Big Daddy Sunday Pursuit Race

March 14, 2011

The wind from Sunday's front was not quite as southerly as expected; it was more of a southwesterly. Not the prevailing westerly that typically comes howling through the Gate, and not the predicted stormy southerly, but something more in between and gentle. Oh, and also puffy and shifty - a good day to "put it in the bank" before reaching down to round Alcatraz.

A counter-clockwise Wylie Wabbit 'threads the needle' through a pack of clockwise boats at Alcatraz. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

As is often the case, the fleet of racers in Richmond YC's Big Daddy pursuit race split. Some chose to round the two marks, Alcatraz and Angel Island, in a clockwise direction, while others went counter-clockwise, reaching off from the Southampton Shoals starting area into Raccoon Strait. The not-so-southerly-after-all wind direction did not allow the counter-clockwise boats to set a spinnaker on that reach, but it did provide a couple of knots of favorable, ebbing current to shoot them through the Strait.

A pair of Flying Tigers covered each other on their counter-clockwise trek. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

The Mod. Santana 27 Arcadia appeared to head for the north end of Angel Island, but she then took a turn to the left and worked her way south to round Alcatraz first. Bill Erkelens' D-Class catamaran Adrenaline went the other way. The two very different boats met at the finish line, near the entrance to Richmond harbor. Which would be first to finish? Adrenaline had to throw in a jibe to cross, and so Arcadia won the 2011 Big Daddy Pursuit.

Arcadia's Ruth Suzuki explained about going to Angel then turning south: "The fastest ebb was close to Angel Island." By the time they got to Raccoon Strait, they didn't encounter too much ebb. "We went straight down the middle of Raccoon for the best wind." The boats on either side weren't going as fast. "Once in a lifetime!" enthused Ruth's husband, skipper Gordie Nash.

At the awards ceremony, left-right: Race Chair Bill Gage, Arcadia crew Dave Bailey, a stunned Gordie Nash, Ruth Suzuki, and RYC Commodore Bob Branstad. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

Third across was Tom Baffico's Open 5.70 The Maker. "We thought we were doing really well," Tom said, "and here comes Adrenaline out of nowhere." They went clockwise, as most of the 5.70s did. Monohulls and multihulls were scored separately, so Tom actually got second place. He wrote a report about the race on www.open570usa.com.

Not all was happiness and joy in Sunday's romp around the islands. Although the water from the sky was mild during the racing, the water under the keels was not always adequate. A couple of deep draft boats went a little too far into the Berkeley Flats. Andy Costello's J/125 Double Trouble ran aground and had to start their engine to power out of the mud. The Santa Cruz 37 Wildcard also stuck their 7.5-ft keel into the mud, but they were able to sail off.

Unusual for this race, a protest hearing was held just after the awards were handed out. Aaron Kennedy's Beneteau First 36.7 Ay Caliente! protested Steve Katzman's Dianne, she of the shiny new paint job. Fortunately the protest was not a result of damage, and it had no effect on the prizes, but was rather a matter of principle resulting from a 'When Boats Meet' situation. Dianne was found to be in error and was disqualified.

Eighty-four boats raced out of 106 entered on Sunday. All but three finished. Prizes (bottles of Big Daddy ale and engraved beer mugs) were given to the top five multihulls and the top ten monohulls. Complete results from both days of racing can be seen at www.richmondyc.org. Also see our previous two reports for coverage of Saturday's racing. Our photo gallery is now online too.