SSS Corinthian Race

April 2, 2011

"Got the neck sweats from being over-dressed. At least nothing fell from the sky," commented one racer back at the club. "Except sunshine," responded a race committee volunteer. What happened to the rain which was forecast? And the 35-knot wind. So much for gale conditions. If anything was amiss in today's SSS Corinthian Race, it was wind holes. That and a raging ebb in the afternoon which made finishing a challenge in the light breeze.

One of two big batches of Optis which zipped through the fleet on their way out from San Francisco YC at the start. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

The race was run by the Singlehanded Sailing Society off the Corinthian YC race deck, and the 127 boats signed up may constitute a record for this particular event. Of those registered, 105 started. A few infirmities (of boats and humans) accounted for at least three no-shows. Hopefully the rest of the non-starters were not deterred by forecasted "gale conditions" which never materialized. Of the 105 starters, 86 finished and 19 retired. One other small glitch was the confusion over the green buoy which marks the point of Belvedere. The area between the buoy and the shore is restricted by the SSS, but not by anyone else. A few boats violated that restricted area, and at least a couple retired because of it.

A couple of ships headed out to sea just when the racers were crossing the deep-water shipping channel to get from Marin to the Cityfront; excellent communication and courtesy on both sides prevailed, and one of the pilots made a point of thanking the race committee and the racers for their comportment.

The first boat to finish at 15:56:50 was Darren Doud's Corsair 31R Roshambo with Dan Doud crewing. Ross Stein's F-24 Origami with Henry van den Bedem crewing corrected out by 12 seconds to win the Multihull division. Photo by Julie Blaustein ©2011 norcalsailing.com

The second boat to finish and the first monohull was the JS9000 JetStream, sailed by Dan Alvarez and Tom Warren. Photo by Julie Blaustein ©2011 norcalsailing.com

Rice Rocket, a Corsair 750 Sprint sailed by Gary Helms was the first singlehanded boat to finish at 16:16:44. Gary's on a roll as he was also the first singlehander to finish the SSS's previous race, the Three Bridge Fiasco in January.

Getting on toward evening, as you can see by the light, Bill White's Islander 28 Horizon was the last boat to finish at 18:28:40, just before the time limit of 1830 hours. Photo by Julie Blaustein ©2011 norcalsailing.com

Results are in the very early preliminary stages as of Saturday night, but can be viewed at www.sfbaysss.org. Awards will be handed out at Oakland YC in Alameda at 1930 hours on Wednesday, April 13. Assuming the results hold, the winner of the Corinthian Trophy for first singlehanded finisher overall will be Stan Martin's Moore 24 Sunshine, and the Cal 20 Can O'Whoopass won doublehanded overall.