Golden Gate YC Midwinters

February 5, 2012

Continuing on up the shore, boats sailed in and out of the piers at Fort Mason. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

When in doubt go with the flow. That was the winning mantra for Saturday's Golden Gate YC Midwinter race. A very light northeasterly and a very strong ebb at the start of the fourth out of five races this season meant that hugging the shore to get from the starting line to the Fort Mason turning mark was of paramount importance. Sailing in among the piers and not going too far out from them on starboard tack kept you in a counter-current flood. That little flood was the only way to make progress to the east.

Sightseers on the spit get a close-up look at Jonathan Hunt's 1D35 Dark and Stormy. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

We'd go five knots if we could. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

Fortunately, once you decided you'd gone far enough east and could lay the mark a little northerly breeze started to fill in and made fetching the next mark, Point Knox buoy, a mostly one-tack beat. Once you got out into that nice little breeze, you were okay, and could get around the rest of the course.

The crew of Bruce Nesbit's Olson 34 Razzberries enjoyed a pleasant spinnaker run back to the Cityfront. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

By then it was over for anyone left behind in the foul current. A few of the sailors who were stuck drifting or anchored near Fort Mason radioed in to the Race Committee asking if they planned on shortening the course. "No," was the terse reply. And no abandoning the race either. In the end the RC were right again, as the majority of the boats enjoyed a nice if rather long day and finished off of GGYC in late afternoon sunshine. See www.ggyc.org for results.

"Uh, honey? I'm not going to be able to make the bargain matinee." ©2012 norcalsailing.com

Brad Copper's Tripp 43 TNT played the current right and made it to the finish first. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

Another note about this winter's season is the strange phenomenon of the disappearing Cityfront marks, with the exception of X, GGYC's start and finish line buoy. Blackaller and Fort Mason have been gone for months, and now St. Francis YC's marks A and B are missing. Any Bermuda Triangle theories out there?