Catching Island Fever

November 22, 2010

A break in the storm fronts moving through the Bay Area this weekend let the sun shine in on South Beach Yacht Club's first midwinter race of the season, aka Island Fever. Winter weather usually shifts the prevailing wind direction from westerly to southerly, and Saturday was no exception. The long fetch up the South Bay can generate some nasty chop, but a strong ebb going with the wind direction helped smooth the troubled waters - except in the vicinity of the South Beach Harbor sea wall, where the waves pile up against the concrete.

Unlike the South Beach Friday night races in the summer, the Island Fever series starts right in McCovey Cove. Like the Friday night races, it finishes there too. The course on Saturday was a downwind-upwind loop around Alcatraz in either direction.

The first division had an enormous PHRF spread, from -54 for Wasabi to 126 for a trio of SF30s. The Race Committee amended the Sailing Instructions to allow for an hour between the first finisher and the last finisher, but, in the strong ebb and light wind between Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge, that wasn't enough for a couple of the slowest boats, which were scored DNF. Wasabi won that division, and one of 126-raters, the Tartan Ten Lazy Lightning, corrected out to second place. Unfortunately, the other two 126-raters, fighting the building ebb in light wind, finished more than an hour after Wasabi and so were scored DNF.

The Flying Tiger 10 Centomiglia finished in the middle of that division. Skipper Fabio Maino described the race: "The much anticipated rain didn't show up, and even if cold it turned out to be a good day on the water. In typical winter fashion we saw all sorts of conditions, from windy and choppy to flat and windless near the Ferry Building. After a good rounding of Alcatraz, the downwind mark, we stayed too close to the Cityfront trying to find relief from the strong ebb. The boats that stayed away from the shore took advantage of the stronger wind there." This video comes to us courtesy of Centomiglia: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bYk0HvIte0

One more PHRF spinnaker class, a non-spinnaker class, and a Catalina 30 one design class rounded out the divisions for 26 boats all together. For complete results, see www.southbeachyachtclub.org.