wind and a one-hour postponement was called.  This delay was still not quite long enough to give the smaller boats a prayer of a chance against the longer waterlined boats in the flood. The course was from Olympic Circle Buoy FOC, to Harding Rock, then to Blossom Rock, then to a temporary turning buoy and back to F. I heard from one racer that it took him four times to simply get around Harding! The finish order became almost the same as the LOA order. First was Deception, William Helvestine’s SC 50, followed by Wicked, Mintaka 4, Stewball, Bob Harford’s Express 37 and fifth was Jeanette.

The full results can be found at www.berkeleyyc.org/racing.

- Respectfully submitted, Bobbi Tosse, Wheeler Co-chair