YRA Second Half Opener

July 25, 2011

The weekend featured YRA's Second Half Opener, a two-day event with a race on Saturday from the Berkeley Pier ruins to Point Bonita buoy, back in the Gate and down the the Estuary to Encinal YC in Alameda, and a race on Sunday around Alcatraz.

The ID 48 Bodacious+, seen here shortly after the start, would be the first boat to finish on Saturday. Twisted is in the background. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

The beautiful Hughes 48 Iolani, a Sparkman & Stephens design. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

On the rail for the beat out to Point Bonita aboard the Express 27 Opa. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

Eat my wake. The Santa Cruz 37 Wildcard (seen passing Yerba Buena) would be the second boat to finish after Bodacious+, correcting out to first in their division. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

George Ellison of the custom Schumacher 30 Shameless reports:

"The conditions were almost perfect on Saturday. The tide changed for us to a mild flood about halfway out to Bonita, but it didn't really slow us down. The RC started our SF Bay 30 fleet with the Santana 35s and we stuck with them the whole day. It was real fun going against Ahi and was really interesting picking our way through the kids on windsurfers going down the Cityfront side by side."

Shameless on the run down the Estuary. ©2011 Seymour Dodds

"Sunday's conditions were a repeat of Saturday's," continued George, "and we chose to go around Alcatraz clockwise. I think it was the right way to go, but there was a lot of tug and ship traffic that must have messed up some of the fleet." Shameless won the SF 30 division both days. Preliminary results are available at www.yra.org.